The Effects of Reduced Agent-Area Insecticide Treatments for Rangeland Grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae) Control on Bird Densities

Abstract.

The effects of insecticidal control programs for grasshoppers on the population density of birds were assessed under operational conditions in two rangeland sites in Wyoming during an outbreak (19 to 56 grasshoppers m⁻² on >1,500 ha). Malathion, carbaryl, and fipronil were evaluated using large-scale (≥260 ha) reduced agent-area treatments (RAAT), in which these chemicals were applied at 50% of the standard rate (except fipronil, for which there is no standard in North America) to 80, 50, and 33% of the areas (alternating treated and untreated swaths), respectively. Grasshopper population densities were reduced by 73 to 99%, at 14 and 28 days after treatment. Significant differences among treatments within the sites were apparent, and despite disparities in the vegetation, topography, and grasshopper populations between sites, some consistent patterns of response by bird populations were found. Relative to pretreatment densities and untreated plots, at 14 days after treatment, bird densities were enhanced at one site and suppressed at the other; at 28 days after treatment bird populations were generally suppressed at both sites. However, absolute densities increased in some plots, indicating that birds still had adequate food. There appeared to be no relationship between posttreatment grasshopper and bird densities, perhaps due to the large initial insect populations. Fipronil plots generally had higher avian population densities (nongregarious insectivores and total birds) than carbaryl plots, which had bird densities greater than or equal to malathion plots. These differences were probably a function of both the toxicological properties of the compounds and the proportion of the infested land that was treated. Based on these findings, we must consider the possibility that compounds with relatively high toxicity to birds and long residual effects applied to widely spaced swaths may cause no more (or perhaps less) environmental impact than less toxic and persistent insecticides that must be applied to large proportions of infested rangeland.