White-Footed Ant Facts & Information

What Orkin Does

It is difficult to control a white-footed ant infestation, as they eat various foods and their small body size enables them to enter most structures. Their colonies are large, and they build multiple nests close to a parent colony. To address a white-footed ant infestation, contact your pest management professional (PMP) and request a thorough inspection.

Your PMP will recommend proactive methods such as trimming trees and landscaping so they do not touch the foundation, roof, or siding. Sealing cracks and gaps that can allow ant entry inside the home is another effective prevention method. They will also inspect commonly infested plants such as:

• Blooming Flowers

• Fruit Trees

• Palm Trees

Your local Orkin Pro is trained to help manage white-footed ants and similar pests. Since every building or home is different, your Orkin Pro will design a unique ant treatment program for your situation.

Orkin can provide the right solution to keep white-footed ants in their place…out of your home, or business.

Appearance

• Size: White-footed ants are moderately small, measuring about 2.7 mm in length.

• Body: One-segmented waists in addition to 12-segmented antennae with no club.

• Color: They are black or brown in color with pale, yellowish feet.

Diet

This ant species feeds on honeydew produced by aphids, scales, and mealy bugs that they protect, in addition to:

• Dead insects

• Plant secretions

• Proteins

• Sweets

Geographic Range

Within the United States, white-footed ants are prevalent in Florida with infestations also documented in Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. White-footed ants infest both urban and suburban habitats, spreading to other areas through the transportation of infested landscaping materials and plants.

Reproduction

During June and July in southern Florida, males and females swarm and mate, an activity that produces egg-laying queens that establish and care for the new colony.