Granular Insect Bait Acceptance Testing for Eurasian Mealworms, Opatroides punctulatus

We tested, earlier, two insect baits, Maxforce Quantum Ant Bait, and Maxforce Complete Granular Insect Bait to see if the Eurasian mealworms would eat them. See the food preference videos located here.  The mealworms showed no interest in Quantum Ant Bait, but readily accepted the Maxforce Complete Granular Insect Bait.

We wanted to test more granular insect baits, and contacted John Woodward, of Geotech Supply, in Sacramento, who graciously sent us samples of two more baits, Advance 375A Granular Ant Bait, and Advion Insect Granules. In addition, we had Niban Granular Bait in stock, and I took all three baits to the Springfield Road jobsite for testing, on 13 August 2018, at night.

As a control, we used rolled oats, a food we had previously found the Eurasian mealworms readily accepted.  We set up six side-by-side choice tests, with the three baits and rolled oats, and videoed the responses over about an hour.

Overall, it seemed that the Eurasian mealworms accepted Advance 375 best, followed closely by Niban, with Advion the least popular bait.  We’d previously shown that Maxforce Compete was well accepted.

We could state something like this: (Maxforce Complete=Advance 375=Niban) > Advion. That is, it appears any of the first three would give good results, and then, if needed, one of the other baits could be used later, if needed.

These tests were only to examine how well the baits were accepted by the Eurasian mealworms, not the overall degree of control. Hopefully, we will run those tests soon.

Thank you to Dr. Doug and Sheri Fleming for allowing us to run these tests at their home, and to John Woodward of Geotech Supply for the donation of the insect baits.