Pest Management of Argentine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)1

Abstract

Control of Argentine ants, Linepithema humile (Mayr), around structures in urban settings requires an extensive and thorough use of existing registered sprays and baits. Barrier sprays must be thoroughly applied at maximum label rates to prevent ants from accessing structures. Although insecticides with systemic activity such as imidacloprid and thiamethoxam may ultimately reduce homopteran food sources for L. humile, quantifying the impact of such reductions has been difficult. Applications of bifenthrin and deltamethrin granules provide short-term reductions. Most commercial baits available for L. humile are not readily consumed by foragers, or they provide too rapid kill of workers. Consequently, none of the baits are consistently effective. Potential new active ingredients for baits such as fipronil, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam provide about 50% kill within 3 days and are readily accepted by foragers. These toxicants are extremely promising in liquid bait formulations. No single control strategy or treatment has been consistently effective.

Activity of Bifenthrin, Chlorfenapyr, Fipronil, and Thiamethoxam Against Argentine Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

“…In recent years, there has been a resurgence in the use of baits, which are more target speciÞc and control ants by using less toxicant (Klotz et al 1997). Other ant control methods include habitat modiÞcation (Rust et al 2003) and the use of natural products as repellent barriers (Shorey et al 1992). Nonrepellent insecticides offer promise as both contact insecticides and bait active ingredients because they go undetected by ants, allowing high degrees of horizontal transmission (Rust et al 2003).…”

Relations between the design and management of Senegalese orchards and ant diversity and community composition

“…Among them, pesticide use, irrigation and fertilizers constitute the more obvious factors affecting ants. Ants are particularly sensitive to pesticides because they are central-place foragers, concentrating resources, and thus, pesticides gathered from a large area, in one point (the nest), and because they exchange food via trophallaxis, thus rapidly spreading pesticides potentially ingested across congeners (Rust et al, 2003), resulting in high mortality (Dong-Hwan and Rust, 2008). An ultimate goal for agroecosystem managers might not necessarily be to favour high ant diversity but rather a set of species that are efficient for crop protection.…”

Different acute toxicity of fipronil baits on invasive Linepithema humile supercolonies and some non-target ground arthropods

“…Apart from the physical destruction such as a habitat modification (Soeprono and Rust 2004), traditional ant control techniques accomplished so far include chemical control using insecticides, either by creating a barrier, or simply by broadcast-spraying and nest treatment (Wilson 1958;Rust et al 2003;Silverman and Brightwell 2008;Klotz et al 2009;Jiang et al 2013). In particular, a phenylpyrazole systemic insecticide, fipronil, has provided a great horizontal activity against ants (i.e., movement of an active toxic ingredient due to ant-to-ant contact) because of its non-repellent effects (Wiltz et al 2009;Choe et al 2010).…”