Argentine Ant
Photo: Penarc
The Argentine Ant is an invasive pest of agricultural fields and urban dwellings, especially in California. Homeowners often rely on slow acting baits that are consumed by ant foragers and carried back to the nest. Once ants find and accept the bait, they will recruit additional foragers.
The effectiveness of the bait depends on both its acceptance and the ability of ants to find the bait. In a recent study*, adding the trail pheromone of Argentine Ants, (Z)-9-hexadecenal to the bait both decreased the time needed for ants to find the bait and increased the numbers of ants arriving at the bait. The use of ant pheromone could make control using these baits more effective.
Kevin F. Welzel1 and Dong-Hwan Choe. Development of a Pheromone-Assisted Baiting Technique for Argentine Ants. Journal of Economic Entomology, 2016, 1–7.
doi: 10.1093/jee/tow015
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