RESEARCHERS at the University of New England (UNE) say bats could be employed as a natural pest control in vineyards instead of harmful pesticides, which could potentially save the industry $50 million.
Lead researcher Dr Zenon Czenze said they are only at stage one of the project, figuring out which species of bats are at the participating wineries and what moths and other insects they are consuming.
"We set up acoustic detectors that can pick up the echolocation calls the bats are creating as they're foraging and eating these insects," Dr Czenze said.
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"Allowing us to quantify what species of bats are foraging in and around vineyards, and how many of them there are."
The team will go on to set up nets around the properties to catch the bats and collect feces samples to conduct DNA testing and find out what's on the menu.
If the DNA testing shows bats eating widely destructive grapevine or grape berry moths, then this has the potential to save the wine industry millions of dollars in pesticides costs.
At present, the two participating wineries in the Northern Tablelands region are Petersons and Topper's Mountain.
Owner of Topper's Mountain Mark Kirkby said the project is very interesting.
"The possibility of quantifying how useful they are, and whether we can be useful by providing more habitat, is pretty interesting," he said.
Dr Czenze, who received the Wine Australia Award for his research, said the ultimate goal is to have a sustainable option for not only vineyards but other kinds of agricultural crops that are also affected by moths.
"If we can show them that natural pest control by bats is a better bet; it's more cost efficient, there's less pesticides," he said.
"Ultimately, we can have a paradigm shift where we have landowners that are focused on biodiversity friendly farm management practices."
The UNE research team is hoping to further the research by looking down south at other major wine-growing regions.
"In the next year we expand ... we do vineyards in South Australia, Western Australia," Dr Czenze said.
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Rachel Clark
Rachel is a journalist at the Northern Daily Leader, covering education, politics, environment, and features. Have a tip? rachel.clark@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Rachel is a journalist at the Northern Daily Leader, covering education, politics, environment, and features. Have a tip? rachel.clark@austcommunitymedia.com.au
