Are raccoons ravaging your radishes? Container gardens might be a good option for saving your plants.
(AP Photo/dpa, Patrick Pleul)
Pests can cause sudden and significant damage to homegrown food, but a little planning and intervention can help you cut your losses.
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Aerial baiting has been Australia’s foremost weapon against pest species for the past 74 years. But at what cost?
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Insects are essential to the functioning of land and freshwater ecosystems but species populations are being lost at a rapid rate globally.
Female stable flies make careful choices about where to lay their eggs.
Cosmin Manci/Shutterstock
Savvy female stable flies prefer to lay their eggs on donkey and sheep dung. Knowing where they choose to do this will help us manage disease.
Flying desert locust.
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Countries should promote alternatives to pesticides and more carefully examine how to prevent insect invasions in the first place
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If harm to native wildlife is the main concern then there are much bigger targets for control than grey squirrels.
Fire ants like these can give a nasty bite.
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Millions of dollars are being spent on trying to eradicate fire ants from Australia. But that might not be the only way to deal with the invasive pest.
Learning about urban rat populations through genetic testing reveals information about their movements through cities.
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Genetic analysis shows that urban rats prefer to stay near their relatives; however, some of them migrate. Knowing this could help with pest control efforts.
Argentine ants are a fact of life in many parts of Australia, but can still potentially be banished from Norfolk Island.
Davefoc/Wikimedia Commons
Invasive pest ants cause billions of dollars worth of damage to crops, and threaten some of Australia’s World Heritage rainforests. The federal budget has pledged nearly $30m on wiping them out – but how?
A dam near Gemtree, Northern Territory.
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A barrier just 50km wide might stop water-reliant cane toads in their tracks.
Fleas, as pet owners know, are a common menace.
Aileen van der Mescht
By finding out more about the cat flea, researchers could maybe identify better pest control measures.
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A tree-killing beetle has invaded South Africa. This is what should be done.
Sometimes thousands of ladybirds will ‘overwinter’ in the same spot, which experts say is normal behaviour and nothing for homeowners to be alarmed about.
David Lovejoy
According to experts, ladybirds are no more dangerous than they were before.
Not interested in your new favorite band.
TJ Gehling
An AC/DC-loving biologist tests the band’s 1980 assertion that “rock ‘n’ roll ain’t noise pollution.” Turns out it can be – and the negative effects of noise can ripple through an ecosystem.
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Aphids often appear in swarms around May and June but what risk do they pose to plants?
He comes in peace.
Matt Bertone
Why you should consider a live-and-let-live policy with the spiders you encounter in your home.
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The oak processionary moth established itself in the UK a decade ago, ahead of the parasitoids that would normally keep its numbers in check.
Cane toads have been found from Perth to Sydney.
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND WILDLIFE/AAP
New cane toad traps that carefully imitate mating males successfully target breeding females. Males, meanwhile, will turn up for anything that sounds remotely like a toad.
The polyphagous shothole borer is tiny - but a fungus it’s commonly associated with can be deadly for trees.
Wilhelm de Beer
The beetle and the fungus have devastated trees in California in the US as well as in Israel. Now they’re in South Africa.
Whiteflies - Africa’s main cassava pest causes damage to crops.
Maurice/Flickr
Crop losses in African countries due to insect pests are estimated at 49%. However, with some species losses can climb up to 100%.