Advancement on techniques for the separation and maintenance of the red imported fire ant colonies

Advancement has recently been made on the techniques for separating and maintaining colonies of red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren. A new brood rescue method significantly improved the efficiency in separating colony from mound soil. Furthermore, a new method was developed to separate brood from the colony using fire ant repellants. Finally, a cost‐effective method was developed to coat containers with diluted Fluon® (AGC Chemicals America, Inc, Moorestown, NJ, USA), an aqueous polytetrafluoroethylene, to prevent housed ants from escaping a container. Usually the original Fluon® solution is directly applied to the wall of the containers. Reduced concentrations of Fluon® were found to be equally effective in preventing ant escape. The use of diluted Fluon® solutions to coat the containers was recommended because of environmental and cost‐saving benefits. Application of these new techniques can significantly reduce labor, cost and environmental contamination. This review paper collates all the new techniques in one reference which readers can use as a manual.