A longtime invasive ant has been making the rounds in Florida over the past few decades.<\/p>\n
And with summer upon us, it\u2019s prime season for these ants to spread.<\/p>\n
According to the University of Florida<\/a> researchers, these \u201ctawny crazy ants\u201d are named for their reddish-brown color and the way they zip around \u2014 \u201cquickly and erratically.\u201d<\/p>\n Tawny crazy ants feeding on NecDew (Photo Credit: Dr. Rudolf Scheffrahn) (Rudolf Scheffrahn)<\/p>\n However, they\u2019re especially notorious for their \u201csuper colonies<\/a>\u201d \u2014 communities with several queens and connected nests spread out over a large area.<\/p>\n This can be a huge problem for homeowners with infestations, as it\u2019s not a matter of just exterminating a single nest.<\/p>\n If one nest is killed off, it can usually be replaced so long as the original nest is still intact.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a big infestation in a golf course community, and they were actually coming from a wooded area near the golf course…\u201d said Dr. Rudolf Scheffrahn, a professor of entomology at the University of Florida. \u201cYou can spray the infested area, but it doesn\u2019t kill the colony.\u201d<\/p>\n Dead crazy ants outside of a screened patio (Photo Credit: UF\/IFAS) (University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences)<\/p>\n Homeowners with particularly nasty infestations have even reported that the ground appears to be moving thanks to the sheer volume of ants in any one nest, researchers explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI first encountered them in West Palm Beach in an FPL site,\u201d Scheffrahn told News 6. \u201cThey were foraging into a building there by the millions. They had sprayed the building, so all the ants were dead in there, but I couldn\u2019t trace the foraging trails back to the nest.\u201d<\/p>\n While these ants are native to Brazil, they were introduced to Colombia in the mid-1900s to stem populations of poisonous snakes and other ants. UF experts explained they later popped up in the southeast U.S., including places like Florida and Texas.<\/p>\n In the Sunshine State, the following counties have either reported or confirmed cases<\/a> of tawny crazy ants:<\/p>\n Scheffrahn warned that it\u2019s incredibly difficult to get rid of an infestation once you have one, but they fortunately don\u2019t pose a direct threat.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have no sting. Their bite is very, very lame,\u201d he said. \u201cThe real problem is the nuisance once they get in your property, in your house. Again, they come in massive numbers \u2014 overtake everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Worse yet, Scheffrahn said that some pest control companies might not treat the source of the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cMost pest control companies just want to treat the property where they\u2019re getting paid,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd they don\u2019t necessarily want to expand beyond that because that\u2019s not their mission. Their mission is to make the customer there happy. So it\u2019s kind of an area-wide issue with controlling these things.\u201d<\/p>\n An open rodent bait station, situated in a tray to protect it from the elements. Dead tawny crazy ants can be found in the surrounding trays. (Photo Credit: UF\/IFAS) (University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences)<\/p>\n Luckily, Scheffrahn told News 6 that these ants tend to be \u201cephemeral,\u201d meaning they don\u2019t stick around for too long.<\/p>\n \u201cThey come in one spot. They take over. They disappear,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re probably in competition with other ants that take over their habitat \u2014 probably big-headed ants, maybe to a lesser extent fire ants… And then in a year or two, they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n In communities dealing with such infestations, homeowners are urged to do the following:<\/p>\n Eliminate food, water and shelter that could encourage ants to seek out your property.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n De-clutter and remove debris or other unneeded items from your property.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Establish regular trash removal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n If you have had pest control performed on your property, don\u2019t hose ants off the pavement area, as this can also wash away the treatment. Instead, use a blower.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Prepare to pay for frequent pest control service.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Be careful about \u201cself-treating,\u201d as your efforts could counteract those of a professional pest control service. For example, spraying an insecticide over a bait could render the bait ineffective.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n For more information on these ants, visit the University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences\u2019 website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n