Consequences of Mound Disturbance: Will disturbing mounds and then applying bait to them reduce fire ant foraging activity and treatment efficacy?

摘要

Results from our research provide evidence that disturbing a mound immediately before treatment does not reduce fire ant bait foraging, despite a short delay in foraging activity in the disturbed mound treatment. More than 95 percent of the applied baits are foraged after three hours, regardless of mound disturbance or not. Bait placement, relative to mound, had an impact of the rate of bait removal, in that the fastest foraging rate occurred on mound, followed by 0.18-0.3-m from mound base, and theslowest 1.08-1.2-m from mound base. The fastest foraging rate occurred in the first post-treatment hour, resulting in more than 78 percent bait removal. This trend was held consistent, again, regardless of the treatment and season. All treatments gave 100 percent control one month later without colony relocation or new colony invasion in the test plots. Bait application should be done around 9 a.m. in spring, but before 7 a.m. in summer.