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Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards

Alternative ways to control caterpillar pests and reduce the use of pesticides in apple orchards are in the interest of the environment, farmers and the public. Great tits have already been shown to reduce damage under high caterpillar density when breeding in nest boxes in an experimental apple orc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mols, Christel M.M., Visser, Marcel E.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1784073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17285148
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000202
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author Mols, Christel M.M.
Visser, Marcel E.
author_facet Mols, Christel M.M.
Visser, Marcel E.
author_sort Mols, Christel M.M.
collection PubMed
description Alternative ways to control caterpillar pests and reduce the use of pesticides in apple orchards are in the interest of the environment, farmers and the public. Great tits have already been shown to reduce damage under high caterpillar density when breeding in nest boxes in an experimental apple orchard. We tested whether this reduction also occurs under practical conditions of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), as well as Organic Farming (OF), by setting up an area with nest boxes while leaving a comparable area as a control within 12 commercial orchards. We showed that in IPM orchards, but not in OF orchards, in the areas with breeding great tits, apples had 50% of the caterpillar damage of the control areas. Offering nest boxes to attract insectivorous passerines in orchards can thus lead to more limited pesticide use, thereby adding to the natural biological diversity in an agricultural landscape, while also being economically profitable to the fruit growers.
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spelling pubmed-17840732007-02-07 Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards Mols, Christel M.M. Visser, Marcel E. PLoS One Research Article Alternative ways to control caterpillar pests and reduce the use of pesticides in apple orchards are in the interest of the environment, farmers and the public. Great tits have already been shown to reduce damage under high caterpillar density when breeding in nest boxes in an experimental apple orchard. We tested whether this reduction also occurs under practical conditions of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), as well as Organic Farming (OF), by setting up an area with nest boxes while leaving a comparable area as a control within 12 commercial orchards. We showed that in IPM orchards, but not in OF orchards, in the areas with breeding great tits, apples had 50% of the caterpillar damage of the control areas. Offering nest boxes to attract insectivorous passerines in orchards can thus lead to more limited pesticide use, thereby adding to the natural biological diversity in an agricultural landscape, while also being economically profitable to the fruit growers. Public Library of Science 2007-02-07 /pmc/articles/PMC1784073/ /pubmed/17285148 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000202 Text en Mols, Visser. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Mols, Christel M.M.
Visser, Marcel E.
Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title_full Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title_fullStr Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title_full_unstemmed Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title_short Great Tits (Parus major) Reduce Caterpillar Damage in Commercial Apple Orchards
title_sort great tits (parus major) reduce caterpillar damage in commercial apple orchards
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1784073/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17285148
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000202
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