SPECIES COMPOSITION, MONTHLY ABUNDANCE AND FOOD PREFERENCES OF STRUCTURE-INFESTING ANTS (HYMENOPTERA...

STRUCTURE-INFESTING ANTS IN STUDENT HOUSING IN USM, PENANG, MALAYSIA 1Malays. Appl. Biol. (2006) 35(2): 1–12

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

SPECIES COMPOSITION, MONTHLY ABUNDANCE AND FOODPREFERENCES OF STRUCTURE-INFESTING ANTS

(HYMENOPTERA : FORMICIDAE) IN STUDENT HOUSINGIN USM, PENANG, MALAYSIA

NORASMAH, B., ABU HASSAN, A.*, CHE SALMAH, M.R.,NURITA, A.T. and NURAIDA, H.

School of Biological Sciences Universiti Sains Malaysia11800 Penang, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

A survey on ants infesting student housings was carried in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) campus for thirteenmonths. The species composition, seasonal abundance and food preferences were studied. The ants were exposed tothree types of food baits: anchovy powder, egg yolk powder and strawberry jam. Monomorium pharaonis andParatrechina logicornis were the two dominant species in the buildings and the highest abundance of the two specieswere in April and May, respectively. M. pharaonis abundance was high when the temperatures ranged between 30-31°C while P. logicornis were high in numbers when relative humidity ranged between 72-74%. Food preferenceswere varied between the ant species. The ants showed differences in food preferences and the types of food given.Strawberry jam was the most attractive food compared to anchovy powder and egg yolk powder. This shows thatmost of the ant species prefer the carbohydrate-base food than protein-base food.

ABSTRAK

Satu kajian mengenai infestasi semut didalam bangunan telah dijalankan di Kampus Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)selama tiga belas bulan. Komposisi spesis semut, kelimpahan dan pemilihan jenis makanan telah dijalankan. Semutdidalam bangunan telah di berikan tiga jenis makanan iaitu serbuk ikan bilis, serbuk kuning telur dan jem strawberry.Monomorium pharaonis dan Paratrechina logicornis adalah dua spesis yang dominant didalam bangunan yang dikaji.Kedua-dua spesis ini masing-masing menunjukkan kelimpahan yang tinggi pada bulan April and May. KelimpahanM. pharaonis adalah tinggi apabila suhu berada dalam lingkungan 30-31°C. Manakala bilangan P. logicornis pulaadalah tinggi apabila kelembapan relatif adalah dalam lingkungan 72-74%. Pemilihan makanan adalah berbezamengikut spesis semut. Semut menunjukkan perbezaan dalam pemilihan makanan dan jenis makanan yang diberi.Jem strawberry adalah makanan yang paling disukai oleh kebanyakan spesis semut berbanding serbuk ikan bilisdan serbuk kuning telur. Ini menunjukkan semut lebih tertarik kepada makanan yang mengandungi karbohidratberbanding makanan berprotein.

Key words: ants, food preference, infestation, Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

Ants are the dominant group of social insectsrelated to bees and wasps. Except for the polarregion, they flourish on all land areas on the earth,from rain forest to deserts. They are among themost widespread and abundant of animals (Tobin,1994). All pest control technicians becomeinvolved with ant problem at some point in their

career – most commonly because the ant foragingor nesting inside structures. They are interestingorganisms that should be studied to betterunderstand their unique behaviors and their rolesin the earth’s ecosystems. They can also be pests,however. The activities of ants may interfere withthose of man in four ways – first, through theirfeeding habits; second, through their habit ofappropriating certain portions of the earth asnesting sites; third, through their aggressive, i. e,

2 STRUCTURE-INFESTING ANTS IN STUDENT HOUSING IN USM, PENANG, MALAYSIA

stinging & biting habits (Wheeler, 1965) andfourth, the ants can be a vector of pathogen. Fireants, (Solenopsis sp.) and others may sting or bitepeople and animals. Carpenter ants, (Camponatussp.) tunnel into structural wood. Mound-buildingants mar the appearance of lawns and landscapedareas. Pharaoh ant, (Monomorium pharaonis) cantransmit over a dozen pathogenic pathogens suchas Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus spp., andStreptococcus spp. (Smith and Whitman, 1992;Nickerson et al., 2003). Pharaoh ant also can getinto wounds and dressings in hospitals.

Worker ants foraging for food and waterbecome a concern when they infest food or otheritems in the home. In Penang, Malaysia, ants wasthe most abundant household pests aftermosquitoes and cockroaches as reported by Leeet al. (1999). In a preliminary study, Yap & Lee(1994) reported a total of 13 ant species found in-and around living premises with M. pharaonisbeing the pre-dominant species. However, thepresent study conducted by Lee et al. (2002), onstructure-infesting ants in food preparative outletsfound a total of 13 ants species from 3subfamalies, i.e. Dolichederinae, Formicinae andMyrmicinae with the Monomorium destructorbeing the most dominant species. This studyreports the species of ants found in studenthousings, their abundance and the food theypreferred over a period of thirteen months.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study has been conducted in two buildingsnamely International House (IH) and H13 ofDesasiswa Bakti Permai, a 6-storey and 8-storeybuilding, respectively. These buildings are studentliving premises located in Universiti SainsMalaysia, Minden, Penang, Malaysia. This studywas conducted for a period of thirteen monthsbeginning on January 2005 until January 2006.The study in IH was done on weekend in the firstand third week of every month and in H13, thestudy was done on weekend in the second andfourth week of every month.

In this study, three types of baited food weregiven. They are anchovy powder because itcontains a high amount of animal protein (47%w/w) (Hooper & Rust, 1997); egg yolk because itis a good source of protein and contains iron,Vitamin A &D and high in cholesterol (213mg/egg) and strawberry jam because it containscarbohydrate (63.9g of carbohydrate per 100g ofjam).

The egg yolk and anchovy were prepared inpowder form to allow small ants to carry it to thenest. The egg yolk powder was prepared by firstly

drying mashed up hard-boiled egg yolk in an ovenunder 50ºC for 24 hours. Then, the egg yolk wasgrounded up using a blender to a powder form.The anchovy was soaked in water to soften thetexture before roughly blending it. Then, it wasdried in the oven under 50ºC for 48 hours beforeblending it again to a powder form.

A total of nine index cards (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm)baited with three difference foods (three indexcards baited with anchovy powder, three indexcards baited with egg yolk powder and three indexcards baited with strawberry jam) were placed inevery floor and at the ground floor where anttrails were sighted. About 30 minutes afterplacement, the ants found foraging onto the indexcards were count. About 10-20 of ants from eachof the index card were collected and brought backto the laboratory for identification. They wereexamined under a dissecting scope and identifiedaccording to descriptions provided in Bolton(1994), Na & Lee (2001) and Shattuck & Barnett(2001).

The ant density and abundance wereestimated on the same dates and following thesame procedure as described above and thetemperature and relative humidity inside thebuilding were recorded using the psychrometer.

Statistical analysesAn analysis was performed using SPSS 12.0

for windows to analyze all of the data. TheKolmogorov-Smirnov statistics was used todetermine the normality of the data. If thesignificance level is greater than 0.05, thennormality is assumed and parametric test wereused. Whereas if the significance level is lowerthan 0.05, the data is not normal and were subjectto nonparametric test. Two-way ANOVAfollowed by Tukey HSD test were chosen to assessthe difference between the numbers of ants caughtin the two building, the numbers of ants caughtby each type of bait and determine the differencein the attractiveness of the baits to ants ofdifference species. For seasonal abundance, theresults were analyzed with Spearman correlation(nonparametric).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Species compositionThe result of the species composition study at

H13 and IH buildings are shown in Tables 1 and2. During thirteen months between January 2005and January 2006, a total of eleven ant specieswere found which belong to nine genera and foursubfamilies habiting in the buildings. Six speciesof ant collected during the study belong to

STRUCTURE-INFESTING ANTS IN STUDENT HOUSING IN USM, PENANG, MALAYSIA 3

Tabl

e 1.

Tot

al n

umbe

r of

stru

ctur

e-in

fest

ing

ants

for

ever

y m

onth

in th

e H

13, B

akti

Per

mai

, US

M, P

enan

g

Mon

ths

Subf

amily

Jan.

Feb.

Mar

.A

pr.

May

June

July

Aug

.S

ept.

Oct

.N

ov.

Dis

.Ja

n.To

tal (

%)

Spe

cies

Dol

icho

reri

nae

Tapi

nom

am

elan

ocep

halu

m41

132

4091

35

13

160

05

003

37 (

3.30

)0

Tech

nom

yrm

ex s

p.0

00

00

00

353

171

4726

03

0600

(5.

89)0

Form

icin

aeC

ampo

natu

s sp

.0

10

00

00

21

00

00

0004

(0.0

4)0

Par

atre

chin

a27

836

145

423

255

125

726

620

015

136

615

028

07 (

27.4

9)lo

ngic

orni

s

Myr

mec

inae

Mon

omor

ium

620

70

00

02

00

630

000

98 (

0.96

)0de

stru

ctor

Mon

omor

ium

00

06

00

00

322

00

00

0328

(3.

21)0

floric

ola

Mon

omor

ium

445

512

374

991

861

2731

314

160

108

300

640

647

69 (

46.7

0)ph

arao

nis

Phe

idol

e0

00

00

6867

9046

019

517

03

0639

(6.

26)0

meg

acep

hala

Sol

enop

sis

00

00

00

010

70

00

00

0107

(1.

05)0

gem

inat

a

Tetra

mor

ium

sp.

103

4229

051

2338

106

103

00

230

0518

(5.

07)0

Pone

rina

eO

dont

opon

era

sp.

00

40

00

00

00

00

000

04 (0

.04)

0

Tota

l no.

ant

s87

310

6890

813

2014

6638

040

311

7797

019

159

085

312

1021

1Pe

r m

onth

s (%

)(8

.55)

(10.

46)

(8.8

9)(1

2.93

)(1

4.36

)(3

.72)

(3.9

5)(1

1.53

)(9

.50)

(1.8

7)(5

.79)

(8.3

5)(0

.12)

(100

)

No.

of s

peci

es5

66

44

45

98

33

53


Tabl

e 2.

Tot

al n

umbe

r of

stru

ctur

e-in

fest

ing

ants

for

ever

y m

onth

in th

e In

tern

atio

nal H

ouse

, US

M, P

enan

g

Mon

ths

Subf

amily

Jan.

Feb.

Mar

.A

pr.

May

June

July

Aug

.S

ept.

Oct

.N

ov.

Dis

.Ja

n.To

tal (

%)

Spe

cies

Form

icin

aeP

arat

rech

ina

long

icor

nis

302

377

352

356

513

277

359

475

484

318

330

480

289

4912

(93

.05)

Myr

mec

inae

Mon

omor

ium

72

5520

6921

25

11

100

001

93 (

3.66

)0ph

arao

nis

Tetra

mor

ium

sp.

00

053

2023

2630

00

200

001

72 (

3.25

)0

Pone

rinae

Odo

ntop

oner

a sp

.2

00

00

00

00

00

00

0002

(0.

04)0

Tota

l no.

ant

s31

137

940

742

960

232

138

751

048

531

936

048

028

952

79Pe

r m

onth

s (%

)(5

.89)

(7.1

8)(7

.71)

(8.1

3)(1

1.40

)(6

.08)

(7.3

3)(9

.66)

(9.1

9)(6

.04)

(6.8

2)(9

.09)

(5.4

7)(1

00)

No.

of s

peci

es3

22

33

33

32

23

11


subfamily Myrmicinae. They were Monomoriumdestructor, Monomorium floricola, Monomoriumpharaonis, Pheidole megacephala, Solenopsisgeminata and Tetramorium sp. This is followedby subfamily Dolichoderinae (Tapinomamelanocephalum and Technomyrmex sp.) andFormicinae (Camponatus sp. and Paratrechinalongicornis). Only one species of ant (Odonto-ponera sp.) belong to subfamily Ponerinae wascollected.

H13, Bakti Permai buildingThe total number of ants of different species

caught at H13 building is given in Table 1. Intotal, 10211 ants belonging to eleven species werecaught in this building. The pharaoh ant, M.pharaonis was the most dominant species infestedthis building (46.70%), followed by P. longicornis(crazy ant) (27.49%), P. megacephala (big-headedant) (6.26%), Technomyrmex sp. (white footedant) (5.89%), Tetramorium sp. (pavement ant)(5.07), T. melanocephalum (ghost ant) (3.30%), M.floricola (3.21%), S. geminata (1.05%), M.destructor (Singapore ant) (0.96%), Camponatussp. (0.04%) and Odontoponera sp. (0.04%). Thehighest number of ants recorded in this buildingwas in May where a total of 1466 of ants werecollected while the lowest number of ants recordedwas in January 2006 where only 12 of ants werecollected.

Figure 1 represents the total number of everyspecies of ants found in each floor of the H13 ofBakti Permai building. Paratrechina longicornisand M. pharaonis was found on every floor butthe highest number of P. longicornis was on theground floor (1144) while the highest number ofM. pharaonis was recorded on the fifth floor(1521). These two species were responsible for74.19% of the total number of occurrences.However, only 7 P. longicornis and 3 M. pharaoniswere found on the seventh and ground floor,respectively. Monomorium destructor was foundon every floor except on the ground and secondfloor. The highest number of M. destructorrecorded was on the sixth floor (49).Technomyrmex species was present from theground floor until the sixth floor and the highestnumber of Technomyrmex sp. was on the thirdfloor where 160 of this ant species were caught.The big-headed ant (P. megacephala) occurredonly on the forth, fifth, sixth and seventh floor.The highest number recorded of this species wason the seventh floor (347) while the lowest numberrecorded was on the fifth floor (1) which makesit impossible to see in the figure. The ghost ant (T.melanocephalum), occurred on every floor withexception on the fifth and eighth floor andrecorded the highest number on the forth floor

(102). Solenopsis geminata was found only on theground floor while M. floricola was found only onthe seventh floor. The highest numbers of thesetwo species of ants were also recorded on the samefloor, which were 107 and 322 respectively. Thenumber of Camponatus species and Odontoponeraspecies that were caught during the study werevery low (<4). Thus, it was not shown in the figurealthough they existed in the building. Overall,floor six and seven recorded the highest numberof ant species, six of the eight species found onboth floors were Monomorium destructor, M.pharaonis, odontoponera sp., P. logicornis, P.megacephala and T. melano-cephalum, while twoother species that were found on the sixth floorwere Camponatus sp. and Technomyrmex sp. andon the seventh floor, the two other species foundwere M. floricola and Tetramorium sp. Overall,the results indicate that the highest number of antsthat were caught was on the ground floor and theleast number was on the eighth floor.

International House (IH) buildingTable 2 shows the total number of different

species of ants in IH. In total, 5279 ants werecaught on index cards over a period of thirteenmonths. The results showed that only four speciesof ants were found in this building. Paratrechinalongicornis was the most dominant species,representing 93.05% of the total ants collected.This was followed by M. pharaonis (3.66%) andTetramorium sp. (3.25%). The least number ofants that were caught was Odontoponera sp. whichaccounted for only 0.04%. The highest number ofants recorded in this building was in May wherea total of 602 of ants were collected while thelowest number of ants recorded was in January2006 where only 289 of ants were collected.

The total number of ants of every speciesfound on each floor in IH is shown in figure 2.Paratrechina longicornis (crazy ant) was thedominant ant species in this building and wasfound on every floor. The highest number of P.longicornis was recorded on the fifth floor whilethe lowest number was on the ground floor. Atotal of 1213 of the crazy ant were caught on thefifth floor and only 111 of crazy ants were caughton the ground floor. The highest number of thePharaoh ant was recorded on the sixth flooralthough this species of ants never occurred on thefirst and second floors. Only 100 of Tetramoriumspecies were found in the building and all of themwere found on the ground floor. Only 2Odontoponera sp. were found in this study andthey were found only on the ground floor.Overall, the result revealed that the highestnumbers of ants were on the fifth floor and thelowest number recorded was on the second floor.


Many of the ant species trapped in this studysuch as Monomorium sp., P. longicornis, P.megacephala and T. melanocephalum are ‘trampants’. Tramp ants are defined as ants that arepolygynous, unicolonial, reproduce by budding,have the ability to change their nest site easily, low

intraspecific aggressivity, are largely dispersedworldwide through human commercial activityand live in close association with humans(Holldobler and Wilson 1990; Delabie et al. 1995).These species of ants can be found everywhere inthe urban environment.

Fig. 2. Total number of each species of ants for every floor in the International House building.

Fig. 1. Total number of each species of ants for every floor in the H13, Bakti Permai building.


In this study, we also collected theCamponatus sp. and Odontoponera sp. althoughthese two genera are commonly known as outdoornesting ants. These ants were present in thebuilding probably because some ant speciesappear to wander randomly and others willprecisely trail one another from colony to foodsource and back to their nest.

The pavement ant (Tetramorium sp.), is alsoknown as an outdoor nesting ant. They commonlybuild their nest under rocks, at the edge ofpavements, doorstops and patios. Through ourobservations, we found that this ant species favorsbuilding their nest in the soil beneath crackedfloors of drain cements. Although a high numberof this ant was caught on the ground floor in bothbuildings, they were also caught on the seventhfloor in the H13 building. This species of antshave polygynous colonies and usually aggressive.They are also known for its aggressive behaviourtoward nest intruders, as well as other ant species.However, their presence in the H13 building hasnever affected other species that have establishedthemselves there, especially on the seventh floorsuch as the pharaoh ants and the big-headed ants.

The H13 building showed a higher number ofants compared to the IH building probablybecause the H13 building is older than the IHbuilding. Many ant colonies especially the trampant species such as M. pharaonis have alreadybeen established in this building. Some researchershave agreed that part of the success andpersistence of this ant undoubtedly relates to thebudding or splitting habits of the colonies(Nickerson et al. 2003). Numerous daughtercolonies were produced from the mother colonywhen a queen and a few workers establish a newcolony.

In the IH, P. longicornis, which can easily bedistinguished by their erratic movements, seems tobe the most successful species that has infested thebuilding. This species can act as a rapid colonizer.In addition, Lee et al. 2002 reported that this antspecies is frequently observed as the first antspecies to succeed in a newly constructed buildingor structure.

Observations throughout this study showedthat P. longiconis and M. pharaonis always buildtheir nest in cracks between wood and cementwalls in both buildings while the ghost ant, T.melanocephalum chooses to nest near a watersource in the building since they have highmoisture needs and often trails to sinks, washbasins, commodes and shower stalls. In the H13building, the nests of the ghost ants, T.melanocephalum, can only be found near the sink.Lee et al. (2002) once reported that this ant speciesthrives well in moist and warm kitchens.

Outdoors, the nest of this ant species arecommonly found in soil, under stones, logs,mulch, debris and other items (Nishimura et al.2005).

Although the results of this study shows thatthere were no ants caught in certain months aswell as on certain floors, it does not mean thatthere were no ants sighted. The ants still exist inthe building but they probably just ignore thefoods that were placed or in another situation,some ants did consume the food but in a shorttime and other ants were not recruited. Thisphenomenon occurred probably because of theabundance of other foods in the building.

Seasonal abundanceBiotic factor such as temperature, humidity,

vegetation type and soil characteristics affect themicrohabitat where a particular ant species willlive and how it will behave and subsequently, thedistribution and the rate of spread (Hooper et al.,2005).

The abundance of the six commoneststructure-infesting ants in H13 building revealedthat their abundant are differed in certain month(table 3). Monomorium pharaonis which appearedin thirteen months, showed a high abundant inApril (20.78%) when the relative humidity was atthe lowest and the temperature ranges between 30-31ºC during thirteen months of the study (Figure3). However, relative humidity did not affect theabundant of this ant (r =0.467, p>0.05).Paratrechina longicornis which appeared in twelvemonths, showed a high abundant in May(19.63%) and showed a great correlation withrelative humidity (r = -0.582, p<0.05). A numberof this ant species were at the highest when therelative humidity ranges between 72-74 %. Highestabundant of P. megacephala was recorded inNovember (30.52%) when the relative humidityand temperature reading were 85.1% and 27.6,respectively. As for T. melanocephalum, thehighest abundant recorded for this ant species wasin February (39.17%) and but did not correlatewith relative humidity. Finally, for both ofTechnomyrmex sp. and Tetramorium sp. showeda high abundant in August where 58.83% ofTechnomyrmex sp. and 20.46% of Tetramoriumsp. occurred during this month but onlyTechnomyrmex sp. was correlated to relativehumidity (r = 0.639, p<0.05) which means thenumber of this ant species peak when the relativehumidity was between 83-85%. None of the antspecies from H13 building showed correlation totemperature.

Seasonal abundance in IH for the threecommonest structure-infesting ants shows thathighly abundant of P. longicornis (10.44%) and


Table 3. The highest abundance of the commonest ant species over a period of 13 months in the two sites

Site Ant species Highest Monthabundance (%)

H13, M. pharaonis 20.78 AprilBakti Permai P. longicomis 19.63 May

P. megacephala 30.52 NovemberT. melanocephalum 39.17 FebruaryTechnomymex sp. 58.83 AugustTetramorium sp. 20.46 August

International M. pharaonis 35.75 MayHouse P. longicomis 10.44 May

Tetramonium sp. 30.81 April

Fig. 3. Annual changes of the six commonest ant species abundance from January 2005 untilJanuary 2006, in H13, Bakti Permai building.

M. pharaonis (35.75%) was in May as the meantemperature and relative humidity ranges between28-29 ºC and 83-84%, respectively (Figure 4).Next, the highest abundance of Tetramorium sp.recorded was in April with 30.81% of its totalappearance was in this month. Relative humidity

and temperature reading in this month was 85.4%and 27.4ºC. However, neither relative humiditynor temperature showed a correlation with theabundance of the ants in this building.

High number of P. longicornis in IH can befound especially at the center of each floor where


the rubbish bin is located and the food source isalways available. In this building, the crazy antbuilt their nest in the tile crack and in the smallcement hole. Thus, elimination of food sourcesand nest sites are equally important in themanagement of this ant. This building is not badlyinfested by the pharaoh ant since this is a newbuilding and the number of pharaoh ant was notas high as the crazy ant. Furthermore, crazy antmove very quickly without following trails asoften as other ants (Trager, 1984) so they canexploit food sources faster and longer than otherspecies of ants. This will influence the ant’sabundance and diversity (Hooper et al., 2005).

Thompson (1990) had reported that thepharaoh ants worker can forage 24 hours a dayand not deterred by hot weather. So, this mightbe the reason on why this ant species did not havea correlation with temperature in both H13 andIH buildings.

The abundance of structure-infesting ants notonly depends on temperature and humidity butalso depend on sanitation and food source. Thestudents were having their semester’s break inJune, July and October and H13 building has beencleaned. So, the ants lose their food sourceespecially near the sinks. Thus, the density of M.

pharaonis decreased during these months. Maybethis ant species migrated from the H13 buildingto another place where food source was available.According to Thompson (1990), food or watershortages, temperature extremes or over crowdingcan cause budding or migration. Hooper et al.(2005) added that resource availability and theability of ants to exploit resources faster andlonger also influence ant abundance and diversity.We believed this was the reason for some otherspecies like the crazy ant (P. longicornis)maintained their occurrence in the H13 buildingbecause the erratic and fast moving of the crazyant make them easier to exploit food source fasterthan any other species.

Food preferencesAnts eat a wide variety of foods, including

other insects, seeds, nectar, meats, greases, sugarsand honeydew. Although most ants consume awide variety of foods, certain species prefer sometypes of foods and some even change theirpreferences over time.

Table 4 shows the comparison of meannumber of ants caught by three types of food inH13 building. The mean number of M. pharaonisand P. longicornis, caught by strawberry jam per

Fig. 4. Annual changes of the three commonest ant species abundance from January 2005 untilJanuary 2006, in International House building.


IH building (F2,18 = 31.20, p<0.05). Tukey’smultiple comparison test further showed that thestrawberry jam seemed to be the most effective incatching ants compared to the other two food inboth building (p<0.05). Therefore, it can beconcluded that the type of food used influencesthe number of ants caught.

The result from the two building showed thatall of the ant species preferred the strawberry jammore than egg yolk powder and anchovy powder.This food was very attractive to the ants becauseit contains carbohydrate which is a primary sourceof energy that mainly taken by highly activeforagers (Sorensen, 1983). According toNishimura et al. (2005), in their researched onodorous house ant, they found that althoughhoneydew that produced by plant sap feedinginsects such as aphids and mealybugs are afavored food source for this ant species, it is theirsearch for sweets and proteins that often bringsthem into contact with humans therebyconstituting a nuisance pest.

months is higher than anchovy powder and eggyolk powder as well as any other species. Also,mean number of ants caught by strawberry jamof all species is obviously higher than anchovypowder and egg yolk powder. There are slightlydifference in the number of ants caught byanchovy powder and egg yolk powder of P.megacephala when compared to T.melanocephalum. This data shows that thestrawberry jam seem to be the most effective foodin catching ants compared to the other two typesof baits.

The result in IH building (Table 5) seems tobe similar as in H13 building. Mean number of P.longicornis caught by strawberry jam is the highestcompared to the other two food and the other twoant species. Anchovy recorded the lowest meannumber of ant caught of all species.

A two-way ANOVA determined that therewas a significant difference in the mean numberof ants of different species caught by the differentfood for H13 building (F2,36 = 22.40, p<0.05) and

Table 4. Comparison of mean number of ants of three types of food per months in H13 of BaktiPermai.(means ± SEM)

Ant speciesMean no. ants caught per sampling per months

Anchovy Egg yolk Strawberry jam(n=13) (n=13) (n=13)

M. pharaonis 56.85 ± 17.51a 84.23 ± 25.50a 202.69 ± 58.59bP. longicornis 30.38 ± 7.73a0 55.38 ± 20.43a 130.15 ± 28.74bP. megacephala 06.23 ± 2.24a0 06.15 ± 2.76a0 036.77 ± 14.64bT. melanocephalum 06.38 ± 4.77a0 06.61 ± 3.03a0 012.92 ± 6.53b0Technomyrmex sp. 08.07 ± 5.57a0 14.46 ± 8.66a0 023.62 ± 15.21bTetramorium sp. 05.00 ± 1.46a0 12.00 ± 3.49a0 022.85 ± 8.43b0

Means in each row followed by the same letter are not significantly different (p>0.05; Tukeys multiple comparison test);n = number of replicates.

Table 5. Comparison of mean number of ants of three types of food per months in International House(IH). (means ± SEM)

Ant speciesMean no. ants caught per sampling per months

Anchovy Egg yolk Strawberry jam(n=13) (n=13) (n=13)

M. pharaonis 01.08 ± 0.38a 04.92 ± 2.07a0 008.85 ± 4.02b0

P. longicornis 50.92 ± 6.87a 58.77 ± 10.52a 267.23 ± 23.26b

Tetramorium sp. 02.62 ± 0.88a 06.08 ± 2.72a0 005.46 ± 1.94b0

Means in each row followed by the same letter are not significantly different (p>0.05; Tukeys multiple comparison test);n=number of replicates.


Although egg yolk powder and anchovypowder was not that attractive to the ants, butthey still did not ignore the two foods completelybecause proteins are required by growing larvaeand egg-laying queens (Sorensen, 1983). Chong etal. (2002) found that the egg yolk was mostactively distributed to Pharaoh ant larvae andfeeding rates were higher in starved colonies. Ahigh number of brood (the immature ant) presentin their nest also affected the amount ofproteinaceous food taken by the worker ants. Theants will take more of proteinaceous food whenthere are many broods because protein is animportant growth component. At other times,they may ignore protein foods completely andrestrict their foraging to sugars and greases. Incurrent research, proteins were distributed tolarvae more than liquid lipid or carbohydrate food(Weeks et al., 2004).

Food preferences are often seasonal. Sorensenet al. (1983) said that the type of food brought in,the quantity and its distribution within the colonywill depend largely on; i) the nutritional needs ofthe colony, ii) division of labour iii) starvationlevels and iv) environmental factors.

Baiting is probably the best control strategyfor some ant species. However, this substanceshould be preferred by the ants. Knowing the foodhabits and the behavior of the particular antspecies is important in ant management becauseit may enable the location and elimination of thefood that is attracting the ants to the site, it canhelp to locate foraging trails to track the ants backto their nest, and it can help to choose an effectivebait. It will help to decide the control measuresneeded to suppress pest ant. Various chemicaltreatments have been used to eradicate some ofthe household ant populations. Many researcherssuggest that for colonies living in and aroundbuildings, residual insecticide should be used. Ifthey occupy a wall void or wood, injecting a dustor aerosol insecticide may be effective. Nishimuraet al. (2005) used Fipronil and Chlorfenapyr formanagement of odorous house ants in fieldevaluation and the result showed that aftertreatment with these two chemicals, antpopulations were controlled for at least 60 days.More recently, Bajomi et al. (2005) used S-methoprene baits in elimination of Pharaoh antin laboratory in Malaysia and Hungary and fieldevaluation in Nethelands and Hungary. The resultin laboratory evaluation in Malaysia andHungary showed a drastic reduction in antnumbers in colonies treated with this baitformulation as well as in field evaluation. Aboveall these, ants, like all pests, need food, water, andshelter to survive. By limiting these threeessentials, it will make it more difficult for ants to

live in the infested area. Simply by improvingsanitation we can often suppress existingpopulations and discourage new invasions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors thank the School of BiologicalSciences, USM, for the facilities provided for theresearch and the USM housing office for thepermission to conduct research in the studenthousing.

REFERENCES

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