In New Orleans, termite baits round out historic decor, lying in wait behind Victorian velvet settees, beneath Persian rugs.
You can use termite-baiting control methods or a liquid termite-killing product.
Firstly, we compared the rate of fishing and tool-modification behaviors in the Baseline phase to (a) the days on which the termite mound was baited (Bait sessions) and (b) days within the experimental phase when the termite mound was not baited (Control sessions).
The chimpanzees performed more tool modification when the termite mound was baited (Bait) than during the Baseline (Wilcoxon's signed-ranks test, T+ = 21.0, N = 7, P = 0.028) or Control (T+ = 0.00, N = 7, P = 0.028) sessions.
Comparable with their tool-modification behaviors, the chimpanzees performed more probing behaviors when the termite mound was baited (Bait) than during the Baseline (Wilcoxon's signed-ranks test, T+ = 28.0, N = 7, P = 0.018) or Control (T+ = 0.00, N = 7, P = 0.018) sessions.
I'd grown up in a family pest control business, and my older brothers were already scuttling into crawl spaces in search of termites and baiting rodent stations as they fought for succession.
Expanding upon a previous study, which had investigated the learning of tool-use behavior by chimpanzees [Lonsdorf et al., 2009], our data focused on the specific elements of their tool-modification behaviors and suggest that the chimpanzees only modified their probe tools when it was functionally relevant to do so (i.e. when the artificial termite mound was baited with food).
The period when the termite mound was baited extended beyond this period but because the Baseline lasted for two months (see below), for this analysis we only include the chimpanzees' responses in the first two months of the baited phase to enable a clearer comparison across the two periods.
Unlike traditional termite control measures these bait devices do not rely on pouring toxic chemicals into the earth.
The pesticides had names like "Fuzhou Control Termite Company Cockroach Killer Bait" and "The Cat Be Unemployed," the name emblazoned on a bright yellow label with an illustration of a pleased-looking white cat.
