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l-ascorbic acid provides a highly effective and environmentally sustainable method to control red imported fire ants

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Abstract

The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, is a serious agricultural and public health pest in its introduced range. Several natural products have been tested to replace synthetic insecticides for the novel, economically feasible and environmentally friendly control of this pest. No information is available on the toxicity of vitamins to red imported fire ants. This study examined the effects of l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on the survival and behavior of red imported fire ants. In a toxicity assay, l-ascorbic acid (l-AA, vitamin C) appeared to be the most toxic vitamin to S. invicta and caused significantly higher mortality of S. invicta than the control and other tested vitamins. Concentration- and exposure time-dependent mortality of ants was observed after feeding on different concentrations of l-AA. S. invicta equally preferred l-AA and sucrose solution and rapidly transferred l-AA by workers. Significant adverse effects on the necrophoric, recruiting and foraging behavior of this pest insect were observed after feeding on l-AA. The walking speed of l-AA-fed ants was significantly reduced; however, we observed no significant difference in mortality of ants during group aggression assays. When we examined the presence of l-AA in the hemolymph and excretion, unlike in the normal control, more l-AA was observed in the hemolymph of the workers that ingested 0.05/0.1 g/ml of l-AA solution after 48 h. However, there was no significant difference in the concentration of l-AA in the excretion. This study demonstrated that l-AA has negative effects on S. invicta and can be used as baits to provide a highly effective and environmentally sustainable method to control red imported fire ants.

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Funding

The authors acknowledge the National Key Research and Development who provided financial support for the research through Project 2016YFC1201200.

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Author notes

  1. Dongdong Ning and Babar Hassan have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Red Imported Fire Ant Research Center, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Dongdong Ning, Babar Hassan, Lei Nie, Kaige Yang, Yuanqian Pan & Yijuan Xu

  2. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, Guangzhou, 510260, China

    Zhiping Pan

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  1. Dongdong Ning
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  2. Babar Hassan
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  7. Yijuan Xu
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Correspondence to Zhiping Pan or Yijuan Xu.

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Communicated by M. Traugott.

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Ning, D., Hassan, B., Nie, L. et al. l-ascorbic acid provides a highly effective and environmentally sustainable method to control red imported fire ants. J Pest Sci 93, 879–891 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01203-z

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