Cornell hackathon winner aims at driver ants with pheromone mist

Cornell students have taken the top prize in the university’s 2026 Digital Agriculture Hackathon with a concept that targets driver ants, a serious pest for beekeepers and other agricultural operations across parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Their proposed solution is a pheromone-based misting system that would misdirect ants away from beehives without killing them or adding broader ecological harm, according to Cornell’s March 4 announcement. (news.cornell.edu)

The idea emerged from student experiences connected to the Jane Goodall Institute, where they saw the consequences of driver ant infestations in wildlife settings. One team member, Ava Cabble, said sanctuaries had used gasoline barriers to deter ants, a practice she described as both temporary and risky in wildfire-prone areas. Cornell said the students want to begin with beekeepers as an initial market, using that revenue model to support lower-cost deployment for subsistence farmers and, eventually, installations at wildlife sanctuaries. (news.cornell.edu)

The project came out of Cornell’s Digital Ag hackathon, held February 27 to March 1, 2026, in Ithaca, New York, and organized through Entrepreneurship at Cornell and the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture. Cornell said 116 students participated, supported by roughly 50 mentors, and tackled challenges spanning controlled-environment agriculture, climate-smart agriculture, circular agrifood systems, digital innovation, and One Health. That framing matters here: the winning concept sits at the intersection of entomology, pollinator health, wildlife protection, and practical farm management. (news.cornell.edu)

There’s a real-world problem behind the concept. Published research and beekeeping literature describe ants, including driver ants in the genus Dorylus, as important predators and stressors for honey bee colonies in parts of Africa. A recent multi-country study on sub-Saharan African colony losses said ants and other minor apicultural pests can account for substantial losses in some settings, while other literature specifically describes driver ants attacking brood, adult bees, and hive stores. Traditional prevention methods cited in the literature include grease, waste oil, ash, and physical barriers on hive stands, underscoring the need for safer and more durable alternatives. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Expert reaction on this specific Cornell concept appears limited so far, which is typical for an early-stage hackathon project rather than a peer-reviewed product launch. Still, Cornell organizers emphasized that students were pushed to identify real industry pain points and build around them. That suggests the value proposition may be less about the novelty of using pheromone biology in principle, and more about adapting it into a deployable deterrent system for settings where current ant control is crude, labor-intensive, or environmentally risky. That last point is partly an inference based on the project description and the control methods described in the beekeeping literature. (news.cornell.edu)

Why it matters: Veterinary professionals may not see this as a conventional companion animal story, but it lands squarely in the broader animal health brief. Pollinators are part of food-animal production systems, and the same ant pressure described by the Cornell team can also affect poultry operations, wildlife sanctuaries, and surrounding ecosystems. A non-lethal deterrent, if it works, would align with the profession’s growing focus on prevention, ecological stewardship, and One Health interventions that reduce harm to non-target species. It also reflects how veterinary schools are increasingly involved in cross-disciplinary innovation, not just therapeutics and diagnostics. (news.cornell.edu)

There’s also a practical signal here for industry watchers: hackathons are becoming a feeder system for early animal health and ag-tech ideas. Cornell’s event portfolio now includes dedicated animal health and digital agriculture programs, and the university explicitly positions some projects for commercialization. That doesn’t mean this ant-deterrence system is close to market, but it does mean the concept has entered a pipeline where prototype development, partner outreach, and field testing are plausible next steps. (hackathon.cornell.edu)

What to watch: Watch for any follow-on pilot work with beekeepers, sanctuary partners, or the Jane Goodall Institute, as well as evidence that the pheromone approach can be manufactured, targeted, and validated in the field without disrupting bees or other beneficial insects. (news.cornell.edu)