The Forefront of Ant Bait Technology
SAGA has been recommended by industry experts to reduce populations of BOTH pugnacious and brown house ants in citrus by up to 80%, requiring only a follow-up application 12 weeks later if ant pressure persists.
Target: Pugnacious & Brown House Ants
Registered Crop: Citrus
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Benefits
Resistance
SAGA can be applied twice within a production season and fits seamlessly into an integrated resistance management programme, unlike certain other products that can only be used once per season.
Residues
The active ingredient in SAGA is not systemic—it is not absorbed into plant, stem, fruit, bark, or leaf tissue—ensuring no residue concerns for growers.
Efficacy
SAGA effectively controls ant populations and disrupts the food-for-protection relationship between ants and hemipteran pests. This creates a more favourable environment for natural enemies and biological control agents to thrive.
Specificity
SAGA’s site-specific application targets pest ant species while leaving beneficial ground-foraging ants unaffected. These beneficial species continue supporting pest management of soil-dwelling life stages, such as False Codling Moth (FCM).
Registration
The only product registered for the control of both pugnacious ants (Anoplolepis custodiens) and brown house ants (Pheidole megacephala) on citrus.
How Does It Work?
Apply SAGA when ants become active in spring or if their numbers increase during any other time of the season.
- Apply SAGA at 2.5-3kg per hectare (10g every second tree into the crotch of the tree, approximately 40-60cm from the base of the tree).
- Ants are attracted to feed on SAGA and once ingested, become lethargic within 24 hours, and die after 3-4 days.
- Delayed toxicity allows them to return to the colony and infect other members with SAGA.
Efficacy & Trial Data:
As SAGA is a registered product with Act 36 of 1947, substantial trial work was conducted to support the product registration.
The graph below illustrates SAGA’s performance compared to industry standards.
Percentage (%) ant reduction was measured in relation to an untreated control.
SAGA has been recommended by industry experts to reduce pugnacious and brown house ants in citrus by an average of up to 80% and only requires a follow-up application 12 weeks later if ant pressure persists.
Effectively controlling ants results in improved efficacy of natural enemies, which reduces the requirement for corrective spray applications for honeydew-producing hemipteran pests.