Luckily, you don’t need to know all of these. Most Austin homeowners will only encounter a handful of ants around their house:

1. Fire Ants: Often the most alarming ant, since these angry little guys will bite and sting! They’re most commonly spotted in the yard around their mounds, but if they are left untreated they can encroach on your home and get inside. Once there, they crawl around floors looking for food. They love finding dog or cat food bowls with leftovers in them!

   The solution is a simple and reliable one: we bait the outdoors with a low-toxicity bait that the ants find nearly irresistible. You’ll be fire ant free soon enough!

2. Carpenter Ants and Acrobat Ants: These are “wood ants” that are often seen climbing up and under the eaves of a house. They burrow into water-damaged, softened wood. They don’t eat wood like termites do. But they can do some slight damage if left untreated. They can also show up indoors, coming in around beams or windows or even punching small holes through a wall. You may see light sawdust-like piles in those areas. This is the debris they create after tunneling through wood or insulation.

   We treat these ants with a combination of spray and bait. We also search for any possible exterior nests and eradicate it.

3. Small black ants: These are tiny ants that many people don’t even see until they have an established trail along a kitchen or bathroom countertop. They may come in through cracks in backsplashes or grout or around electrical outlets. They search for sweet food sources and water and, once found, make a trail back and forth to a nest just outside your home. They do not bite or sting or pose a health risk. However, they are the king of the “tiny annoying ant” kingdom.

   For these ants we do a thorough service just outside your home. We may treat inside to knock them back as well. Note that in mild cases, there are simple, low-toxicity consumer brand options you can try, such as Terro Liquid Ant Bait.

4. Crazy ants: A “newer” species that showed up in Texas in the early 2000s. This exotic, invasive ant can do harm and do it quickly. Their foraging behavior is erratic and rapid with no trails, just running in all directions—hence the “crazy ant” name. They don’t sting but can sometimes bite. They are often transported and have spread around Texas unknowingly by people via landscaping material, hay bales, debris, garbage and other items. They can get inside electrical equipment and cause short circuits and damage.

   If left untreated, they can expand rapidly with large, de-centralized colonies. Unlike fire ants, for example, they lack obvious nests in one location with clearly visible entry or exit points. Instead, they can be found under landscape objects like rocks, piles of debris, cardboard piles, etc.

   They may end up inside in search of food and water if they are left treated.

   Crazy ants are handled with a combination of spray and bait but they can be challenging and may require additional visits.

Whatever the type of any you’re seeing in your home, give us a call at (512) 443-0123 or use our website form to request more information.