How to tell you have them
A thin trail along the kitchen counter, the bathroom sink or a window frame is the usual first sign. In Pinellas homes it is most often one of three ants. Ghost ants are tiny, with a dark head and a pale, almost see-through body, and they go for sweets and moisture. Big-headed ants leave little piles of sand along slab edges, pavers and baseboards; their soldiers have a head that looks too large for the body. White-footed ants are black with pale feet and live in enormous numbers in landscaping, attics and wall voids.
What they damage
Most household ants do no structural damage. The trouble is contamination and numbers: trails into food, pet bowls and dishwashers, and colonies that move into electrical boxes and the wall behind the shower. Big-headed ants can push sand out from under pavers and slabs, which looks worse than it is but is worth sealing.
What treatment looks like
We identify the ant first, because the treatment depends on it. Ghost ants and white-footed ants split into new colonies when they are sprayed with a repellent product, so a quick spray of the trail often makes the problem bigger. Instead we place slow-acting baits along trails and nest sites, so workers carry them back and feed the colony, and we apply a non-repellent treatment around the foundation that ants walk through without noticing. Inside, we bait cracks and crevices rather than spraying open surfaces.
How long it takes
Trails usually thin out within a week of baiting and stop within two to three weeks. White-footed ants take longer, often a few visits, because a single property can hold millions of them.
Florida notes
Ant activity climbs with the rainy season and peaks in July in our seasonal model. Heavy rain floods nests and pushes colonies indoors, so a trail in the bathroom the morning after a storm is common. Keep mulch a few inches back from the slab, trim shrubs off the walls and fix leaking irrigation heads: ants follow water. Fire ants and carpenter ants have their own pages, because they are treated differently. Ants are covered on every plan, starting with Quarterly.