White-Footed Ant
Huge-colony black ants with pale feet that trail up walls and trees by the thousands.
White-Footed Ant (Technomyrmex difficilis) is a moderate-concern pest in Florida homes and yards. For ant control in Florida's Treasure & Space Coast, Rhino Pest Management sends licensed (#JB242881) and insured technicians and backs the work with a free re-service guarantee; 5.0★ from 16 Google reviews. Free estimate: (772) 589-6842.
Photo: no rights reserved (CC0) · iNaturalist (research grade)
Small (about 3 mm), black or brownish-black with distinctly pale yellowish feet. Colonies can exceed a million ants.
Tree branches touching the house, mulch beds, soffits, wall voids and under roof tiles.
- Endless trails up exterior walls, soffits and trees
- Ants streaming from soffits or roof lines
- Sudden large numbers with no obvious single nest
A nuisance rather than a health threat, but their enormous colonies and many nests make them one of the toughest ants to control in Florida.
Is this urgent?
Not an emergency, but don't sit on it. White-Footed Ant establishes indoors and gets harder — and slower — to clear the longer the colony has to spread. Treated early it's a routine visit; left for a season it usually takes more than one.
Rhino combines non-repellent baits with targeted exterior treatment and trims the bridges (branches, shrubs) they use to reach the structure.
Our Ant Control serviceWhite-Footed Ant guides
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Scientific source
For the biology behind this page, the University of Florida's IFAS Extension publishes a detailed Featured Creatures profile of this species — free to read, and written by entomologists in this state:
White-Footed Ant, Technomyrmex difficilis (=albipes) Forel — UF/IFAS Extension