2022
Over the past few years, we hung up about 30 bat boxes.
The bats eat, among other things, the oak processionary butterfly and cranesbills, which means that there are fewer oak processionary caterpillars. In addition, they are fond of the May and June beetles whose larvae (grigs) also indirectly cause damage to the track.
We also hung up 30 starling boxes. These starlings are great lovers of leatherettes (larvae of the crane fly) and grubs (larvae of the May and June beetles). When grubs are caught and eaten by crows, they dig in the grass to get to these larvae and this quickly causes major damage to the turf. Unfortunately, we have experience with this. Leather jackets cause damage by eating the roots of the grass and brown spots appear in the grass. Despite the increase in starlings and bats, we still had problems with leatherettes, but we combated them in a biological way with the help of insect-parasitic nematodes. These nematodes penetrate the leatherettes and secrete a bacterium. The bacterium makes the leatherettes sick, causing them to die. In addition, we are now also leaving 4 fallen trees on every hectare, so that beetles and other insects can nest here, which attracts birds and other animal species which also strengthens the diversity of the biotope.
