Are camouflaged seeds less attacked by wild birds? Sementes camufladas são menos atacadas por aves silvestres?
Wheat, corn and rice crops in Brazil use seeds treated with systemic insecticide/nematicide carbofuran, mixed to rhodamine B red dye. Carbofuran is toxic and rhodamine B is attractive to wild birds that eat up these seeds, resulting in notable mortality during planting. A field experiment was perfor...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade de São Paulo
2010-04-01
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| Series: | Scientia Agricola |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-90162010000200007 |
| Summary: | Wheat, corn and rice crops in Brazil use seeds treated with systemic insecticide/nematicide carbofuran, mixed to rhodamine B red dye. Carbofuran is toxic and rhodamine B is attractive to wild birds that eat up these seeds, resulting in notable mortality during planting. A field experiment was performed in southeast Brazil to evaluate if camouflaged seeds would be less consumed by wild birds in comparison to commercial seeds with red-colored rhodamine B and aposematic blue seeds. Camouflaged seeds were less removed than seeds with rhodamine B and natural colors. The camouflaging was more effective in the presence of irregularities and litter. There was no removal of blue-colored seeds. As legislation requires treated seeds to receive a different color to avoid accidents with humans, camouflaging may be used as replacement of rhodamine B to reduce mortality rates of wild birds.<br>Plantações de trigo milho e arroz no Brasil utilizam sementes tratadas com o inseticida e nematicida sistêmico carbofuran, associado ao corante vermelho rodamina B. O carbofuran é tóxico e a rodamina B é atrativa às aves silvestres, as quais consomem estas sementes, resultando em notável mortalidade durante o plantio. Um experimento realizado em campo agrícola no sudeste do Brasil mostrou que sementes camufladas foram menos removidas por aves silvestres do que sementes com rodamina B. A camuflagem foi potencializada em presença de irregularidades e serrapilheira no solo. Não houve remoção de sementes de cor azul, mas a formulação granular de cor azul tem causado mortalidade de aves nos USA e Canadá. Como sementes tratadas com agrotóxicos devem, de acordo com a legislação, receber coloração diferenciada para evitar acidentes com humanos, a camuflagem pode ser utilizada, substituindo a rodamina B. |
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| ISSN: | 0103-9016 1678-992X |