Md. Anwar Zahid
Senior Scientific Officer
Vertebrate Pest Division, BARI, Gazipur
Md. Shah Alam
Senior Scientific Officer
Vertebrate Pest Division, BARI, Gazipur
Dr. Gobinda Chandra Biswas
Principal Scientific Officer
Vertebrate Pest Division, BARI, Gazipur
A Field experiment was conducted during 2012-2013 at BADC, Horticulture Development Farm, Kasimpur, Gazipur to find out the suitable management tactics to repel squirrels from the coconut trees. Among the different treatments, wrapping of 2.5 feet metal sheet around the tree trunk 6 feet above from the ground treated trees showed better result for repelling squirrels from the coconut trees followed by hanging of human hair on the tree trunk treated trees.
Development, management package, squirrel, damage, fruit trees
Pest Management
i) To Know the incidence of squirrels in different fruit trees
ii) Finding out appropriate management techniques against squirrel
The experiment was conducted at Vertebrate pest Division, BARI and BADC Kasimpur, Gazipur during December 2012 to May 2013. There were 4 treatments viz, T1 = Wrapping 2.5 feet metal sheet around the tree trunk 6 feet above from the ground, T2 = Hanging of human hair on the tree trunk, T3 = spraying repellent made by onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper and T4 = Untreated control. The experiment was laid out in RCB design with 4 replications. One coconut tree was treated as one replication. Metal sheets were placed on the tree trunk 6 feet above from the ground by surfing nails into the tree trunk with the hammer. Human hair was hanged on the tree trunk with the help of nylon net bags. Human hair was changed every 15 days interval. Homemade squirrel repellent (onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper) was applied the tree canopy with the help of foot pump at 15 days interval. Plant to plant distance was around 6 meter apart from one another. Number of squirrels moving toward the tree, Number of squirrels reaching on the top of the canopy, number of damaged fruits and number of healthy fruits were recorded up to 15 days after the application of the treatments of every interval. Collected data were analyzed statistically using MSTATC and means were separated by DMRT for statistical difference.
Annual Research Report, VPD, BARI 2012-13
Fifty thousands
All the treatments significantly reduced the squirrel infestation and repelled the squirrels from the trees over the control. In case of metal sheet wrapping trees, no squirrel could reach the top of the tree canopy followed by human hair treated trees where only 1.25 numbers of squirrels could reach on the top of the tree canopy. It should be mentioned that human hair could completely repel the squirrels from the tree up to 12 days. In case of homemade spray application (onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper), average 4.15 numbers of squirrel could reach to the canopy. Spray materials could maintain their pungency up to only 5 days. So after 5 days squirrels could move to the tree canopy and damage the fruits freely as well. No damaged coconut fruit was found (0.00) in wrapping metal sheet treated trees. Hanging of human hair treated trees showed less infestation next to metal sheet treated trees (4.50) followed by homemade spray application (onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper) (10.75). The highest number of healthy fruits (28.50) were found in wrapping metal sheet treated trees due to lower infestation caused by squirrels, followed by hanging of human hair treated trees (22.00) and homemade spray (onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper) treated trees (14.75) . Trees treated with metal sheet showed highest increased yield (171.42%) over the control followed by hanging of human hair treated trees (105.52%) and homemade spray (onion + hot chilli + cayenne pepper) treated (45.23%) trees. From this experiment, it has been revealed that wrapping metal sheet application has been able to repel squirrel significantly .
Report/Proceedings