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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Biological Control of Pests Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #211412
Title: Study on the Repellency of Callicarpenal and Intermedeol against Workers of Imported Fire Ants

Author
item Chen, Jian
item Cantrell, Charles
item Duke, Stephen
item Allen, Margaret - Meg

Submitted to: Imported Fire Ants Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/25/2007
Publication Date: 7/25/2007
Citation: Chen, J., Cantrell, C. L., Duke, S. O., Allen, M. L. Study on the Repellency of Callicarpenal and Intermedeol against Workers of Imported Fire Ants. Imported Fire Ants Conference Proceedings. 2007

Interpretive Summary: Imported fire ants are serious medical and agricultural pests in the United States. With the concern of potential environmental contamination of insecticides, there has been increasing interest in research on non-toxic or less-toxic treatments for fire ant control, such as fire ant repellents. Repellents can potentially be useful in quarantine treatment by preventing fire ants from re-entering treated matter, including nursery stock and soil-moving equipment. Fire ant repellent compounds were found in American beautyberry and Japanese beautyberry which may be useful in fire ant quarantine and management.

Technical Abstract: Repellency of callicarpenal and intermedeol, two terpenoids isolated from American beautyberry and Japanese beautyberry, were tested against workers of red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, black imported fire ants, Solenopsis richteri Forel, and a hybrid of these two species using digging bioassays. Both callicarpenal and intermedeol showed repellency against all tested colonies and intermedeol showed significantly greater repellency than callicarpenal. However, no significant difference was found among species and their hybrid.