[US] A new way to kill "pesky" ants

[Andrew Gach]

New Gel Bait Now Available for Fire Ant Control
June 12, 2003
Fine--but deadly--dining awaits pesky ants that sample a new bait gel
formulation developed by Agricultural Research Service scientists and a
cooperating company.

Waterbury Companies, Inc. will sell the new bait gel as Drax NutraBait later
this month pending Environmental Protection Agency registration on its use
for odorous house-, pavement-, pharaoh-, little black-, ghost-, Argentine-,
carpenter- and crazy ants.

ARS and Waterbury recently applied for a joint patent on the bait gel
formulation since it is eaten by fire ants--a first for such products,
according to Guadalupe Rojas, an entomologist at ARS' Southern Regional
Research Center (SRRC) in New Orleans, LA. Rojas and ARS entomologist Juan
Morales-Ramos began working on the new formulation there about three years
ago to lure the tiny, stinging pests away from bait traps intended to kill
Formosan subterranean termites. Both pests are targets of large-scale ARS
research and control projects in the Southeast.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030612.htm