California scientists find two ant baits trigger very different behaviour

Seeing more Argentine ants after putting out pesticide bait may not mean the treatment has failed. A new University of California, Riverside, study found that the chemicals can change the ants' behaviour, with the response varying depending on the type of insecticide used.Argentine ants are invasive ants commonly found in homes and gardens in Southern California. According to Science X, researchers studied how these ants respond to two insecticides commonly used in ant baits, thiamethoxam and boric acid. Both treatments eventually killed most of the worker ants, but they affected the colonies in very different ways.The research was carried out in the laboratory of UCR entomology professor Dong Hwan Choe and was published in the journal Insects. The researchers found that thiamethoxam caused many affected ants to become unusually active and move outside their nests.