Excellent thanks. I just went out now 11:30 PM and they were all huddled under a single leaf perfectly in line along the leaf's edge for the night. A little creepy. About twenty of them. Not anymore hah. Gave the tree a real nice strong blast with the hose. Dunno where they are now but will have another look tomorrow. My single orange dog is still there. I leave one or two but remove any eggs I find. I'll host a couple of them for the swallowtails but no more than that. Thanks all!

After some research, I'm pretty sure it's some sort of Arboreal ant. Google "Tetraponera" images to see pictures of the genus and compare to the close-up picture I took. It kinda makes sense because from what I read about them, they mostly live/nest in hollow grasses, bamboo, and trees. I have a clump of bamboo right near the fence where I see most of them. Question is...the University of Florida website entomology dept. didn't have these listed as a Florida ant, and I couldn't find reference to them in Florida anywhere. Hmmmm....inneresting.

Try a product called over and out. It is available at the local hardware, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The active ingredient is .0103% Fipronil. This is the same active ingredient that is in Frontline (for fleas and ticks) that is put directly on the dogs skin. The Frontline is a 9.8% active ingredient.

I live in NJ & we got the annual little kitchen ants a few weeks ago. My solution is to mix 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry shelf of supermarket) with sugar & sprinkle where the backsplash meet the counter top (their highway). I had also tried the bait stations but they don't work like this does. You have to be careful not to put the borax mix where dogs or kids will find it--poison to us, too. Last year we got rid of them in a novel & accidental way---we had not used the oven for weeks as it had been quite hot. Then we turned it on to bake something and a few minutes later, there was a large mound of tiny ants on the counter next to the stove, frantically milling about & carrying larvae & eggs! They had made their nest in the space between the stove wall & the inside of the oven. I don't like having them in my kitchen but I felt terrible about roasting them & their babies! (So I sprayed the whole pile with Fantastik & that killed them all instantly.)