Olfactory memories promote toxic bait ingestión

MATTIACCI, A.; JOSENS, R

Congreso; 2º Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Ecología Química; 2012

The use of olfactory cues has been extensively studied for controlling harmful insects. The case of ants is particular, as social insects, only a low proportion of workers leave the nest for resources. They forage and transport the food into the nest where it is distributed to their nest-mates. Given that the workers are infertile, alimentary-baits are recommended for ant-chemical control. Sugar solutions are effective baits for a large number of ant species. Some commercial baits for residential control often contain sugar as an attractant and boric acid as toxicant. However, Camponotus mus ants, unlike other species, frequently rejected this toxicant. Although some pheromone compounds have been tested to supplement chemical control for invasive ants with current global distribution, the use of these compounds is limited as they tend to be species-specific, and there are many species to control. Therefore, we proposed to use olfactory cues not belonging to the ants -but that could be learned by them- to examine whether this memory can promote higher acceptance of a toxic-bait which present the same odor. We studied the behavioral responses of C. mus ants under controlled conditions; firstly, we proved that the presence of linalool in a boric-acid bait did not generate an increase in its acceptance. Then, we evaluated if the memory established in the trophallaxis context during recruitment could promote a higher ingestion of scented toxic bait while foraging. Results showed that ants that learned the odor of the sugar solution received from a nest-mate ingested more toxic bait containing the same odor than control ants confronted with non scented sugar solutions.   These results applied to a protocol for commercial baits could increase the range of species in which boric acid is effective.