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Scientist At UC Riverside Builds A Better Ant Trap

Thanks to the great entomology department at UC Riverside, the way we control ants may be about to change for the good of all.

Kevin Welzel, a doctorial student at UC Riverside, has just published a study showing how a readily obtainable pheromone, combined with commercial ant bait, can nearly double the effectiveness of controlling Argentine ants, reducing their activity by 74 percent.

The researchers focused on Argentine ants because they are a pest that many of us have to deal with on a regular basis. Mr. Welzel stated that this invasive species represents “probably 85 percent of all pest management problems.”

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“I was expecting to get around 50 percent,” said Welzel. “I wasn’t expecting to get nearly 80 percent. It’s pretty comparable to a spraying treatment. It’s better for the environment and I think overall it is a better technique.”

Dong-Hwan Choe, an assistant professor of entomology at the university said, “Even though the pheromone increased the consumption of the bait, we really didn’t know how it would turn out. We were kind of pleased by seeing at least a 70 percent reduction where we put the pheromone bait. Achieving 70 percent or higher in the field is actually pretty significant.”

Welzel says that the addition of the pheromone is relatively economical and estimates that it would only add about $1.50 to the cost of a month’s treatment.

“Hopefully this will get out there,” he said of the treated bait, “because it’s a more environmentally friendly way to control them.”