Ant Identification In Alabama & Florida

What You Need To Know About Ants

There are more than 700 different species of ants that can be found living throughout the United States. While not all of them pose a threat to us and our homes and businesses, there are many that do. Ants are small, social insects that live together in large groups; these pests vary in size and color and size, depending on their exact species, but they typically range in color from reddish-brown or black to yellow in color, and sometimes a combination of different colors.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ants

What are ants?

Ants are small but mighty insects. Their ability to work together for the greater good of the colony is unparalleled. Members of an ant colony divide members into different groups (queen(s), workers, and males), each group with specific jobs to help the colony succeed.

The queen(s) and males are the only winged members of an ant colony; their jobs are to mate and produce new colony members. A colony can have just one queen or many.

The workers are sterile females and wear many hats. Workers gather food for the colony, defend the colony and nest, maintain the nest, and help raise the young ants. Worker ants are the ants we see regularly; they are the ants wandering through our lawns, gardens, and kitchens.  It's important to know how to make sure that ants can't get into your home.

With more than 12,000 different ant species worldwide, there are many variations in size, color, habitat, food preferences, and behaviors. However, a few things all ants have in common include:

• Three distinct body parts: head, abdomen, and thorax
• A pronounced constriction, or “waist,” between the abdomen and thorax
• Six legs, with each of the legs having three joints
• Elbowed antennae
• Strong, powerful jaws used for chewing or biting
• Unparalleled strength (ants can lift 20 times their body weight)

Are ants dangerous?

Ants don’t just ruin picnics; they can cause damage to our lawn and homes. Ants create nesting mounds of dirt in our lawns, which are not only unsightly to look at but make mowing difficult. In addition, some ant species bite, sting and are aggressive; just walking past a nest may cause a painful attack.

Before traveling through your home, ants were outside searching for food in piles of trash, around drains, food debris, and other less than sanitary places. After finding a way inside, they introduce the bacteria they come into contact with to our food, food prep areas, and other surfaces.

When ants invade our indoor and outdoor spaces, they tend to do so in large numbers, making them very difficult to deal with and eliminate. Also, if ants are in your home, it means other pests can move inside through the same entry points.

Another reason to keep ants out of your home is that some can cause structural damage by tunneling through and nesting inside structural wood.

Why do I have an ant problem?

Ants are social and live together in large colonies. Feeding colony members is a huge undertaking; when ants find a suitable food source, they alert the other colony members by leaving a pheromone trail. If ants have discovered food in your yard or home, they won’t leave without a fight.

Ants are omnivores and feed on many of the same food we do, which is why they are attracted to crumbs and spilled liquids in trash cans and recycling bins, gardens, and kitchen and pantry areas.

The warm weather found in Alabama and Florida allows ants and other pests to be active for most of the year, making them a constant source of frustration.

Where will I find ants?

Ants typically create multiple nesting areas to house the colony’s many members. They build their main nest somewhere outside, and then numerous satellite nests are constructed in both outdoor and indoor locations.

Ants often move indoors while foraging for food, or if the weather becomes unsuitable for them to live comfortably. Ants build outdoor nesting locations in various locations, including in or under fallen trees and tree stumps, in woodpiles, under mulch or landscaping ties, or in open spaces like lawns or fields.

Inside our homes, ants often like to nest in areas where there is excess moisture, such as in wall voids near leaky pipes, around air conditioners, near windows or doors, and in crawlspaces.