Owls and bats are specialised hunters. Research has consistently shown that they can make a big impact on reducing pest numbers on farms.
A pair of barn owls and their chicks feed on 2 000 to 6 000 rodents a year, according to research conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel.
Israel initiated a project to monitor the efficacy of barn owls for rodent control in crops in 1983 already, and following the success, increased owl boxes across the country to nearly 4 000 boxes today.
Many grain farmers there have shifted to using barn owls, and have reduced the use of pesticides or refrained from using them altogether, without an evident impact on yield. A research project looking at the impact of bats on insect damage caused to macadamia nuts in Levubu, Limpopo, found that damage caused by macadamia-nut borer and false codling moth could be reduced by 35% if sufficient numbers of bats and owls were present in the orchards. Removing the winged creatures from the orchards, on the other hand, resulted in a 60% reduction in yield.
Jordan-Michael Hardey, the communications manager at EcoSolutions, refers to bats as the ‘bug police’. “They fly around, catching insects using a process called echolocation to find their insect meals. They make high-pitched sounds that bounce off objects and return to the bat as echoes. Bats in flight can distinguish the difference in sound between a tree, your head and an insect, which is how they locate their food in the dark.”
About 70% of all bats eat insects, with each eating half their weight in insects a night. Bats are also responsible for pollinating fruit like avocados, bananas, dates, figs, mangoes and peaches, and they spread seeds.
This story is from the November 24, 2023 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 24, 2023 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A Karoo-farm holiday for the family or business traveller
This is the ideal Karoo-farm stopover between the Western Cape and Gauteng,
Toyota 48V: hybrid heavyweights in a changing world
Toyota's global mandate to lower overall emissions via a multi-technology approach sees the venerable Hilux and popular Fortuner packages receive their timely respective doses of hybridisation. By CAR.
Promising new cultivars on show at sorghum demonstration day
Magda du Toit recently attended a sorghum cultivar demonstration day and takes a look at the exciting new products making their way onto the market.
The basics of sheep shearing
Sheep shearing is a specialised skill, but with adequate training, anyone can learn how to effectively and efficiently shear a sheep,
Healthy soils lead to healthy plants and animals
Dr Louis du Pisani shed light on why biodiversity is important, and its impact on soil, plant and animal health at the World Veterinary Association Congress held in Cape Town.
'SA's water crisis could turn into a human catastrophe'
Abysmal management has left South Africa's water and wastewater infrastructure in a severely compromised position, Lambert de Klerk, manager of Environmental Affairs at AfriForum
Uganda gives a helping hand to Zambia with 500 000t maize pledge
Drought-stricken Zambia has reached out for more international assistance as the situation, the worst in 40 years, deteriorates in the African country
Shearing shed handover to wool growers
Shearing sheep made just a little easier for Eastern Cape farmers with donation,
Top agriculture students taken on by department
Twenty of the top achievers from the Cedara and Owen Sitole colleges of agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal officially received letters of appointment and signed two-year contracts under the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Unemployed Agriculture Graduates Youth Programme.
African leaders vow to tackle soil health ills to bolster food production
African Union leaders spoke as one voice at a recent fertiliser and soil health summit, pledging to take measures to improve Africa's soil quality