Guidelines to Reduce Invasive Fire Ant Interference of Small Mammal Trapping

ABSTRACT Methods to study small mammals often involve using baited live traps. Bait choice can affect detection of target and nontarget species. Red imported fire ants ( Solenopsis invicta ) consume bait and potentially prey upon small mammals in these traps. To address this issue, we set up an experiment evaluating which combinations of five bait types and ant spray influenced ant presence. We set up 200 live traps in 5 × 10 arrays across four sandhill sites. Traps were randomly assigned a bait type ( n = 40) and half were sprayed with insecticide (perimeter and underneath) to serve as a control ( n = 100). We checked traps over a 4‐day period, recording ant presence and small mammal captures. Ant presence significantly decreased with insecticide, and diluted vanilla spray had the lowest ant presence irrespective of ant spray. This study offers a solution to deter fire ants when trapping small mammals, even where chemical use is discouraged.