NDLI: The negative effect of wood ant presence on tick abundance

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Zingg, Silvia Dolle, Patrick Voordouw, Maarten Jeroen Kern, Maren
Abstract	Background Ticks and tick-borne pathogens are a global problem for the health of humans and their livestock. Wood ants are important ecosystem engineers in forests worldwide. Although both taxa are well studied, little is known about their interactions under natural conditions. The purpose of the present field study was to test whether European red wood ants (Formica polyctena) influence the abundance of Ixodes tick populations in temperate forests. Methods Data collection took place in 130 sampling plots located at 26 ant nest sites paired with 26 control sites in northwestern Switzerland. At each sampling plot, tick abundance, ant abundance, ant nest volume and habitat variables (describing litter, vegetation and microclimate) were measured. We used linear mixed-effect models to analyze the abundance of questing ticks as a function of ant abundance and habitat variables. Results Ant nest volume, rather than the presence of ants, had a significant negative effect on tick abundance. The number of ticks decreased from 11.2 to 3.5 per 100 m2 if the volume of the adjacent ant nest increased from 0.1 m3 to 0.5 m3. Additionally, high vegetation cover and litter depth had negative and positive relationships with tick abundance, respectively. Conclusions We showed that the number of questing ticks was negatively correlated with the size of red wood ant nests. Further studies are needed to identify the mechanisms that drive the relationship. Possible mechanisms include the repellent effect of ant formic acid, and the predatory behavior of wood ants. The present field study suggests that red wood ants provide a new ecosystem service by reducing the local abundance of Ixodes ticks.
Related Links	https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s13071-018-2712-0.pdf
Ending Page	9
Page Count	9
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	17563305
DOI	10.1186/s13071-018-2712-0
Journal	Parasites & Vectors
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	11
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2018-03-15
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Parasitology Entomology Tropical Medicine Infectious Diseases Veterinary Medicine Veterinary Science Virology Formica polyctena Ants Biological pest control Ecosystem services Ixodidae Ticks Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Veterinary Infectious Diseases Parasitology
Journal Impact Factor	3/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.3/2023

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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