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Title: STUDIES ON ATTRACTIVENESS AND EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ARTIFICIAL ENTOMOPHAGE DIET FED TO HYBRID IMPORTED FIRE ANTS

Author
item Vogt, James
item Cohen, Allen

Submitted to: Imported Fire Ants Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/4/2002
Publication Date: 3/24/2002
Citation: VOGT, J.T., COHEN, A.C. Studies on Attractiveness and Effectiveness of an Artificial Entomophage Diet fed to Hybrid Imported Fire Ants. IMPORTED FIRE ANTS CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. 2002. P.36-38.

Interpretive Summary: An artificial diet developed by USDA researchers (Cohen, U. S. Patent # 5,834,177) was fed to hybrid imported fire ants to test its attractiveness and effectiveness for rearing laboratory colonies. Worker ants were strongly attracted to the diet, and collected similar amounts of diet and a freeze-killed, crushed cricket standard. Colony growth, however, was lower in colonies fed the diet vs. colonies fed crickets or diet + crickets. Researchers are currently comparing micronutrient content of the diet and crickets in hopes of developing a suitable artificial diet for captive fire ant colonies.

Technical Abstract: An artificial entomophage diet (Cohen, U. S. Patent # 5,834,177. November 10, 1998) was offered to Solenopsis invicta Buren x Solenopsis richteri Forel (hybrid imported fire ant) in a series of choice tests. Foraging workers collected approx. 27 times more reconstituted diet than freeze-dried diet, and collected similar amounts of reconstituted diet and freeze-killed, macerated cricket. Even though workers were strongly attracted to the artificial diet, all measures of colony growth (mean mass of brood, workers, and queen) were at least 50% lower in colonies fed sugar water + artificial diet than in colonies fed sugar water + crickets or sugar water + artificial diet + crickets. While this highly attractive diet may have some utility as a bait for monitoring fire ants in the field, feeding colonies sugar water and the diet alone or in combination with crickets offers no advantage over a diet of crickets and sugar water.