Yellow crazy ant update |09 July 2018

During the last few months Inva’Ziles staff have been monitoring the bait stations put in place to control yellow crazy ants. These bait stations contain a natural poison – boric acid. During April the team set out to monitor the yellow crazy ants across the northern half of the Vallée de Mai; the area containing the bait stations. Monitoring is done using pitfall traps that are made from plastic water bottles and contain a sugar and washing-up-liquid solution. The traps are left overnight and the following morning they are collected and the number of yellow crazy ants in each trap are counted. This survey was done both before the bait stations were put in place, and after four weeks of control efforts. We are very excited to announce that during the four weeks between surveys there was decline of nearly 60% in the presence of yellow crazy ants; which is a great start! In many cases the ants were seen actively feeding on the bait, and in one instance there was an ant nest actually in the bait station, obviously the ants really like the bait…

Inva’Ziles staff will continue to monitor the bait stations in the next few months as they are moved to the southern half of Vallée de Mai. It is hoped that these bait stations will be able to control the yellow crazy ant population when left in place long term and this will reduce their impact on the Seychelles black parrot during future breeding seasons.

SIF