Termites swarming or roof rats in the attic in Fort Lauderdale?

Are those winged insects on the window sill termites or ants?

Probably termites if it is late April through June, which is the local flight window. Termite swarmers have two pairs of wings of equal length, a straight waist and straight antennae; ants have a pinched waist and elbowed antennae. Collect a few and keep the shed wings.

The timing is the clue most people already have. Formosan subterranean termite swarms begin in late April and run into May, and West Indian drywood flights peak in May and June, so a cluster of winged insects indoors in that stretch is worth treating as a termite until it is identified. A pile of shed wings on a sill or in a spider web is the same signal even when the insects themselves have gone.

Which one it is decides the treatment. Subterranean colonies sit in the soil and reach the structure through wood-to-ground contact, so the work goes around and under the building, covered under termite control. Drywood termites live entirely inside the timber and leave small hard pellets below the damage, which is why drywood termite treatment and, for a whole structure, termite fumigation are the usual answers.

• Keep a sample: a few insects in a sealed bag, or the shed wings swept into an envelope.
• Note the hour and the weather: swarms come in the warm part of the day or at dusk, often after rain.
• Look for pellets: small, hard, six-sided droppings under trim or furniture point to drywood termites.
• Tap the trim: door frames, window casings and baseboards that sound hollow are worth showing the technician.
• Do not spray the swarmers: killing the visible ones hides the activity without touching the colony.

Why do roaches and roof rats keep getting into Fort Lauderdale houses?

Because the climate never shuts them down and the landscape feeds them. Large outdoor roaches, the ones called palmetto bugs, live in mulch, palms and leaf litter and wander in. Roof rats, which UF/IFAS calls Florida's worst rodent pest, travel through palms and shrubs into attics and roof spaces.

UF/IFAS lists the roaches found in and around Florida homes as the Florida woods, American, smokybrown, brown, Australian, German and Asian cockroaches, and it is the large ones, roughly 31 to 51 mm, that get called palmetto bugs. That distinction matters for the treatment: the Florida woods roach does not thrive indoors and needs consistently moist conditions, and several of the outdoor species only need to be kept out of the house rather than hunted through it. A German cockroach population in a kitchen is a different job, done indoors.

Roof rats are a roof-line problem before they are an attic problem. They use palms, dense shrubs and overhanging branches to reach the eaves and soffits, then gnaw wiring and rafters once inside; UF/IFAS notes Norway rats are rare in Florida, so in this county the rodent in the ceiling is almost always the roof rat. Trimming vegetation back off the roof and sealing the gaps does more than trapping alone, and both are part of rodent control. The habits are set out in the roof rats and South Florida palms guide.

What makes ants in Broward harder to clear than they look?

One local species in particular. The white-footed ant, Technomyrmex difficilis, nests in trees and shrubs and also in walls, attics and under roof shingles, does not bite or sting, and protects scale insects. UF/IFAS reports ordinary sprays and many baits work poorly against it.

The white-footed ant has been a pest ant in Florida since it was first found at Homestead in 1986, and it is the reason a trail that keeps reappearing after a store-bought spray is worth a proper identification. Because the ants tend scale insects on landscape plants, the trail into the kitchen often starts in a shrub or a tree touching the house, and treating only the indoor line leaves the colony where it is.

So ant work here starts outside and follows the trail back. Which plants touch the structure, where the trail crosses the slab or the soffit, and whether there are scale insects on the foliage all shape the plan, and the work is covered under ant control. What not to do is the easy part: repeated spraying of a visible trail scatters the ants and makes the nest harder to find.

Who handles mosquitoes, the county or a pest company?

Both, on different ground. Broward County Mosquito Control treats public water and takes service requests through 311 or an online form, and has offered free property inspections. A technician handles the yard itself: the containers, the bromeliads, the gutters and the shaded resting spots around the house.

The county's work targets Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus with Bti larvicide, and it has treated parts of the county from the air in the past, including a notice naming parts of Dania Beach, Davie, Hollywood and Pembroke Pines. That is a public programme on a public schedule, so it is worth reporting standing water you can see in a ditch or a canal rather than waiting for it.

On your own lot the levers are smaller and faster. Aedes mosquitoes breed in very little water, so saucers, tarps, boat covers, roof gutters and plant axils matter more than the size of the yard, and the rainy season between mid-May and mid-October refills all of them. A yard treatment plus the source reduction is what mosquito control covers, and the split of responsibilities is explained in the Broward County mosquito control guide.