The Barn Owl Box - The first plastic nest box for attracting barn owls Using Barn Owls in integrated Pest Management and Sustainable Agriculture for barn owl

The Barn Owl Box - The first plastic nest box for attracting barn owls

Using Barn Owls in Integrated Pest Management and Sustainable Agriculture

Integrated pest management has been practiced by years with great results in a number of countries and by a number of agricultural interests. It is a multi-disciplined approach that uses natural predators, parasites of pest species, pest resistant strains of crops, traps, and a limited use of poisons as a last resort. Using integrated pest management effectively results in lower levels of toxin exposure to humans, food chains, and ecosystems, and it can also lower overall costs. Barn owl nest boxes can be an important tool in this approach to rodent control.

Sustainable agriculture has arisen out of necessity as man realized that natural resources such as soil, water, and bio diversity are not infinite. The barn owl has been helping man with such programs before the term "integrated pest management" was born. Naturally attracted to manmade structures, barn owls have lived close to humans since buildings came into existence. Since a family of owls can consume over 3000 rodents per year, the barn owl has always been a welcome addition to farms. Another advantage is that, once established, barn owls do the work without additional human labor.

In recent years however, the rodent suppressing abilities of this beautiful predator have attracted a growing interest among agribusinesses. In several countries, various enterprises have instituted highly robust programs of attracting these owls to create more effective rodent control at lower costs.

Barn owls lend themselves to Integrated Pest Management and Organic Farming through their voracious appetites and large broods. And as long as there is plenty of food, barn owls are not nearly as territorial as other birds of prey. This allows the farm to attract higher than normal densities of this bird. Also, in response to higher rodent populations, barn owls will often raise more than one brood per year.

California vineyards are attracting owls to control pocket gophers; as they rise in population, gophers not only damage the crop, they also girdle the vines. Because vineyards are increasingly moving toward organic farming techniques, they are finding barn owls to be excellent at helping with rodent control. Other types of California agriculture, including pecan, walnut, and citrus groves are finding barn owls to be useful additions to sustainable agriculture.

cane rat bones from a single barn owl box in sugar fields Sugar cane fields are rife with cane rats that can do millions of dollars worth of damage to a sugar cane crop, especially in the fall when cane rat populations peak. Barn owl nest boxes have been erected in sugar cane fields for years, and the density of barn owls in such areas can reach astounding densities. In one Florida sugar cane field, we have counted over 10 pairs of barn owls occupying a barn and several barn owl boxes located on grounds. Each of them were raising a brood.

The Barn Owl Box Company offers the first plastic nest boxes for attracting barn owls to vineyards, orchards, sugar cane, and farms. For more information on the use of barn owls for rodent control in integrated pest management and sustainable agriculture programs on farms, plantations, and vineyards, go to our Rodent and Barn Owls, Crops and Barn Owls, and Barn Owl Links page.

BARN OWL BIOLOGY AND RODENT CONTROL

Because the barn owl can live in close proximity to other barn owls, it lends itself to integrated pest management as a viable tool for sustainable agriculture and organic farming. Vineyards use them to control gophers; sugar cane growers use them to control cane rats; orchards use them to control mice and gophers, and farms use them to control mice and rats.

Barn Owl Facts

“For the pocket gopher… barn owls…can represent a substantial biological control that can be manipulated with the placement of barn owl nest boxes around and in the orchard. Research work in California examined contents of barn owl nest boxes in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valley around prunes, vines and pecans. Results showed pocket gophers represented over 50 percent of the barn owl diet representing an average of 215 gophers ‘taken’ during the breeding and nestling phase….” California Fish and Wildlife Service

The barn owl is highly adaptive to prey availability. In Spain the barn owl hunts mostly house mice. In Austria they have been known to take bats. In some areas of the midwestern United States they have taken good numbers of red-winged blackbirds. And on a few occasions, they have even been observed successfully catching fish.

Barn owls are the most widespread owl and one of the most widespread land birds in the world. They exist on every continent except Antarctica, and even inhabit many island chains where they have morphed into many subspecies.

Barn owls are so tolerant of other barn owls that they will often form colonies. An abandoned steel mill in Utah was discovered to harbor over 30 barn owls that hunted the surrounding area. A single barn in central Florida was recently found to contain 10 pairs of barn owls, all of them raising chicks. It was estimated that these 10 pairs and their young harvested between 15,000 and 25,000 cotton rats from the surrounding sugar cane fields annually.

Other names for the barn owl are Ghost Owl, White Owl, Night Owl, Hissing Owl, Monkey-faced Owl, Church Owl, Death Owl, Rat Owl, Demon Owl, and Golden Owl.