Yellow Crazy Ant Program Update
You might be wondering how the Yellow Crazy ant program is going…? Well, we have recently finished a large-scale monitoring program for Yellow Crazy ants and native ants in and around the infested site. This monitoring data will provide us with information about the density and distribution of Yellow Crazy ants, their impact on native ants, and the effectiveness of treatment on Yellow Crazy ants. We can also use this information to assess the impacts of treatment on native ant colonies. This information was collected by placing a series of baits (made up of tuna and honey) throughout a 200m x 200m grid area. We left the baits for 30-60 minutes and then came back and counted the number of ants and species of ants on the bait cards. We will compare these results with the results that we get when we conduct this monitoring again post-treatment. We have also used the information that has been provided by members of the public who have put out ant baiting kits in their yards to collect ants.
Yellow Crazy Ant Kit
As part of this monitoring program, we also put out pitfall traps, which are small containers that are buried so that the rim is level with the surface of the soil. These traps contain salt water, which will preserve any insects that they collect for a short time, long enough for us to get them back to the laboratory! These collect ants and other insects – we will compare the information that we get from the pitfall traps before treatment and after treatment. This will give us another measure of the effectiveness of the treatment, as well as more of an idea of the impact of this treatment program on the whole insect community.
Pitfall Trap
On May 20 2009, we started the treatment program for Yellow Crazy ants. This involved spreading granular insect growth hormone throughout the infested site. The ants collect the yellow granules and take it back to their nest where they feed it to the queen. The treatment reduces the fertility of the queens, so that they can’t lay more eggs, which in turn causes the colony to die. The granules are very attractive to the ants – as soon as they were spread out on the ground, we could see ants collecting them and taking them back to their colony entrance.
Treatment around Ant Nest
Until we have conducted our next round of monitoring, we won’t know how successful we have been in eradicating Yellow Crazy ants in Darwin. However, in accordance with national protocols, we will complete a minimum of three rounds of the treatment to increase our chances of successfully eradicating Yellow Crazy ants.
Yellow Crazy Ant Treatment
Keep watching this site for more updates on the Yellow Crazy ant program!
