Meat ant (Iridomyrmex sanguineus) 5-8 mm CONTROL red, brown, orange or purple head and thorax with a green-black abdomen. Hygiene Nests are usually entered through holes in bare ground and are more common in drier areas. The number of ants may be greatly reduced by Meat ants will feed on dead insects, lizards or removing their food source. Kitchen scraps any animal material in the back yard. These ants should be disposed properly and benches wiped attack intruders along their trails or near their down with detergent after every meal. Outdoor nest. species including green ants, ginger and meat ants are often attracted to pet food. If the pet food is placed in a larger, shallow saucer of water this will prevent the ants from gaining access to the food and the colony will move away. Baits Iridomyrmex When the food source is removed but the ants still remain, they may be baited with a chemical Darwin Bull Ant (Odontomachus tumeri ) 7- incorporated into a known food source for that 10 mm, red to light brown head and thorax particular species. Boron (in the form of boric with a dark abdomen. acid powder) may be nuxed with honey for ants These ants are one of the largest in the Darwin feeding on a sugar diet or mixed with tinned pet area. They have huge mandibles (tooth-like food for those feeding on a high protein or meat jaws) which they use to attack their prey. Stings diet. A ready-prepared product called “Ant- from these ants can be very painful and may rid®” (honey solution with boron present as cause local swelling. Disodium Tetraborate Decahydrate) may be used around the household to control Paratrechina, Monomorium and Tapinoma. Severe problems with green ants may be controlled with tinned pet food mixed with boric acid powder (approximately 6 g of boric acid to 200 g of tin meat) or alternatively with the chemical chlorpyrifos (use rate recommended for bait application on the label or0.5mlof480 g/L concentrate of chlorpyrifos to 10 g of food). Baiting may need to be repeated after two weeks when treating large colonies. This baiting procedure may be used to control Ants That “Farm” Other Insects other species including ginger ants, meat ants and bull ants. Several species of ants may be associated with scales, plant hoppers or mealy bugs which they “farm” by transfering them from one plant to Baiting is generally more effective than applying another. These ants use the bugs’ sugary insecticide sprays since the bait is carried back secretions as an alternate food source. This to the nest by worker ants and the whole colony problem is commonly seen on palms, hibiscus, is removed. fiddle wood trees and other ornamentals..