permaculture

[Steve Diver <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

Claude Genest wrote:

> Anyway, in re-reading "SILENT SPRING", the late great RAchel Carson makes
> the observation that there's no better pesticide than songbirds, the very
> creatures that have been decimatd  by chemical pesticides ( they eat the
> worms that ingest the pesticides)
>
> I'm looking for some stats/info on the decline of songbirds...Any leads ?

Try bats!!   Here's a recent post from Sanet.

Habitat management for birds and bats and beneficial insects,
i.e., PLANNED BIODIVERSITY, is a very practical and
realistic approach.

Steve Diver

===================================================
HOLY GUANO, BATMAN, HERE’S THE LATEST IN INSECT CONTROL
With a grant from the Organic Farming Research Foundation, the
North American Bat House Research Project has established 45
bat houses on 10 organic farms in central Calif.  In their first 90
days of operations a third of the houses were occupied by
Mexican free-tail bats and the bats quickly began work as
insect predators.  Their favorites are armyworms, cutworms,
corn earworms, leafhoppers and codling moths. Other
bat varieties the housing project hopes to attract include
predators of cucumber beetles, stinkbugs and other small
beetles and moths.  For more info on bat houses go to
http://www.batcon.org/bhra/index.html or email rrooney@batcon.org.

Source:
============Willard Thompson’s Field Talk==================
For the week of Nov. 5, 2001
Field Talk is a weekly e-newsletter published by Rincon Publishing,
Publishers of California Grower magazine.
Field Talk is a copyright publication of Rincon Publishing.
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Field Talk
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