Smallholder farmers reside in marginal environments typified by dryland maize-based farming systems. Despite the significant contribution of smallholder farmers to food production, they are vulnerable to extreme weather events such as hailstorms, floods and drought. Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and intensity under cl...
Published in Frontiers in Conservation Science
People’s interests and needs, as well as biological characteristics of species, determine human perception and interaction with biodiversity. Thus, both cultural and biological factors should be considered to understand biocultural salient species. We studied the cultural and biological traits that influence bird salience for an indigenous communit...
Crop depredation by blackbirds (Icteridae) results in substantial economic losses to the United States sunflower industry, and a solution to effectively reduce damage remains elusive. We evaluated the utility of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, as hazing tools to deter foraging blackbirds from commercial sunflower (Helianthus annuus) fie...
Foraging on crops by wild ungulates may create human–wildlife conflicts through reducing crop production. Ungulates interact with and within complex socio-ecological systems, making the reduction of crop damage a challenging task. Aside from ungulate densities, crop damage is influenced by different drivers affecting ungulate foraging behaviour: fo...
Presently, there are an estimated 6.9 million wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in the U.S., which cause over US$1 billion in damage to agriculture, environmental impacts, and control costs. However, estimates of damage have varied widely, creating a need for standardized monitoring and a method to accurately estimate the economic costs of direct wild pig dam...
Published in Frontiers in Agronomy
Given that rodents are responsible for nearly 280 million cases of undernutrition worldwide and that about 400 million people are affected by rodent-associated zoonoses annually, management of rodent populations that are agricultural pests and/or reservoirs of pathogens is a major food security and public health matter. In sub-Saharan Africa, the m...
Published in Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America
Natural pest control is an alternative to pesticide use in agriculture, and may help to curb insect declines and promote crop production. Nonconsumptive interactions in natural pest control that historically have received far less attention than consumptive interactions, may have distinct impacts on pest damage suppression and may also mediate posi...
Published in Frontiers in Conservation Science
Conservation conflicts or human-wildlife conflicts present one of the foremost challenges to wildlife conservation globally. The challenges of reconciling human safety and food security with the conservation of large-bodied wildlife are further compounded in the developing nations with a high spatial overlap of wildlife with people. Therefore, cons...
Wireworms, the soil-dwelling larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), comprise major pests of several crops worldwide, including maize and potatoes. The current trend towards the reduction in pesticides use has resulted in strong demand for alternative methods to control wireworm populations. This review provides a state-of-the-art of curr...
Published in Pest management science
Drosophila suzukii can lead to substantial damages in horticultural production. In this article we analyze revenue losses and cost increases due to D. suzukii as perceived of Swiss cherry, plum and grape growers. Moreover, we investigate associations between farm and grower characteristics and revenue losses and perceived costs increases. We survey...
