Baited ant pottles
This is a very simple method for rapidly determining changes in the relative abundance of an invasive species, such as Argentine ants, following control programmes. It can also be used for intense surveillance for invasive ant species over areas deemed to have a high risk of ant incursion. Small plastic pottles are baited with a dab of both a carbohydrate bait and a protein bait (raspberry jam and uncooked sausage meat is a good combination) or a non-toxic version of Xstinguish ant bait. If the trial is used to determine the effectiveness of an Xstinguish poisoning operation we would caution against the use of a non-toxic version of the same bait in case there is any sort of bait avoidance effect in recently poisoned populations (although we have no evidence that this occurs). The pottles are left open and on their sides along a transect (or grid pattern) for about 3 hours. They are then picked up, quickly tapped on a hard surface to catch ants attempting to climb out, and the cap screwed on. Ants are identified and counted back at the lab.