Hi Wayne and Tweeters,

Are goverment agencies supposed to be contacted when a
farmer uses a natural predator, albeit introduced, to
control a natural, also introduced, pest? Even though
using Starlings would be considered counterproductive
to some, I am all for non chemical means of pest
control.

I recall Dennis Paulson posting something about the
turf farm cranefly/starling program but I don't
remember when. It was pretty interesting in that the
Starling population became stable and it didn't end up
being an endless Starling production factory.

Kathy
Roosting in S King County



--- "Wayne C. Weber" <contopus at telus.net> wrote:
> Ian and Tweeters,
>
> I don't recall having heard this one. However, it is
> worth pointing out that
> Starlings, although they are huge pests to growers
> of some agricultural
> crops (such as cherries, grapes, and blueberries),
> are beneficial to
> owners of sod farms, golf courses, etc.
>
> The European marsh cranefly (Tipula paludosa) is
> introduced and
> widely established in the Pacific Northwest. It is a
> serious pest of turf
> farms, golf courses, and even suburban lawns. The
> larvae, known as
> leatherjackets, are large and feed on the roots of
> grass plants. They can
> kill patches of grass, or at least seriously retard
> the growth of grass.
>
> The favorite food of Starlings is the larvae of soil
> insects, especially
> large ones such as leatherjackets. In one study in
> Britain, more than half
> the
> food that Starlings fed to their young consisted of
> leatherjackets!
>
> No wonder Starlings have been so successful in the
> Nothwest, when we
> cut down thousands of square miles of forest,
> replaced much of it with
> pastures and other expanses of grass to create ideal
> Starling habitat,
> and even introduced their favorite food!
>
> However, I would never have gone so far as to
> recommend people putting
> up Starling nest boxes to help in controlling
> leatherjackets. If any turf
> farmers have done that, they've done so without the
> approval of
> government agencies.
>
> (The BC government has, in the past, recommended
> using large cage
> traps, which can catch 100 or more Starlings a day,
> in fruit-growing areas.
> They even employed staff to operate them for quite a
> few years.)
>
> Wayne C. Weber
> (Former Wildlife Damage Specialist, BC Ministry of
> Agriculture)
> Delta, BC
> contopus at telus.net
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ian Paulsen" <birdbooker at zipcon.net>
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 10:41 PM
> Subject: [Tweeters] starling nest boxes
>
>
> HI:
> A couple of years ago I heard about a B.C. sod
> farmer who was putting up
> starling nest boxes so they would nest on his farm
> and help control
> european crane flies! Does anybody have a source of
> this ( a newspaper
> article I think?) report?
>
> --
> Ian Paulsen
> Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
> A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
> "Rallidae all the way!"
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>

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