Fire ants: the lowcountry landlord
Red imported fire ants own every sunny patch of sandy soil in coastal Georgia. Colonies run deep — the mound is a chimney, not the house — and after a good rain they rebuild overnight like it never happened. Stomping a mound with a shovel scatters them; treating mounds plus broadcasting bait across the whole yard reaches the queens. The yard post walks through how colonies actually collapse.
The kitchen invaders
Ghost ants and Argentine ants trail to sugar, grease, and water — the counter, the pet bowl, the dishwasher door. They nest outdoors or in wall voids and send foragers along pheromone highways. Wiping the trail erases the sign, not the route. Baiting lets the foragers do the delivery work: the colony consumes the bait and the trail fades over days. The discipline that matters is yours — seal the food, fix the drips, and don’t spray the trail mid-treatment.
Carpenter ants: the wood question
Carpenter ants don’t eat wood — they excavate it, preferring wood already softened by moisture. Sawdust piles and big black ants in the kitchen at night are the tell, and in a humid market with crawlspaces and old trim, they’re common. Treatment pairs colony baiting with the moisture correction that invited them. If the sawdust keeps coming, the honest next question is what’s wet — and we’ll say so.