NEW RESEARCH PROJECT EXAMINES THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF REFUGE HABITAT IN SUPPORTING BENEFICIAL INSECTS.
A new research project led by researchers under the Applied Farmscape Ecology Program examines the potential role of refuge habitat in supporting beneficial insects.
This past spring a beetle bank was created on the farm. This is a 1000-foot unploughed strip that cuts across the width of a crop field through which corn, soybeans, and small grains are rotated. Seeded with native bunch grasses, such as Indian Grass, Little Bluestem, and Big Bluestem, and a variety of native wildflowers, the beetle bank was sprouting a mix of wildflowers and weeds during its first season. Over the coming years, the perennial plants should replace the annual weeds which thrive in tilled soil.
A form of organic pest management, beetle banks are meant to provide year-round habitat for beneficial ground beetles; these beetles might then disperse out into adjacent crops where they can help control weeds. Farmers can receive United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cost-sharing for the installation of these banks.
Over the coming years, these perennial plants should replace the annual weeds which thrive in tilled soil. Beetle banks are meant to provide year-round habitat for beneficial ground beetles; these beetles might then disperse out into adjacent crops where they could Conrad Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo, researchers with the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program and co-coordinators of the Farm Hub’s Applied Farmscape Ecology Research Collaborative, are leading the new research project. Jess Furlong of SUNY Cobleskill is also a collaborator on the project, helping to examine ground insects and spiders using sweep netting and visual surveys.
“The idea is if this (beetle bank) stays unplowed and you have plowed the land on either side of it, then in the spring those creatures that have overwintered in the beetle bank may move out into the adjacent fields and provide their services to the farmer,” Vispo explains..
He continues: “Aside from perhaps providing agronomic benefits, these banks might also help support on-farm insect, bird and plant biodiversity. Nonetheless, such banks can also harbor farm pests, including groundhogs. We want to better understand their net effects, not only on above-ground organisms but also on soil quality. The concept of beetle banks originated in Great Britain, and we don’t yet understand how useful they are here in the Hudson Valley. We hope to contribute to an understanding of their regional utility.” Vispo expects data sets will be made available in three to five years.
Anne Bloomfield, manager of the Applied Farmscape Ecology Program, says that corn often faces pest and weed issues and thus serves as a good gauge in exploring the connection between the beetle bank and these kinds of threats. She notes, “the idea is to study if efforts to create habitat for beneficial beetles would both attract them and result in their consuming weed seeds and pests.”
By the end of the first season, the beetle bank was blanketed with a thick cover of vegetation, a mix of perennial native plants and non-native annual weeds. According to Knab-Vispo, this is typical of a new seeding. “In the first year, annual weeds are tall and most visible, while the seedlings of the native perennials seem to be quietly establishing themselves underneath the weeds. We hope that over the next few years, the perennial native plants will assert themselves and the annual weeds will diminish, “ she says.
The vegetation was left standing into the winter to provide optimal shelter for insects and—eventually—mulch for the soil and the perennial seedlings.
Over the next year the researchers will continue to monitor the abundance of ground-dwelling insects and spiders on and near the bank, using a combination of pit trapping and ground searches. Initial results suggest that ground beetle communities already differ between the bank and the ploughed field, and it is expected that that difference will increase as the bank matures. No winter work is planned, but researchers intend to return early in the Spring to see which invertebrates overwintered in the bank.
For more information about beetle banks:
Make A Beetle Bank
Building Beetle Banks
Habitat Planning for Beneficial Insects
– Amy Wu