A review of chemical control options for invasive social insects in island ecosystems

Isolated island habitats have different concerns about invasive and alien species than connected continental areas, including wariness of transgressions against quarantine regulations and the protection of native species with limited geographic range (OTA 1993; Thaman 2002). Given the elevated threat of the establishment of species with ecologies unlike endemic taxa, large-scale control measures, both chemicaland biocontrol-based, for established invasive species have been portrayed as environmentally unappealing. Recent advances in physiology, synthetic and formulation chemistry and ecology, have provided effective alternatives to more persistent broad-spectrum control compounds and highlighted the role chemicals can play in the management and control of alien eusocial insects, in particular with the introduction of bait systems and an increased understanding of colony structure. Islands, estuaries and coastal areas respond differently to pesticides than do continental areas, due in