The effect of nutrient compounds (sugars and amino-acids) on balt consumption by Reticulitermes spp. (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Nutrient compounds (sugars, amino acids, and uric acid) were applied to paper baits to determine their ability to influence subterranean termite (Reticulitermes spp.) consumption in laboratory bioassays. In choice tests subterranean termites consumed significantly more paper treated with 0.01 M or 0.1 M solutions of fructose, galactose, glucose, raffinose, sucrose, and trehalose. Several of the amino acids tested significantly deterred feeding at the 0.1 M concentration. However, uric acid was found to significantly increase feeding at the 0.001 M concentration. Nutrients that stimulated significantly higher or lower levels of consumption in the choice bioassays were evaluated further in no-choice tests. The purpose of the no-choice evaluation was to determine if those nutrients that had significantly influenced termite feeding were simply preferred (or not preferred) or were actually true phagostimulants (or feeding deterrents) causing termites to eat significantly more (or less) of the nutrient treated baits than they would of a control bait. No-choice evaluations determined that termite consumption of nutrient treated baits was not significantly different from that of the control baits, indicating that subterranean termites found all of the baits equally palatable if they were not given a choice. While none of the nutrients tested were found to be true termite phagostimulants or feeding deterrents, choice tests determined that several of the sugars and uric acid would stimulate preferential feeding in the presence of a competing food resource.