A Surprisingly Non-attractiveness of Commercial Poison Baits to Newly Established Population of White-Footed Ant, Technomyrmex brunneus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), in a Remote Island of Japan

The white-footed ant, Technomyrmex brunneus, was newly introduced and established in a remote island of Japan and has caused unacceptable damage to the daily life of residents. To establish proper control measures, the present study investigated whether T. brunneus is effectively attracted to commercially available poison baits used to exterminate common household pest ants and the Argentine ant in Japan. Cafeteria experiments using three types of nontoxic baits and eight types of commercial poison baits for ants were conducted in the field, and the attractiveness was compared among the baits. The liquid poison bait Arimetsu, which consists of 42.6% water, 55.4% sugar, and 2.0% borate, and nontoxic 10% (w/v) sucrose water showed the highest attractiveness. On the other hand, other commercial poison baits were not as attractive. Therefore, sucrose liquid is the most effective attractive component to use in poison baits for T. brunneus.

Automated summary

The study found that the white-footed ant is most attracted to the liquid poison bait Arimetsu and 10% sucrose water, while other commercial poison baits were not as attractive. Therefore, sucrose liquid is the most effective attractive component to use in poison baits for the white-footed ant.