How To Get Ants Out Of Your Miami, FL Home

In Miami, FL, ants aren’t just a summer pest. They wreak year-round. They’re everywhere. You can see them on the sidewalk crawling in and out of cracks. You also may find them on your kitchen counter-tops, trailing to their next meal.

When I grew up in South Florida, my parents always told me sugar ants are always going to be inside and there was nothing we could do to get rid of them. Now that I own a pest control company, I know this is no longer true. At Native Pest Management, not only can completely remove ants from your Miami, FL home, we can keep them out for good, guaranteed.

You and your family should be able to have the peace of mind that you'll no longer see ants in your Miami, FL home. 

Getting rid of ants empowers you to fully enjoy your home. Ant control can be obtained with these three steps:

• Identification: Knowing what kind of ants are in your home is the first step to ant control and prevention.
• Removal: Getting rid of the ants that are currently in your home through University of Florida treatment protocols.
• Prevention: Once ants are removed from your home, keeping them out through regular exterior pest control treatments.

Let's take a closer look at how to remove ants from your Miami, FL home.

Ant Identification

Different ant species require specific removal and preventative methods. What works for one type might not work for another. The key is to use repellents ant colonies are weakest against. Identifying the ants that infest your home is a critical part of pest control. Here are some common types of ants in South Florida:

Sugar Ants In Miami, FL

Sugar ants are one of the most common types of ants in Florida. The chances are high that they've already taken up residence behind the walls of your Miami, FL home.

They also live between cabinets and baseboards. They can be easily identified because they typically infest pantries and kitchens where sweet foods are present. One small crumb can attract many of these ants, and once they locate a food source, they will create a pheromone trail, attracting other sugar ants to the food in your home.

Ghost Ants In Miami, FL

Ghost ants are similar to sugar ants. They live in wall voids and the dark spaces behind cabinetry and baseboards. They are usually between 1.3 to 1.5 millimeters long.

The top halves of their bodies are dark brown with their bottom halves appearing to be either an opaque white or yellow color. Their size and color make them difficult to see.

In homes with dark granite counters, ghost ants can be practically invisible unless they’re spotted with a flashlight. 

Acrobat Ants In Miami, FL

Acrobat ants can be black or light brown. They are 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch long. They have a dual-segmented section attached to the front portion of the abdomen.

They also have a pair of spines on the thorax. They emit a foul odor when crushed. Their nesting sites can be found in moist wood. They can also live behind walls like sugar and ghost ants.

Argentine Ants In Miami, FL

Argentine ants also release an unpleasant odor when they’re crushed. They are shiny and dark brown or black. They can grow to about 1/16th of an inch long. They usually live in large colonies.

Black Ants In Miami, FL

Black ants are mostly harmless, but their presence can still be unsettling. They are glossy black and 3 to 5 millimeters long. They nest underground, beneath rocks, and in rotten wood. 

Often called sugar ants, these ants will consume any type of food they find in or around your home, including other dead insects.

Carpenter Ants In Miami, FL

Carpenter ants are structurally damaging pests that can damage your property. They can be red or black and grow up to 5/8 of an inch in length. They live in the wood of your house. They destroy any wet or decaying wood they come across, leaving a trail of fine sawdust.

These ants are commonly confused with termites. Both carpenter ants and termites swarm in Miami, FL homes. The easiest way to differentiate carpenter ants from termites is to look at the width of the waist of the insects you find in your home. Ants have a pinched waist that is thin, while termites do not have a pinched waist.

Pavement Ants In Miami, FL

Pavement ants aren’t dangerous. They are either dark brown or black. They are 1/8th of an inch long. In addition to sweet food, they swarm to grease and meat. They often live in cement cracks.

These ants are especially noticeable in the cooler months of the year. As the sun heats up concrete sidewalks, driveways and pavers, pavement ants enjoy these warm areas surrounding your home.

Even though pavement ants typically don't get inside of homes, our home pest control program includes prevention of these common ants.

Odorous House Ants In Miami, FL

Odorous house ants smell like rotten coconuts or a pine scent when they are crushed. This oddity aside, these pests can contaminate your food. The dark brown and black insects can grow up to be 1/8th of an inch long.

Pharaoh Ants In Miami, FL

Pharaoh ants can also contaminate your food if they make contact. They can be yellow or light brown and up to 1/16th of an inch long. These tiny ants can be extremely difficult to control and require precise treatments to prevent their colonies from budding and multiplying. 

Ant Removal In Miami, FL

There are many options for removing ants from your Miami home. Here are some common ant removal methods:

Crushing Ants

Physically crushing ants might seem silly, but this is a common reaction when people see ants in their houses. While this knee-jerk method can yield immediate results, there’s no guarantee that every ant was killed. More are probably waiting behind the walls.

Spraying Ants

Sprays can kill ants on contact. They can also get into tight places that hands and feet can’t. While they might be effective in getting rid of ants at first, this is actually the worst method of ant control.

Repellant sprays can actually split ant colonies into multiple colonies, a process called budding. These new colonies will form new queen ants, and make future control more difficult. You'll see the ants start to multiply in number and spread to different rooms in your house.

Professional pest control companies like Native Pest Management will use non-repellant sprays as one of their tools for effective ant control. When applied properly in the right locations, ants will spread the active ingredient to the rest of the colony, eventually leading to colony collapse and long term ant control.

Using Ant Baits

An ant bait station can be successful in eliminating ants. Their results require time. Baits work by attracting the ants and allowing them to carry poison back to their colonies. Once queens are fed the poison, they’ll eventually die. The ant colonies will hopefully follow.

One challenge with this method is that most over-the-counter products available have a very low active ingredient, and simply isn't strong enough to collapse an ant colony. Professional pest control companies often have more advanced ant bait available which will prove more effective.

Since ant bait can contain boric acid, it’s strongly recommended to handle traps with care. Be careful to place ant bait in locations that are inaccessible to pets and children. 

Bait traps can often be found sitting next to pest control sprays at home improvement, grocery, and drug stores.

Ant Prevention In Miami, FL

Pest control methods can differ depending on the particular infestation. Knowing what attracts ants to your home can help you understand what to do to prevent them from bugging you:

• Water: Any source of water inside and outside the home can invite ants. Puddles, pools, and spills can all bring home uninvited guests.
• Food: Crumbs, garbage, and unwashed dishes are ant magnets.
• Unique Attractants: Moist wood can easily attract carpenter ants. Identifying the conducive condition that originally attracted ants to a structure is important, so that the condition can hopefully remedied to help prevent future ant infestations. 
• Easy Access: Ants can get into your home via plants and trees that touch your house. These natural bridges will allow ants to bypass preventative pest control applications made on the exterior of your home. It's important to keep plants and trees trimmed so that they don't allow ants and other pests including rodents to access the exterior of your home. 

Using this knowledge, you can form a pest control action plan to address the issues:

• Store food in containers with tight-sealing lids: Without an obvious food source, ants will have less of a reason to invade your home.
• Frequently remove trash from the home: Garbage can be a buffet for ants. They will eat any food that you do not. Don’t give them the chance.
• Immediately clean crumbs and spills: Having a clean house doesn’t mean you’ll never have to deal with ants, but it will help prevent future infestations.
• Fix leaky plumbing: Ants need water to survive. Reducing the amount of moisture surrounding your home will help prevent ant colonies from multiplying. 
• Seal all the gaps in the exterior of your home: Once you block entry points, ants and other pests will have a more difficult time accessing the interior of your home. For small holes, caulk is effective.
• Remove yard debris: Dead wood can provide a home to several species of ants. By removing harborage areas, you will help reduce the attractiveness of your property to various pests including ants.
• Trim plants and trees away from exterior walls: If you look closely, you will likely see ants training on the shrubs and trees adjacent to your home. By keeping these plants and trees off of your home, you will eliminate the natural bridges ants and other pests may be using to access your home.
• Clean pet food and water bowls: Pet bowls that are wet and have scraps of leftover food attract ants and other pests to your home. We recommend removing pet food bowls after pets eat each day, and regularly cleaning the bowls to help prevent ants.

Coffee grounds, lemon juice, and essential oils can deter ants from entering a residence, but they have very limited success. With our heavy rains in South Florida, these natural treatments would likely need to be applied multiple times a week to have any chance at preventing ants. They also will not eliminate ant colonies and can create budding and splitting of colonies due to their repellency.

Native Pest Management’s Miami, FL Ant Control

You don’t have to control ants in Miami, FL yourself. The easiest way to get ants out of your Miami, FL home is to call a professional.

Native Pest Management can identify and control the many species of ants in the Miami area. Our pet-safe and environmentally friendly pest control solutions can free your home from ants.

You can enjoy our full-service, same-day pest control. Native Pest Management also offers ongoing preventative pest control treatments to ensure ants and other pests remain out of your home for good.

With over 3,000 five star reviews on Google, Yelp, NextDoor, Facebook, Angie's List and the Better Business Bureau, Native Pest Management will provide you with the peace of mind that your Miami, FL home will be pest free.

Request your free quote below.