Deeper Read - Natural Pest Control

There is enormous potential for natural pest control in farm pastures and remnant native vegetation from native predators and parasites. 

Nearly all native farmland birds and bats feed on insects, including pasture root-feeding scarab grubs, caterpillars, bugs, beetles, lerps, aphids, flies, moths, christmas beetles and thrips. Bats have relatively high metabolic rates; hence they can consume between one third and half of their body weight daily. 

There are thousands of native parasitic wasps and other insects, and spiders that play a useful role in controlling farm pests. By providing habitat, natural pest control can be encouraged. 

Key requirements are nectar throughout the year (from a diverse range of locally native understorey and trees that flower at different times), hollow trees for nesting and sheltering, and branches, logs and natural litter on the ground.

Natural Pest Control Examples

Predator/parasite Diet Habitat Requirements of predator/parasite
Ringtail & Brushtail Possums   Mistletoe foliage & other foliage and fruit   Hollow trees for nesting & sheltering
Sugar Gliders & Squirrel Gliders –  Scarab beetles, caterpillars, weevils, moths, gall-forming grubs and lerps Hollow trees for nesting & roosting, nectar, gum, plant sap from wattles eg. Silver Wattle, Golden Wattle, Hickory Wattle/Lightwood and linking vegetation between remnants
Small insectivorous bats Mostly winged insects eg. Rutherglen Bug Hollow trees for sheltering and roosting & dead standing trees
Magpie larvae (and other grubs feeding on pasture or grass roots) Clumps of eucalypts for nesting
Ibis Grasshoppers, crickets, scarabs, caterpillars, and weevils in pastures Dead trees near water for roosting
Ravens Insects including Christmas Beetles and grasshoppers Large trees for nesting
Yellow-rumped Thornbills Small pasture insects Clumps of low thorny shrubs for nesting eg. Bursaria/Native Blackthorn
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike Large caterpillars and beetles Woodlots wider than 40 m with shrubs
Crested Shrike-tit Boring grubs and caterpillars As above
Honeyeaters Tree and shrub foliage-feeding insects Shrubs amongst eucalypts for resting, nesting and feeding
Pardalotes pysllids (lerps) and other foliage-feeding insects Small tree hollows for nesting and shrubs to escape aggressive larger birds eg. Noisy Miners
Bush Stone-Curlew All large pasture insects Day roost; fox control; log and stick litter, and short or sparse tall grass
Imperial White Butterfly caterpillars Mistletoe foliage (exclusively) Flowering understorey plants providing nectar for adult butterfly
Beeflies Wingless grasshoppers Rotting knotholes in dead trees for egg-laying sites
Tachinid flies grass grubs Native shrubs for shelter and alternative food source
Parasitic wasps Pasture grubs and eucalypt foliage- feeding insects eg. leafhoppers Flowering shrubs and understorey plants for adult wasps
Ground beetles Scarabs & grasshopper eggs & larvae Grassy understorey with good litter layer
Spiders All insects Diverse vegetation structure