Aspartame-based Sweetener as a Strong Ant Poison: Falsifying an Urban Legend?

Authors

  • Jouni Sorvari University of Turku
  • Marja-Katariina Haatanen University of Turku

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v59i2.598

Keywords:

ants, artificial sweetener, black garden ant, hoax, Lasius niger, pest control

Abstract

Information about the usability of artificial sweeteners, mainly aspartame, for controlling pest ants has spread widely in the internet. With a laboratory experiment we tested the effect of an aspartame based sweetener on the mortality of the black garden ant Lasius niger, a common pest ant in kitchens in Europe. The aspartame-based sweetener was added to the laboratory jelly food of ants in the experimental group (16 colonies). The control group (14 colonies) received otherwise similar jelly but without the aspartame-based sweetener. During the 35 day period of experiment we did not find any signs of aspartame induced mortality in tested ants. In addition, 135 colony founding L. niger queens were submerged in a sweetener solution (artificial sweetener + distilled water) and 135 queens were submerged in distilled water (control). The overall mortality was very low (<1.5%) and no between-group differences in mortality were found within 24 and 96 hours. Our results strongly oppose the rumors that aspartame sweeteners are effective as an ant poison, at least with a typical dose of household aspartame products.

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Author Biography

Marja-Katariina Haatanen, University of Turku

Department of Biology, Section of Ecology, FI-20014 University of Turku, Finland

References

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Published

2014-09-25

How to Cite

Sorvari, J., & Haatanen, M.-K. (2014). Aspartame-based Sweetener as a Strong Ant Poison: Falsifying an Urban Legend?. Sociobiology, 59(2), 343–350. https://doi.org/10.13102/sociobiology.v59i2.598

Issue

Vol. 59 No. 2 (2012)

Section

Articles

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