Evaluation of taste repellents with northern bobwhites for deterring ingestion of granular pesticides

Abstract

AbstractThe risk of accidental poisoning of birds may be reduced by adding an aversive tasting chemical to granular pesticides The efficacy of eight taste repellents in deterring consumption was therefore evaluated in a game species, the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) Avoidance was measured using a two‐cup preference test in which treated feeds were paired with untreated feeds in one experiment, and against other treated feeds in another experiment All repellents tested were significantly avoided without evidence of habituation during the 5 d test period The most effective repellents were d pulegone and quinine hydrochloride Methyl anthranilate, 2‐heptanone, and lithium chloride also performed reasonably well, whereas sucrose octaacetate and cinnamaldehyde performed relatively poorly The d‐pulegone was further evaluated using a one cup test with treated clay granules The effects of adding d‐pulegone and/or a red dye (erythrosine) were evaluated with a two way factorial design Addition of d‐pulegone strongly reduced consumption of granules (p< 0 001), whereas addition of erythrosine had no significant effect when added alone or in combination with d‐pulegone Our results indicate that treating pesticide granules with a potent taste repellent, such as d‐pulegone, is a promising approach to reduce the risk of their ingestion by birds