No abstract

No abstract

Urban ants cause many losses to human society, and they represent a potential threat to public health in hospital environments due to their ability to transport pathogenic organisms. We evaluated several ecological parameters (richness, abundance, constancy, and evenness), their fluctuation during the seasons, and identified species that occur outside the natural range of the ant fauna of a hospital environment, as support for future management strategies. Ant sampling was held every 2 months by using attractive bait traps in the morning and evening, leading to the sampling of 10,342 individuals belonging to six subfamilies and 26 species. Myrmicinae showed higher richness (n = 12) and abundance (n = 7336), with Pheidole susannae Forel being the most abundant species. The most constant species (100%) were P. susannae and Tetramorium simillimum (Smith). Among the most abundant species, Monomorium floricola (Jerdon) and Tapinoma melanocephalum (Fabricius) are considered as species that occur outside the natural range. No difference was observed between species richness and abundance. The Shannon (2.247), dominance (0.1395) and evenness indices (0.6897) indicated a stability of the community throughout the year with high diversity and low dominance of species. The sampled data constitute a new series of information on a long-term ecological approach to support future management strategies in hospital environments and allow for more efficient pest control.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Ants of the Solenopsis genus are considered one of the main pests in the urban environment, where they cause accidents with humans and animals due to their stings. Because they are invasive in most environments, these ants are difficult to control. Thus, this study aimed to describe a control methodology using a smoke spray and to evaluate its effectiveness in the field in the fire ants colonies. The study was conducted in a condominium in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil, from July 2016 to October 2018. The equipment used for the control of ants was adapted from the "Smoke-type sprayer", which, through a hose injected the product into the colonies. After the control, monitoring was carried out throughout the area, in order to record the situation of the