Cornell hackathon winner targets driver ants with pheromone mist

Cornell students won the $3,000 grand prize at the 2026 Digital Agriculture Hackathon with a concept aimed at one of the more destructive ant threats in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia: driver ants. The team, inspired by work with the Jane Goodall Institute, proposed a pheromone-based misting system that would misdirect ants away from targets such as beehives without relying on environmentally risky deterrents like gasoline. Cornell said the team sees commercial beekeeping as an initial market, with a longer-term goal of adapting the system for wildlife sanctuaries and smaller subsistence operations. (news.cornell.edu)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the story sits at the intersection of animal health, welfare, and One Health innovation. Cornell’s own account notes that driver ants threaten beekeepers, poultry producers, wildlife, and other agricultural systems, and a team member described seeing primates with severe ear damage at a sanctuary where gasoline was being used as a stopgap deterrent. That makes the idea notable not because it’s market-ready yet, but because it points to a nonlethal, lower-risk approach to pest pressure in settings where current control methods may create fire, toxicology, or environmental concerns. Research and extension literature also supports that ant pressure can be a serious beekeeping problem in parts of Africa, where apiaries are often designed specifically to reduce ant attack. (news.cornell.edu)

What to watch: The next question is whether the hackathon concept advances into field testing, intellectual property, or a pilot with beekeepers or Jane Goodall Institute-linked sanctuary sites. (news.cornell.edu)