ACCEPTABILITY OF DIFFERENT SUGARS AND OILS TO 3 TROPICAL ANT SPECIES (HYMEN, FORMICIDAE)

Baits are generally more effective than insecticidal sprays and dusts for controlling ant infestations. It is important to use a highly acce ptable food attractant in order for baits to be effective. We examined the acceptability of 6 sugars and oils to 3 ant species, Pheidole meg acephala (Fab.), Ochetellus glaber (Mayr), and Paratrechina longicorni s (Latr.). One of these sugars, melezitose, is a trisaccharide found o nly in the honey-dew of homopterous insects. P. megacephala showed a s ignificant preference for melezitose over glucose, maltose, and trehal ose, but not over fructose and sucrose. O. glaber significantly prefer red sucrose over maltose and P. longicornis did not show any significa nt preferences for the different sugars. P. megacephala showed a signi ficant preference for olive oil. Neither O. glaber nor P. longicornis showed a preference for the different oils and there were very low num bers of O. glaber and P. longicornis workers attracted to oil treated disks. Hence, oil-based baits would probably not be effective for cont rolling either of these latter two ant species.