Pharaoh Ants Infestation

Identifying a Pharaoh Ant Infestation

Most people first notice a thin line of tiny, pale yellow to amber ants moving along a counter edge, a baseboard or a window sill. The workers are so small that a trail can look like a faint moving thread until you lean in close.

Pharaoh ants go wherever food is, and they will search cabinets, pantries, drawers and appliances to find it. Kitchens, break rooms, restaurants and other places that handle food are where problems usually start. They eat almost anything: sugar, syrup, grease, meat, crumbs and pet food. Leave a sweet or oily spill out for a short while and a trail can find it surprisingly fast. Store-bought sprays rarely fix the problem, because they kill the foragers you can see while the nests stay hidden.

Clues That Point to Pharaoh Ants

Beyond the trails themselves, a few patterns set a pharaoh ant problem apart from other ants:

• Ants in the bathroom as much as the kitchen. They come for water as well as food, so look around sinks, tubs, toilets and gaps in tile grout.
• Ants coming out of outlets, switch plates and light fixtures, using wiring and plumbing runs as hidden highways through the walls.
• Activity in several rooms at once, a sign of several nests rather than one.
• New spots popping up a week or two after a household spray, which suggests the colony split.
• No winged swarms. Pharaoh ants mate inside the nest, so you won’t see flying ants pour out the way they do with fire ants or carpenter ants.

Pharaoh ants are mostly a problem in multi-unit buildings. A unit can be reinfested from a neighbor through shared walls and plumbing, so it helps to ask whether nearby units have ants too. They also travel in boxes, bags, furniture and appliances during moves.

There is no off-season for pharaoh ants in Florida homes. If ants show up during the rainy season, though, check the identification. Ghost ants and several other species also move indoors in wet weather, and the right treatment depends on the species. Steps are on how to get rid of pharaoh ants.