08-20-2016, 05:40 AM
I noticed some LFA in our bathroom and instead of reaching for the Siesta, I thought I would try an experiment.
I put a tiny amount of Advion Roach Bait Gel ( https://www.amazon.com/Insecticide-Austr...00730QW70/ ) and the ants were attracted to it. When I looked a few days later, no more ants in the bathroom.
Sometimes LFA come and go for no apparent reason so I wasn't sure the gel was the cause of the disappearance so I decided to run an experiment. I found a pretty substantial LFA highway in our lanai today. I put two drops of the gel out. One right alongside the highway and another about a foot away (to see if they would be drawn to the bait rather than just running into it by happenstance). Both drops are now surrounded by LFA.
Advion also makes an ant gel but it is a "sweet" based gel so I didn't want to bother with it. The ant based gel is 0.05% Indoxacarb and the roach based gel is 0.6%. It will be interesting to see if the Indoxacarb makes it back to the colony at the higher concentration to kill the colony, or if the ants die before the transfer can occur, or if nothing happens. I'll watch the ants and give an update.
Being a gel, it can be applied to surfaces Siesta can't, like on shrubs and trees. I put some on a palm and some of it did survive a decent rain but after an overnight rain it was gone.
From roach literature: "The brief delay in mortality caused by the active ingredient Indoxacarb allows cockroaches to consume the bait and return to the harborage site to contaminate other cockroaches resulting in significant reduction in infestation levels. Each roach that comes in contact with bait can contaminate up to 40 other roaches by way of contact, feces, or the other roaches feeding on its poisoned carcass. This domino effect knocks out roach populations at an incredible rate."
From ant literature: "Indoxacarb is an oxadiazine pesticide originally manufactured and patented by DuPont. Since Indoxacarb is the only chemical in its class, it offers laboratory-tested benefits that other pesticides simply cannot duplicate. For starters, Indoxacarb remains active even after digestion so it can be passed along to other insects through bait sharing. It is the first pest control bait that scientists have found to remain active after it has been transferred twice after the first lethal dose. Passing poison like this from one insect to another is known as horizontal transfer."
An indoxacarb-based bait granule was tested for LFA by the HAL but was rated as "hit or miss" in its efficacy, though it's unknown if that was due to baiting action or the poison.
ETA: I just found a new dimension to this experiment. I found a second LFA highway in the lanai. So now I have a "control" group. Are they going back to the same colony? I don't know, but if they stay or disappear in relation to the group with the poison will be interesting.
I put a tiny amount of Advion Roach Bait Gel ( https://www.amazon.com/Insecticide-Austr...00730QW70/ ) and the ants were attracted to it. When I looked a few days later, no more ants in the bathroom.
Sometimes LFA come and go for no apparent reason so I wasn't sure the gel was the cause of the disappearance so I decided to run an experiment. I found a pretty substantial LFA highway in our lanai today. I put two drops of the gel out. One right alongside the highway and another about a foot away (to see if they would be drawn to the bait rather than just running into it by happenstance). Both drops are now surrounded by LFA.
Advion also makes an ant gel but it is a "sweet" based gel so I didn't want to bother with it. The ant based gel is 0.05% Indoxacarb and the roach based gel is 0.6%. It will be interesting to see if the Indoxacarb makes it back to the colony at the higher concentration to kill the colony, or if the ants die before the transfer can occur, or if nothing happens. I'll watch the ants and give an update.
Being a gel, it can be applied to surfaces Siesta can't, like on shrubs and trees. I put some on a palm and some of it did survive a decent rain but after an overnight rain it was gone.
From roach literature: "The brief delay in mortality caused by the active ingredient Indoxacarb allows cockroaches to consume the bait and return to the harborage site to contaminate other cockroaches resulting in significant reduction in infestation levels. Each roach that comes in contact with bait can contaminate up to 40 other roaches by way of contact, feces, or the other roaches feeding on its poisoned carcass. This domino effect knocks out roach populations at an incredible rate."
From ant literature: "Indoxacarb is an oxadiazine pesticide originally manufactured and patented by DuPont. Since Indoxacarb is the only chemical in its class, it offers laboratory-tested benefits that other pesticides simply cannot duplicate. For starters, Indoxacarb remains active even after digestion so it can be passed along to other insects through bait sharing. It is the first pest control bait that scientists have found to remain active after it has been transferred twice after the first lethal dose. Passing poison like this from one insect to another is known as horizontal transfer."
An indoxacarb-based bait granule was tested for LFA by the HAL but was rated as "hit or miss" in its efficacy, though it's unknown if that was due to baiting action or the poison.
ETA: I just found a new dimension to this experiment. I found a second LFA highway in the lanai. So now I have a "control" group. Are they going back to the same colony? I don't know, but if they stay or disappear in relation to the group with the poison will be interesting.
Lot's of dead ants!