Abstract

HAHN-SCHLAM, Federico  and  BOLANOS-SANCHE, Claudia. Light pulses flashed to Atta cephalotes face for control in fruit trees. Ing. agric. biosist. [online]. 2023, vol.15, n.1, pp.37-55.  Epub Mar 08, 2024. ISSN 2007-4026.  https://doi.org/10.5154/r.inagbi.2022.05.045.

Introduction: Worker ants follow paths to fed their nest and their eyes require to adapt themselves under light intensity variations.Objective: Study the effect of different illumination techniques in a trail and force ants to change of trajectory before feeding from a tree. Methodology: Ants walking through a trail were illuminated by one of three different ways: light fed from the top L300 arrays, light reflected by a mirror or by a precise eye flashing system. Frequency, pulse-width and light intensity were controlled studying as variables collision, adaptation time and recovery time. Results: The precise illuminator at 300 lx never damaged the ant visual system. As it was increased to 900 lx the forerunner ant collided and presented adaptation problems up to 1169 s. It was pushed to the trail end by another ant. When two ants collided they finished returning to the trail entrance. Study limitations: The reflected mirror system is useful at laboratory level, but its application is dependent on ant size and speed. Originality: The system was able to determine a lightning system to ensure that ants do not climb fruit trees. L300 arrays are economic and practical to optimize its use in field. Conclusions: Light affects ants as they travel through the trail. A L300 array placed horizontally at the trail-end, diverted ants’ direction from the main path in all the tests. It is dependent on light intensity, frequency and pulse-width.

Keywords : fruit tree ant control; Atta cephalotes; precise-LED stimulation; dark-adaptation.

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