1. Ant Repellent Properties of Plant Extracts Seloini Valu Biology 493

2. Introduction Ants are the number one pest:  Damage plants  Affect health of humans  Destroy equipments

3. Introduction cont. Ants inhabiting plants (Holldobler & Wilson 1990):  Beneficial:  Protection from other insects  Disperse seeds  Harmful:  Cause disease to the plant  Prevent pollination

4. Introduction cont. Plants defend against pathogens and herbivores (Croteau et al. 2000) Mint family have monoterpenoids (Rice & Coats 1994):  Effective pest control

5. Introduction cont. Previous studies:  Use peppermint (Mentha piperata) to protect stored wheat grain against the grain weevil and rice weevil (Ignatowicz 1997)  Repel grain weevil  Peppermint have strong repellent properties against mosquitoes (Anasari et al. 2000)  Paticularly Anopheles cuicifacies  Cause malaria

6. Introduction cont. Previous studies cont.:  Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) was tested for ovicidal activity (Berger et al. 2000)  Insects have limited ovicidal activity  Use spearmint (Mentha spicata) and pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) against green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) (Hori 1999)  Spearmint inhibit sucking activity and repel aphid  Pennyroyal have sucking inhibitory

7. Introduction cont. Pheidole megacephala attack the eggs but not the adult pest  Household and agricultural pests

8. Purpose The purpose of this study was to use peppermint (M. piperata), spearmint (M. spicata), pennyroyal (M. pulegium), and rosemary (R. officinalis) to see if they have any repellent properties against big-headed ants (Pheidole megacephala)

9. Methods Peppermint (M. piperata)

10. Methods cont. Rosemary (R. officinalis)

11. Methods cont. Spearmint (M. spicata)

12. Methods cont. Pennyroyal (M. pulegium)

13. Methods cont. Five grams of leaves were ground with 15 ml of 100% ethanol  Centrifuge for five minutes  Supernatant poured into a graduate cylinder  Distilled water was added to make 25 ml of solution

14. Methods cont. Three 20 cm X 20 cm of shelf paper  Two controls  Not sprayed  Spray with 15 ml of 100% ethanol and 10 ml of distilled water  One sprayed with the extract Papers were dried for one hour Five grams of oil-packed tuna were placed on the paper

15. Methods cont. Counts were taken every 5 minutes for 30 minutes Numbers were analyzed using a Student t- Test for each extract

16. Results

17. Results cont.

21. Conclusion Spearmint and peppermint have limited repellency Pennyroyal have the strongest repellent properties

22. Acknowledge Dr. Robert Winget MSC faculty and staff My family and friends