Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
J Econ Entomol. 2023 Apr 24;116(2):643-647. doi: 10.1093/jee/toad037.
Due to their mutualistic relationship with plant pests, the Argentine ant is considered a major pest in subtropical fruit orchards and vineyards. Besides insecticide sprays, liquid baiting has been demonstrated as an effective method to suppress the Argentine ant populations. To improve the economic feasibility of liquid baiting, hydrogel materials have been recently tested as a carrier for liquid baits containing various insecticidal active ingredients. Here, we tested boric acid as a toxicant in the aqueous sugar bait delivered in a biodegradable calcium alginate hydrogel. Laboratory tests demonstrated that boric acid (1%) liquid bait incorporated in the calcium alginate hydrogel effectively killed Argentine ant workers. Potassium sorbate (0.25%) added to the liquid bait as a preservative did not impact the efficacy of boric acid even though it significantly reduced the degree of swelling of the hydrogel beads in the bait solution. Testing with 2-month-old bait suggested that long-term storage might impact bait efficacy even with potassium sorbate preservative.
由于与植物害虫的互利关系，阿根廷蚁被认为是亚热带水果果园和葡萄园的主要害虫。除了杀虫剂喷雾外，液体诱饵已被证明是抑制阿根廷蚁种群的有效方法。为了提高液体诱饵的经济可行性，最近已经测试了水凝胶材料作为含有各种杀虫活性成分的液体诱饵的载体。在这里，我们测试了硼酸作为在可生物降解的海藻酸钠水凝胶中递送的含糖水的有毒物质。实验室测试表明，硼酸（1%）液体诱饵掺入海藻酸钠水凝胶中可有效杀死阿根廷蚁工蚁。添加到液体诱饵中的山梨酸钾（0.25%）作为防腐剂，即使它显著降低了诱饵溶液中水凝胶珠的溶胀程度，也不会影响硼酸的功效。用 2 个月大的诱饵进行测试表明，即使有山梨酸钾防腐剂，长期储存也可能影响诱饵的功效。
