water, recruitment was significantly higher for both species in the worker number
treatment than for fire ants in the biomass treatment, but not significantly higher than
crazy ants in the biomass treatment. The sugar water recruitment in the biomass
treatment was not significantly different for the two species.
For competition colonies, species was again frequently a significant predictor.
Differences in recruitment abundances and recruitment and discovery times were also
strongly affected by species identity, as crazy ants had a higher total recruitment to both
sugar water and mealworms and recruited to sugar water and mealworms more quickly
than did fire ants (Table 3.1, Figures 3.3 and 3.4). Crazy ants also had higher numbers of
ants engaged in fights and in the other species’ nest box than did fire ants (Table 3.1,
Figure 3.5). However, mortality was not different between the two species in
competition (Table 3.1, Figure 3.1). Crazy ants were the only species at baits at the end
of the experiment significantly more often than fire ants (Table 3.1). Standardizing factor
was not significant for any of the response variables for competition colonies (Table 3.1).
All significant correlations between response variables are shown in Table 3.2. In
general, discovery and recruitment times between and within bait types were positively
correlated, and sugar water and mealworm recruitment abundances were positively
correlated. Sugar water and mealworm recruitment times were negatively correlated with
the recruitment abundances for these baits. Mealworm recruitment time was also
negatively correlated with mortality.
Crazy ant addition field experiment
On average, crazy ant recruitment increased through time, but not significantly so
(F4,i76= 1.683, p = 0.1559, Figure 3.6). There was a trend for crazy ant recruitment to be
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