Rodent Solutions

AAAS: "Scent 'camouflage' keeps mice from destroying crops." Globally these rodents not only destroy 70 million tons of rice, what + maize [corn] each yr by devouring + infesting stored grain, but they also dig up + eat the seeds farmers have planted. People have been battling these pests for millennia, using everything from cats to poisons. In a simple but elegant solution, fields were pretreated with a scent making the seeds practically undetectable to mice. "In the new study, Banks and his colleagues modified a strategy that has proved successful in protecting endangered birds in New Zealand: throwing nonnative predators off the scent of their prey by robbing the scent of its meaning." They smeared birds' smells in places birds would never be found, such as piles of rocks. In only a few days, cats + other predator began to view this as 'misinformation.' In the study Banks + his colleagues sprayed wheat germ oil on some test plots before sowing, after sowing or none in untreated control areas. "The camouflaged plots suffered 74% less damage than the untreated plot, the team reports today in Nature Sustainability." Common farm machinery can accomplish the application, + wheat germ oil is an inexpensive byproduct of what milling. No use of poisons + pesticides, which can harm birds + other wildlife. As always, more research needed. #rodentcontrol #camouflage