Advice on pest control in S. Florida

[Dave Gray]

I think it may be the recent weather, but I am inundated with black ants. 

They are harmless, as far as I can tell, but there is just a daily influx of them, both outside and inside the house.  They are most heavily located in a bathroom, where they're coming through cracks in the windows and the walls (and the sweat drips down my balls) and mostly dying in the middle of the floor.  I sweep up a pile of ants every day.

I'm also noticing they're coming in though a bay window, though they don't seem to have any particular interest there once they get inside. 

Outside, there are trails of them around the house and of course they will pile up if my kids leave a piece of candy on the porch or soemthing.

I don't have any other pests, like roaches or anything.

I have never done pest control -- my parents had a service growing up, but as an adult, I either rented and it was done through some kind of property management, or it just wasn't a problem that needed addressing.

I was originally hesitant to spray, but just because I have this negative connotation with spraying poisons around.

Any thoughts?

[Tenshot13]

Ant traps seem to work okay, put them close to where their coming it at.  If that doesn't work, get a pest control company, we have a guy that sprays around our house every month and we hardly ever have bug issues.

[Dave Gray]

Ant traps seem to work okay, put them close to where their coming it at.

I have done this. 

It's definitely decreased the amount, but not eliminated it.  I just laid a 2nd trap in a different spot yesterday...maybe it's an all around approach.

I'm also think that I should try to re-caulk some places that they seem to gather. ...maybe make it less convenient to get where they're going.

I think they might be nesting up in the roof or something, since I think they might be coming down through some light fixtures.

[Dave Gray]

There's a new pile of bathroom ants today, but they're all dead.  I might find one or two crawling around but the vast majority of them are just a dead pile on the floor.  Are they nested above, dying, and then falling in or something?  Very odd.

[Dolphster]

There's a new pile of bathroom ants today, but they're all dead.  I might find one or two crawling around but the vast majority of them are just a dead pile on the floor.  Are they nested above, dying, and then falling in or something?  Very odd.

Leave the carcasses hanging in the concertina wire around the perimeter to send a message and scare the rest of the ants.  I think that is what we did in VietNam, but I'm not sure because i was like 5 years old. 

[Phishfan]

There's a new pile of bathroom ants today, but they're all dead.  I might find one or two crawling around but the vast majority of them are just a dead pile on the floor.  Are they nested above, dying, and then falling in or something?  Very odd.

You pu out two bait traps. They're probably just dying along their trail after being poisoned.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Being you know how they are getting in, I would say the first step should be caulking the holes and cracks.  Rather than trying to kill them just keep them out.

[Dolphster]

Waiting for someone to take a thread about pest control and turn it political.   LOL

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Waiting for someone to take a thread about pest control and turn it political.   LOL

I will see your pest into political and raise it for political into pests.  Politics is a compound word, poli=many, tics = small blood sucking disease carrying parasites.

[Dolphster]

I will see your pest into political and raise it for political into pests.  Politics is a compound word, poli=many, tics = small blood sucking disease carrying parasites.

Haha, outstanding!  Nice job. 

[Dave Gray]

Update:

I've done a combo of suggestions I've received.

I sprayed a perimeter/spot killer on the known areas of entry, and around the house on the perimeter of the house and around the windows, as well as areas suggested (like the kickplates around cabinets in the kicthen).  I also directly sprayed any lines of ants I saw crawling on the outside of the house.

I have had to do this several times outside.  They seems to continue to make new lines the day after they're sprayed.

I mentioned before that I'd laid some liquid traps in areas I knew they were entering.

I've caulked up holes where I saw them coming in.

And I saw online that clearing any plants or debris that's touching your house will reduce the bugs from crawling on it.

I still am finding 1 or 2 live bugs once in a white in my bathroom...not many at all.  However, there are HUNDREDS of dead one in the bathroom every morning.  I vacuum them up and the next day, hundreds more.

I don't really know where they're coming from.  It could be from an overhead light or inside the pocket door to the wall.  I just don't know.  They aren't coming in through the window anymore, it seems.

I have heard from people that they actually saw more bugs for about a month after they hired a spray company.  I think that their hypothesis was that all of the stuff hiding in the walls came out into the day to eventually die.  But after that, they stopped.

I'm hoping that's what's going on.

In addition, I'm not 100% sure these are ants, because they appear to have wings.  I don't think they're termites, and my house is concrete block, but they could be up in the trusses of the roof I guess.  They are really small, like pismire ants, in appearance.  I'm getting my roof replaced soon; I'm guessing they'll see if there's damage.