Acromyrmex octospinosus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) management. Part 1: Effects of TRAMIL's insecticidal plant extracts

Abstract

The data presented in this study showed that plant extracts cited by TRAMIL ethnopharmacological surveys have the potential to control the leaf-cutting ant, Acromyrmex octospinosus. In particular, the Mammea americana extract, with its natural low repellent effect and its high toxicity by ingestion, and Nerium oleander extracts, with their natural delay action, are possibly the best extracts for the control of these ants.

Transcriptome Analysis in Venom Gland of the Predatory Giant Ant Dinoponera quadriceps: Insights into the Polypeptide Toxin Arsenal of Hymenopterans

“…Ants are engaged in several beneficial interrelationships with other organisms that include pollination, microbial dispersal, insect predation, and symbiotic associations with microorganisms [33]. In agriculture, ants modulate and interfere with soil conditions and may cause economic losses due to several factors including damage to the foliage of commercial plants, direct and indirect reductions in crop yields and pest management-related increases in the costs production [34]. With over 12,000 known species, the ants are among the most successful insects in the animal kingdom, and many of these species depend on venom for defense against other organisms, including predators and other ant species [35].…”

Managing leaf-cutting ants: peculiarities, trends and challenges

“…Again, these compounds' presumed environmental safety and problems of the evolution of resistance to synthetic insecticides have attracted attention. Plant extracts are at the forefront of current research on insecticidal compounds for use in baits . Curiously, it is frequently neglected that chemical structure, and not origin (either natural or synthetic), determines the physical–chemical properties and consequently the toxicity of a given compound, and that leaf‐cutting ants notably lack recorded problems of insecticide resistance with the exception of one doubtful account in Atta sexdens from Paraguay from the 1960s …”

“…Natural products have had and continue to have crop protection value both as per se insecticides or as chemical backbones for new insecticide molecules, but these products are still limited by the same concerns and shortcomings as synthetic compounds. Some natural compounds, particularly from plant extracts (unlike others, such as lime stone), show promise against leaf‐cutting ants in laboratory experiments, either affecting the ants themselves or their cultivated fungus . However, their potential for field use still deserves attention because, for example, high vapor pressure as in the β ‐eudesmol, a bioactive compound from an Eucalyptus clone effective against leaf‐cutting ants, precludes such use despite its potent interference with nestmate recognition; such interference leads to aggression and high mortality among nestmates (Fig.…”

“…Compounds that modulate behavior are also objects of attention against leaf‐cutting ants, and, among these, natural repellents show promise. Some plants and plant extracts, as recently recognized in the Programme of Applied Research to Popular Medicine in the Caribbean (TRAMIL), initiated in 1982, do exhibit repellence to leaf‐cutting ants and may prove useful in association with cultivated plants, thereby diversifying the crop system and minimizing the risk of attack . Another approach against leaf‐cutting ants that was developed and explored between the mid‐1970s and late 1980s was to increase bait pick‐up (bait contaminated with pathogens or toxic compounds) to improve their field efficacy due to the potentially reduced exposure of the bait to environmental conditions and improved attractiveness .…”

“…Some plants and plant extracts, as recently recognized in the Programme of Applied Research to Popular Medicine in the Caribbean (TRAMIL), initiated in 1982, do exhibit repellence to leaf-cutting ants and may prove useful in association with cultivated plants, thereby diversifying the crop system and minimizing the risk of attack. 39,42,122 Another approach against leaf-cutting ants that was developed and explored between the mid-1970s and late 1980s was to increase bait pick-up wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ps (bait contaminated with pathogens or toxic compounds) to improve their field efficacy due to the potentially reduced exposure of the bait to environmental conditions and improved attractiveness. 132 -134 Brood, trail and alarm pheromones were tested by being impregnated into small sachets containing granulated baits, but the results were disappointing.…”