Ant, bee, roach and bed bug control in Miami, each treated where it actually nests.

Species we see most

• Ghost ant
• White-footed ant
• Big-headed ant
• Fire ant
• Carpenter ant

Ghost ants are the Miami kitchen ant. Tiny, pale legs, a dark head, and they smell faintly of coconut when you crush one. White-footed ants come in from palms and hedges in long lines. Big-headed ants leave little piles of sand along the baseboard. Fire ants stay in the lawn and the mulch until somebody steps in them. Carpenter ants mean wet wood somewhere, usually a window frame or a leaking soffit.

Trails, grit and winged ants

A trail along the counter edge that comes back the same day you wipe it. Ants in the bathroom after rain. Fine grit under a baseboard or a window track. Ants walking out of an outlet cover. If you see ants with wings indoors, take a photo before they disappear. That tells us a mature colony is close.

How we treat ants

Ghost ant treatment in Miami fails more often than any other job we take over from someone else, and almost always for one reason: somebody sprayed the trail. Ghost ants and white-footed ants have many queens. Hit them with a repellent and the colony buds off into new nests in new walls. Spray a ghost ant trail with something off the shelf and you'll have four colonies by Friday.

So we do the opposite. Outside, a non-repellent goes on the foundation line, door thresholds and where shrubs touch the house. Ants walk through it without knowing, pick it up, and share it. Inside, gel or granular bait matched to what the colony is eating that month. Sweet in spring, protein when they're raising brood. We leave the trail alone after baiting. It looks worse for two or three days, then it stops.

Fire ant mounds in the lawn get a broadcast bait plus direct mound treatment. Carpenter ants get the moisture source found and named, because treating the ants without fixing the leak means calling us again in the fall.

Swarm or colony

• Honey bee swarm
• Established colony
• Treat as Africanized

Those are two different jobs and the first question on the phone is always which one you have. A swarm is a ball of bees hanging off a branch, a fence or a palm frond, no comb, and it's looking for somewhere to live. A swarm hanging off a palm frond is usually gone in a day or two. A colony in your soffit is not, and it gets bigger.

In South Florida any honey bee colony may be Africanized. You can't tell by looking. So every bee job in Miami is handled as if it is: suits and veils, the area cleared of people and pets, and nobody poking at the entrance with a broom before we arrive.

Where a colony shows itself

Steady traffic in and out of one gap in the stucco, a soffit vent or the lid of a sprinkler valve box. A hum you can hear through the bedroom wall. Dark staining spreading down drywall or a ceiling. Bees drinking at the pool every afternoon is not proof of a hive on your property, but it is worth a look around the eaves.

How we handle bee hive removal

Where it's practical, a swarm or an accessible colony gets relocated live by a local beekeeper we work with. Practical means reachable, not deep in a block wall, and calm enough to move. When a colony is built into the structure, the panel or drywall is opened, the comb is cut out piece by piece, bees are collected with a bee vacuum, and the cavity is cleaned and closed.

We do not seal comb in. A colony left inside a wall leaves wax and honey behind, and in a Miami August that melts. It stains the drywall, soaks the insulation and draws roaches, ants and wax moths for months. Killing bees and walking away is cheaper on the day and expensive by the end of the year.

Opening a wall or soffit leaves an opening. We close it so the bees can't come back, but finished paint and stucco matching is a job for a painter or contractor, and the quote says so.

Which roach you have

• German cockroach
• American cockroach
• Smokybrown cockroach

German roaches are small, tan, with two dark stripes behind the head. They live indoors, breed fast, and stay close to warmth, water and food: hinges, dishwasher panels, the fridge motor, under the microwave. If you see them in daylight, the harborage is full.

American and smokybrown roaches are the big ones people call palmetto bugs. They live outside in mulch, sewers, tree holes and attics, and wander in through drains, door gaps and weep holes. Different pest, different job.

Droppings, egg cases and the smell

Pepper-like droppings in the corner of a drawer or along a hinge. Small brown egg cases stuck in cabinet corners. A musty, oily smell under the sink. Big roaches on their backs in the garage after a rainstorm usually means outdoor pressure, not an indoor infestation.

How the roach exterminator visit works

German cockroach treatment in Miami is bait and growth regulator, not spray. Gel bait goes in dots into hinges, cracks behind the backsplash, the dishwasher kick plate and around plumbing penetrations. An insect growth regulator stops the nymphs from maturing to breed. Sticky monitors go down so we can count on the second visit instead of guessing.

One visit for roaches is a sales pitch. Two, about two weeks apart, is a treatment. The second visit catches the nymphs that hatched from egg cases the bait couldn't reach, and the follow-up is built into the quote from day one.

Roach control in an apartment in Miami has a catch: if the unit next door is untreated, roaches come back through the plumbing chase. We tell you what we see so you can take it to the building manager.

For American and smokybrown roaches the work moves outside. Bait placements in mulch beds and around the foundation, dust in weep holes and wall voids where it's safe, and the entry points named so they can be sealed.

What a bed bug inspection finds

• Common bed bug
• Eggs & cast skins
• Fecal spotting

Adults are flat, reddish-brown and about the size of an apple seed. What we usually find first isn't the bug. It's the black ink-dot spotting along the mattress piping, pale cast skins in the box spring corners, and eggs tucked into screw holes on the bed frame.

Bites, smears and spotting

Bites in a line or cluster that show up overnight. Small blood smears on the sheets. Spotting on the seams. A recent hotel stay, a used sofa, or a guest who traveled. Bites alone don't prove bed bugs, which is why we inspect before anyone treats anything.

How bed bug treatment runs

We don't quote bed bugs over the phone. Send us a photo of the mattress seam and we'll tell you what we see. Then the bed bug inspection: fitted sheet off, every seam on the mattress and box spring, the frame joints, headboard, nightstands, the couch if someone sleeps on it, outlet plates and baseboard edges near the bed.

Treatment is targeted to where they are: mattress seams, box springs, bed frames, upholstered furniture and baseboards, with a residual and a desiccant dust in voids where it belongs. Encasements go on the mattress and box spring so anything left inside is trapped and anything new is easy to spot on a smooth surface.

The follow-up visit is scheduled before we leave, about two weeks out, to catch bugs that hatched after the first round. Before the first visit you get a prep sheet: bag and hot-dry the bedding and clothes near the bed, clear the floor around it. Skip the prep and the treatment can't reach where it needs to.