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Science Explained/Brief
In laboratory food-choice tests, little fire ants overwhelmingly picked cooked beef and sunflower seeds over water-packed tuna, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa report. The result points to a possible change in how the pests are detected and baited.
Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa ran laboratory food-choice tests on the little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata, a tiny stinging pest. Offered cooked beef, sunflower seeds and water-packed tuna, the ants overwhelmingly chose the beef and the seeds.
The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Entomology. The authors' practical suggestion is that anyone trying to detect or bait the ants in a backyard might swap tuna for cooked beef and sunflower seeds.
Each line below is stated by the page named above it, and only by that page.
Stated by phys.org
This is a laboratory preference result, not a field demonstration that beef and seeds outperform tuna as bait in an actual backyard.
What the reporting says: In laboratory food-choice tests the ants "overwhelmingly chose cooked beef and sunflower seeds over water-packed tuna," and that the study was published in the Journal of Applied Entomology.
Found through monitored feeds: Phys.org. A feed address is how the desk finds a story, not the evidence for it — the sources listed above are the pages the facts were taken from.
How this story was checked. Written from the 1 page listed above, stored 15 September 2026; claims checked against that stored text on 15 September 2026.