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Title: Acoustical tree evaluation of Coptotermes Formosanus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) with imidacloprid and noviflumeron in historic Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

Author
item Osbrink, Weste
item Cornelius, Mary

Submitted to: Sociobiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/2/2013
Publication Date: 2/5/2013
Citation: Osbrink, W.L., Cornelius, M.L. 2013. Acoustical tree evaluation of Coptotermes Formosanus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) with imidacloprid and noviflumeron in historic Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana. Sociobiology. 60(1):77-95.

Interpretive Summary: Seven trees in Jackson Square, New Orleans, LA were treated by drilling and foaming their inside with imidacloprid termite treatments. These trees were monitored with an acoustical listening device for termite activity for 9 years. Termite activity was reduced but not eliminated. Additionally, 93 trees in Jackson Square, New Orleans, LA were in an area in which noviflumuron termite bait was applied for 2 years. There was no significant decrease in the number of trees with high termite activity, but there was a significant increase in the number of trees with no termite activity. It appears that of the numerous termite colonies in the area, the bait killed those colonies which fed on the bait but that there we colonies which survived by not feeding on the bait.

Technical Abstract: Nine years of periodic acoustical monitoring of 93 trees active with Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, evaluated imidacloprid tree foam and noviflumuron bait on activity in trees. Long term, imidacloprid suppressed but did not eliminate termite activity in treated trees. Noviflumuron bait did not significantly reduce the proportion of trees with high termite activity but significantly increased the number of trees with no termite activity. Noviflumuron changed termite distribution by possibly eliminating only some fraction of numerous colonies whereby surviving colonies avoided trees containing dead termites.