There are many species of ants that are found in Florida, such as red pavement ants, white footed ants, carpenter ants, big-headed ants, Formica ants, ghost ants, Pharaoh ants, and fire ants. Finding any kind of ant infestation inside your home is bad enough but when the infestation involves the tawny crazy ant, the invasion is even worse. These particular ants are very invasive and are extremely hard to kill because of their erratic and jerky movements while they wander aimlessly on your countertops, walls, and floors. It’s very difficult to find a trail that will lead you back to their colony and this makes tawny crazy ants extremely difficult to exterminate and kill.
Tawny crazy ants, , also known as the raspberry crazy ant were first noticed in the United States in the year 2002. Since 2002, they have spread into many areas in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. These evasive and damaging ants have affected both homes and businesses. They have had terrible impacts on both fruit and hay production, on honeybee colonies, on livestock, and wildlife. These pests are having an extremely negative effect on the balance of nature. In addition to all of the above; they are also attacking and eating beneficial insects that help the environment. Plus, they’re damaging electrical equipment by their odd attraction to electrical wiring and components. In fact, in one year, researchers documented about 146.5 million dollars in damage to electrical equipment just in the state of Texas alone by the tawny crazy ant.
These ants are exceedingly difficult to kill not only because of the fact that their colonies are difficult to locate, but also due to the fact that unlike other ant species, they have multiple queens for laying eggs. These queens can reproduce quite abundantly. In addition, they are difficult to kill because they are not attracted to normal ant baits so over-the-counter pesticides simply will not work with them.
This is one ant that homeowners will not be able to get rid of on their own because of the difficulty in exterminating them. The normal prevention techniques you use on other ants, such as keeping your home clean and sealing off entry ways, simply don’t work with tawny crazy ants.
Homeowners have very little options when attempting to control this ant on their own. With this in mind, if you believe that you have an infestation of the awful and elusive tawny crazy ant, aka raspberry crazy ant, contact Slug-A-Bug immediately, before the ant infestation gets any worse.