Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand March/April 2019 | Page 20

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FACTS
Weed-eating Ants Could Be Boon for Farmers
Research suggests harvester ants, which eat weed seeds, can help farmers
manage weeds in their fields. Farmers can also save water and improve soil
quality through less tilling, which preserves the ants. “These ants are naturally
present in the fields,” says Barbara Baraibar Padro, a postdoctoral scholar in plant
science from Penn State. “They are able to remove a huge amount of weed seeds
from the system, and if farms till less to preserve ants, it can benefit them.” The
research, conducted in Spain, and published in Biological Control, shows non-tilled
fields had larger nests, leading to better weed management. Tilling less can help
farmers save water, improve their soil, reduce the costs of fuel and labour, and help
the ants that consume weed seeds. Harvester ants can also help farmers manage
herbicide-resistant weed species such as rigid ryegrass.
— sciencedaily.com
Black Apples: Rare and Costly
When people think of apples they think of vivid reds, greens, yellows or
a mixture of the three colours, but they can grow dark purple, almost
black, as well. These rare apples are called Black Diamond and are only
grown in the mountains of Tibet. They cost $7.26 per fruit and are sold in
high-end Chinese supermarkets in packs of six to eight. Black Diamond
apples are a breed of Chinese Red Delicious that get their plum-like dark
purple colour from the geographical conditions of Nyingchi, in the Tibet
Autonomous Region of China. A Chinese company has set up a 123-acre
orchard at an elevation of 10,170 feet above sea level. The reason these
apples turn dark is the notable night and day temperature differences,
and their exposure to intense sunlight and ultraviolet light which causes
their skin to go from the characteristic deep red to dark purple.
— freshplaza.com
Pesticide Laws Need to Protect All Bee Species
New reports argue pesticide regulations designed to protect honeybees fail to account
for potential threats from agrochemicals to the full range of bee species. With the human
population on the rise, and as pollinators continue to suffer declines caused by everything
from habitat loss to pathogens, regulators need to widen pesticide risk assessments to
protect not just honeybees, but other species from bumblebees to solitary bees, says
environmental sciences professor Nigel Raine, holder of the Rebanks Family Chair in
Pollinator Conservation. “There is evidence that our dependency on insect-pollinated
crops is increasing and will continue to do so as the global population rises,”
says Raine, who co-authored three papers recently published in the journal
Environmental Entomology. Government regulators worldwide currently
use honeybees as the model species for assessing pesticide exposure
to insect pollinators. The papers call on regulators to look for
additional models among solitary bees and bumblebees
to better gauge health risks and improve
protection for those species.
— sciencedaily.com
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