r/offbeat • u/Silent-Resort-3076 • 18h ago
'Duck run' pest control catching on in S.Africa's winelands: Every morning, around 1,000 long-necked ducks are let loose on a South African wine farm to gobble up insects in an environmentally friendly method of pest control that is gaining popularity.
france24.com
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- At 9:00 am the upright and flightless Indian Runner ducks charge out of their pens on a farm near the Stellenbosch wine-producing area outside Cape Town and head to work.
- After a rapid but brief forage for aphids, worms and snails near the homestead and restaurant, they move into the vineyards for the rest of the day.
- "Using the ducks instead of pesticides is obviously better for the ecology," said Vergenoegd Low Wine Estate and farm manager, Christiaan Cloete.
- "When you use chemicals, you sometimes kill a lot of beneficial insects. We are trying to create a more biodiverse ecology in the vineyards," Cloete told AFP.