Olfactory misinformation reduces wheat seed loss caused by rodent pests

Finn C. G. Parker (), Catherine J. Price, Jenna P. Bytheway and Peter B. Banks ()
Additional contact information
Finn C. G. Parker: The University of Sydney
Catherine J. Price: The University of Sydney
Jenna P. Bytheway: The University of Sydney
Peter B. Banks: The University of Sydney

Nature Sustainability, 2023, vol. 6, issue 9, 1041-1044

Abstract: Abstract Alternatives to pesticides are urgently needed to meet sustainable agriculture goals but few options are available for many systems. Here we test how a form of olfactory misinformation on a newly sown wheat crop can prevent wild house mice (Mus musculus) from finding buried seeds. Our misinformation tactic, odour camouflage, reduced seed loss by >63%, providing a simple, non-lethal and ethical way to reduce seed damage and avoid rodenticide use.

Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01127-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01127-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01127-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().