I lived for almost year down in Florida and I had them in my apartment and in my car! At least, the pictures looked like what I had, but I don't know for sure. In my apartment I would only use natural bug sprays, like ecosmart, but didn't get rid of the problem completely. I would spray it around all the doors and windows, and the perimeter of the rooms and it worked pretty well to keep them out. I'm super allergic to most bug poisons, and don't like the idea of them anyways. I didn't have my animals when I was in florida, family members were taking care of them, so I don't know if I would use it around reptiles. I am very OCD too, but three of my roommates were slobs (and the worst roommates on earth), and they would get into our kitchen.

For a few weeks when I would drive to work I would see a couple ants crawling around. I kept finding more and more but could never locate them. When my internship ended and I had to move all of my belongings back to New Mexico I stopped in Texas to visit family. I opened my trunk up and there were hundreds of them in all of my moving boxes just swarming!! I don't know what made them come out of wherever they were hiding, but I had to unpack everything from my apartment in Florida in my cousins driveway and we pulled up whatever we could and sprayed the whole car down with ecosmart. It did the trick. But it was so gross, they were in everything I owned, and they were panicking and moving their babies around... I love bugs, but seeing a swarm of ants in your clothes and pots and pans is just nasty!