White Footed Ants

White Footed Ants are common pests in New Zealand homes and gardens. Numbers can get very high in conditions that suit these ants. Some colonies or nests may exceed a million individuals. These small dark ants look similar to Argentine Ants and Darwin Ants to the naked eye but can be identified by the pale ends to their legs but only with the aid of a good lens or microscope. They are often found climbing trees and walls and will readily infest upper floors of buildings.

How to get rid of White Footed Ants

In general the control of White Footed Ants is the same as for other ant species. See here. However, White Footed Ants can be more difficult to control using baits because of their habit of feeding larvae and queens a sweet secretion from their rear rather than the food that they feed on directly. This means that baits are already processed or the workers are dead before they have a chance to feed the rest of the colony in the nest. The reduced effectiveness of baits means that more reliance on contact insecticides and barriers is needed to control these nuisance ants.

See also Argentine Ants and Darwin Ants.