When we moved into our 7 year old pre-owned house we discovered MANY (maybe 100,000) ants were already in residence. We just saw a few of them here and there but when we had pest control treatment they literally exploded out of the walls.
As your guy said they are looking for water, they don't come for food.
We have trimmed all plants away from the house so they don't have a easy path in. We hear they come in that way.
I think you should replace the soil in your pots because they may be living there but it is more likely they are in a larger enclosed space (such as inside walls). Once you get rid of the current community you can probably put your plants back on the lanai.
Get good pest control and in a few months they will be history.
This drought has probably made them seek water inside, near kitchen pipes and under windowsills as well as potted plants.
Truly Nolen comes every 4 months and we rarely see an ant now.

Floridajane,
We had a bottlebrush tree in a large pot waiting to figure out where we REALLY wanted to put it after our new modular came in. It was SO badly full of ants, we took a plastic garbage can, pulled the bottlebrush from the pot and stuck in water filling over the top of the dirt! We sprayed ant spray above the dirt line on the garbage can so they couldn't escape and we Drown each and every one of those stinkin' ANTS!!!! :o) Left the plant in the water for a day or so and when we took it out there was no soil left around the roots at all. So we picked a spot for it and added soil to the hugh hole that David dug, planted the tree and she is thriving now. Can't wait for it to bloom! It was transplanted last fall.. went thru the winter (winter?) and she's doing beautifully. Good luck. KAREN

Naplesgardener, Karen, thanks so much for your stories!! We've been duking it out these last months with everything from termite swarms to flea flocks, so you can imagine this ant problem was just about enough to send me packing to a twenty-story condo! Now I see that it's not so rare a thing to see these ants around, and that they're not impossible to eradicate. What a HUGE relief! I'll unpack my bags and get ready to take out my stress on some ants! Thanks!

Jane

Here's my experience and opinion! We had ants all over our house. We'd get them stopped in one area and they'd come in another area. I was trying to manage them myself but it just wasn't working. I finally called a pest control company that had helped rid my last house of a different kind of ant. Turns out we have argintine ants. It took several trips out here but they got rid of the argintine ants and fire ants too.

IMO-Your pest control guy put the burden of the ants back on you. He wasn't doing his job. Maybe he just doesn't know how to get rid of them. When I was looking for a pest control company in the phone book I looked for one that said they specialized in ants. The first guy/company that come out didn't know is rear end from 3rd base and I sent him away! The company that I use now has solve two problems w/ 2 types of ants...the guys seemed to THINK like ants!

Wow-- interesting!-- it seems a little extreme that I should have to permanently rid my lanai of any potted palms, considering that it's a pool lanai and therefore pretty large and the only four pots are on the far end away from the house. I'm going to dunk the pots anyways to get the ants out of them, but after that perhaps I should get a couple of opinions from pest control services to see what they can do. If emptying out the lanai were the only solution to pest problems I would think that no one would have potted plants on them, so perhaps with a little research there is hope for my palms yet!

Thanks,
Jane

I did a little research on white footed ants. I was at the extension office today and none of the printed resources listed WFA. I did a google search and you, floridajane, are one of the lucky ones who live in south east Florida where WFA have been spreading! They ARE difficult to get rid of. They are attracted to sweets. You want to make sure that your plants are free of aphids and scales that product honeydew. If you want to learn more (maybe you already have) do a search the information isn't hard to find. Good luck.

Hmm, I definitely don't like the sound of this! Shows you where I go for the facts when I'm in a panic-- I only thought to post here for help and I never even searched around online elsewhere! Well, I've taken your tip and I see that they sure do like the sweet stuff, and that hisbiscus, which lines our ENTIRE lanai!, can bring the ants in! Fortunately the hibiscus have had a healthy year free of pests, but last year was bad for them, and I'll bet that's when the ants came in for dinner! I can't believe these ants are such a pain to remove. How disheartening, but at least I'm ahead of the game if they haven't found them inside yet. I guess the ants made a deal with the termites and the fleas where the ants could have the outside if the others could have the inside. *Alas* the joys of home ownership!
Thanks for your research!!
Jane

All ants can be miserable roomates if they decide to move in. We were living in a townhouse that we had a lease option on. The owner was weird and wanted all her windows hidden for privacy. She had vines and shrubs growing all up the siding. We had a horrid infestation one dry summer of fire ants. Once they climbed the vines, got under the siding they started building nests in our 2nd floor storage spaces. We tried everything to eradicate them and finally brought in a pest control guy who rid us of the nasty beasts. The owner offered nothing in payment toward the treatment, but we quickly whacked down any vines crawling up the siding. It was a nightmare. One night I woke itching (I am a very clean person!) There were ants making a trail down the wall to the bed. I slept on the sofa even tho we sprayed the room and washed all the bedding in hot water. It just gave me the creepy crawlies just thinking the were getting into our bedding!!

I did my MS and PhD research on white-footed ant control (Univ. of Florida). There are a number of links on my website (see below). You really do NOT have to get rid out your plants!
Dr J

Here is a link that might be useful: white-footed ant info

could the tiny lil ants..look like wht feet..in my new pink bromeliad be these?? Debbie