Push‐pull to manage leaf‐cutting ants: an effective strategy in forestry plantations

Perri, Daiana; Gorosito, Norma; Schilman, Pablo E.; Casaubon, Edgardo; Dávila, Camila; Fernández, Paula Virginia

doi:10.1002/ps.6036

Cited by 10 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Leaf‐cutting ants are a major factor in forest restoration failure in the neotropical systems in particular (Garcia et al 2020 and references therein). They have traditionally been controlled with insecticides and fungicides, but there are currently relevant advances in the use of more environmentally friendly methods such as those based on plant extracts or push‐pull strategies (Della Lucia et al 2020; Perri et al 2021).…”

Section: Precision Forest Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precision restoration: a necessary approach to foster forest recovery in the 21st century

Castro

Morales‐Rueda

Reyes

et al. 2021

Restoration Ecology

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Forest restoration is currently a primary objective in environmental management policies at a global scale, to the extent that impressive initiatives and commitments have been launched to plant billions of trees. However, resources are limited and the success of any restoration effort should be maximized. Thus, restoration programs should seek to guarantee that what is planted today will become an adult tree in the future, a simple fact that, however, usually receives little attention. Here, we advocate for the need to focus restoration efforts on an individual plant level to increase establishment success while reducing negative side effects by using an approach that we term “precision forest restoration” (PFR). The objective of PFR will be to ensure that planted seedlings or sowed seeds will become adult trees with the appropriate landscape configuration to create functional and self‐regulating forest ecosystems while reducing the negative impacts of traditional massive reforestation actions. PFR can take advantage of ecological knowledge together with technologies and methodologies from the landscape scale to the individual‐plant scale, and from the more traditional, low‐tech approaches to the latest high‐tech ones. PFR may be more expensive at the level of individual plants, but will be more cost‐effective in the long term if it allows for the creation of resilient forests able to provide multiple ecosystem services. PFR was not feasible a few years ago due to the high cost and low precision of the available technologies, but it is currently an alternative that might reformulate a wide spectrum of ecosystem restoration activities.

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Section: Precision Forest Restorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precision restoration: a necessary approach to foster forest recovery in the 21st century

Castro

Morales‐Rueda

Reyes

et al. 2021

Restoration Ecology

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“…& Arn.) Krapov., also preferred by LCA and bees; and others like I. pseudacorus consumed by LCA, but not palatable for livestock (Perri et al, 2020). In addition, allowing native and exotic spontaneous vegetation to grow between planting lines would help to provide an alternative substrate for the fungus of LCA, as well as food and cover for various herbivorous species, and some natural enemies (Araújo et al, 2003; Vasconcelos & Cherrett, 1995; Zanetti et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hieron, Acacia caven (Molina) Molina, Panicum grumosum Nees, Ludwigia elegans (Cambess.) Hara) and exotic (e.g., Phytolacca americana L., Lonicera japonica Thunb., Gleditsia triacanthos L., Fumaria capreolata L., Rubus fruticosus L., Ligustrim sinense Lour., Sonchus oleraceus L., Carduus acanthoides L., Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten., Iris pseudacorus L.) vegetation, characteristic of the lower delta of the Paraná River (Kandus et al, 2006; Perri et al, 2020). Inside each block, vegetation was periodically cut to avoid LCA using it as a bridge to overcome barriers and access to foliage.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The average damage percentages of each clone with (solid black lines) and without (dashed black lines) LCA exclusion over the first 3 years are shown in each frame. CONTROL = with LCA access (no physical barrier), EXCLUSION = with LCA exclusion (physical barrier to exclude ant access) americana L., Lonicera japonica Thunb., Gleditsia triacanthos L., Fumaria capreolata L., Rubus fruticosus L., Ligustrim sinense Lour., Sonchus oleraceus L., Carduus acanthoides L., Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten., Iris pseudacorus L.) vegetation, characteristic of the lower delta of the Paraná River (Kandus et al, 2006;Perri et al, 2020). Inside each block, vegetation was periodically cut to avoid LCA using it as a bridge to overcome barriers and access to foliage.…”

Section: Experimental Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long‐term quantification of leaf‐cutting ant damage in willow forestations in the lower delta of the Paraná River, Argentina

Jiménez

Farji‐Brener

Calcaterra

2022

Agri and Forest Entomology

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Leaf‐cutting ants are major pests of Neotropics forest plantations. The lower delta of the Paraná River contains the main Argentine Salicaceae production, strongly attacked by Acromyrmex lundii and Acromyrmex ambiguus. Nevertheless, there is no damage quantification in willow plantations attributed to leaf‐cutting ant species. In an area without leaf‐cutting ant control, we installed 15 blocks with eight willow stakes each: four clones × two treatments; with and without leaf‐cutting ant exclusion. We used two traditional (Americano, Nigra 4) and two new (Géminis, Yaguareté) commercial clones. During 2014–2018, we measured the damaged foliage, height and diameter of each tree. Foliage was damaged intensely during the first 2 years. After 1537 days, the loss in height and diameter was greater in Americano (70%), followed by Géminis (50%–60%), Yaguareté (40%–50%) and Nigra 4 (45%–40%). Stake survival with exclusion was greater (>80%) than stakes without exclusion (<50%). Total loss of wood volume was 93% for Americano, followed by Géminis (77%), Yaguareté (66%) and Nigra 4 (51%). Although the new clones were heavily attacked, they produced two to three times more wood volume than Americano; replacing Americano with the new clones would help to reduce leaf‐cutting ants impact on plantations and pesticides released into the environment.

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“…Attractants and repellents could be combined in an IPM strategy termed push-pull, which involves the manipulation of ant foraging behavior by integrating stimuli that turns crops unsuitable or unattractive to the insect pest (push) and simultaneously attracts them towards another resource (pull) from where the pest is subsequently removed (Cook et al 2007). Although the use of repellents and attractants separately can have low effectiveness, they have been proven particularly useful when used together in a push-pull system avoiding leaf-cutting ants to attack forestations in the Delta area of Río de la Plata (Perri et al 2017(Perri et al , 2021.…”

Section: ₆₁₂ Ag F��-b�� mentioning

confidence: 99%

Act locally, think globally: Ant studies in Argentina in the context of ecological theory

et al. 2022

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A��.Building and testing general principles is key to accelerate scientific progress. Here, we review the studies performed in Argentina in which ants were used as model organisms, in the context of ecological theories, hypotheses and concepts. Specifically, we focus on ant studies performed under the conceptual frameworks of ecological engineering, indirect interactions, seed dispersal, community assembly rules, biological invasions and integrated pest management. Those studies contributed to 1) supporting the concept of ecological engineers through the study of the physical changes in the environment caused by ants through the building and maintenance of their nests, and their consequences on other organisms such as soil biota, plants and herbivores; 2) questioning the convergence hypothesis, which proposes that independently assembled communities in similar, but geographically distant habitats converge in composition and functioning under similar environmental pressures; 3) showing that directed seed dispersal is an important process to increase plant performance in desert ecosystems; 4) understanding the type of control which prevails in communities (top-down or bo�om-up); 5) emphasizing the relevance of indirect interactions in the structure and functioning of ecosystems with examples of trophic cascades, indirect facilitation, exploitative competition and trait-mediated effects; 6) a be�er understanding of the causes of success or failure of biological invasions, via the study of the behavioral and demographic characteristics of invasive ant species in their native area, and the role of biotic resistance and mutualism facilitation; and 7) exploring the concept of integrated pest management via the study of the use of natural enemies, repellents and a�ractants, and the knowledge about the feeding and foraging behavior of pests. This body of work reinforces the key role of ants as model organisms to test ecological hypotheses and highlights the importance of using conceptual frameworks as guidance to be�er understand the complexity of natural systems.

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Push‐pull to manage leaf‐cutting ants: an effective strategy in forestry plantations

Cited by 10 publications

References 43 publications

Precision restoration: a necessary approach to foster forest recovery in the 21st century

Precision restoration: a necessary approach to foster forest recovery in the 21st century

Long‐term quantification of leaf‐cutting ant damage in willow forestations in the lower delta of the Paraná River, Argentina

Act locally, think globally: Ant studies in Argentina in the context of ecological theory

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