TY - JOUR JF - Acarologia T1 - First evidence of predation of the ant species Lasius alienus on the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae VL - 61 IS - 1 SP - 115 EP - 120 PY - 2021 SN - 0044-586X SN - 2107-7207 PB - Les Amis d'Acarologia AU - Kar, Sirri AU - Akyildiz, Gurkan AU - Sirin, Deniz AU - Rodriguez, Sergio E. AU - Camlitepe, Yilmaz UR - https://doi.org/10.24349/acarologia/20214420 DO - 10.24349/acarologia/20214420 DA - 2021-02-05 ET - 2021-02-05 KW - poultry red mite KW - Dermanyssus gallinae KW - Lasius alienus KW - predator KW - ants AB - The poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae (De Geer, 1778) (Acari: Dermanyssidae), is a common and significant ectoparasite of the poultry industry worldwide. Although various biological, chemical, and physical methods have been attempted, an utterly successful control strategy has not been put forward yet. Our experimental investigations and observations revealed that the ant species Lasius alienus displays an effective predatory behavior on all biological stages of PRM. Our results also suggested that L. alienus is attracted by PRM-infested substrate at a distance. We concluded that predation by the ant on PRM is worth further investigation as it could possibly be an effective biological control strategy. ER -