“Eternal Youth Kills Ants”, 1982-07-07 (; backlinks; similar):
The Department of Agriculture is now claiming considerable success [in red fire ant eradication] with a new chemical that may work where insecticides failed. The substance, called MV-678, is a synthetic that mimics the ant’s own juvenile hormones. It is dangerous, the department says, only to insects, and a “very narrow” range of insects at that. It does not kill the ants, but retards their growth until the ant society collapses.
…At first, the immature ants dosed with MV-678 by their nursemaids developed into malformed sexually mature ants, but later failed to develop at all, remaining in the juvenile stage—and staying home in the nest. Without the next crop of workers to feed it, the colony dies, the department reported; success was claimed in abolishing 80–90% of fire ant colonies with 2 applications of the hormone.