Efficacy of the repellent RO-PELŪ in reducing damage by the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) to fruit trees.
Moran S.
Author Affiliation: Ministry of Agriculture, Plant Protection and Inspection Services, PO Box 78, 50250 Bet Dagan, Israel.
International Journal of Pest Management 42 : 273-276
Abstract : In Israel, P. capensis lives in natural crevices of rocky terrain and in the long heaps or terraces of rocks uprooted in the process of rocky-ground reclamation and dumped around newly-planted fruit orchards. The hyraxes browse on the rows of deciduous and subtropical fruit trees adjacent to their rocky shelter. Fruit trees thereby lose most of their leaves, and branches or stems of seedlings are bent and broken under the weight of the animals. The commercial repellent, RO-PEL, was tested in probe and field trials in 1990. In the probe pen trial, RO-PEL-sprayed and unsprayed avocado and mango seedlings were placed in a pen into which 3 hyraxes were introduced. Most of the leaves of both sprayed and unsprayed seedlings were consumed in 4 and 11 days (avocados and mangoes, respectively). However, in the field trial, conducted in a Star-Rubi [Star Ruby grapefruit] orchard in which rows of seedlings adjacent to rock terraces had been damaged by the hyraxes, there was a significant difference in the numbers of sprayed and unsprayed leaves consumed, with 42.6% less damage occurring on the sprayed trees. Later, when new leaves had sprouted, the hyraxes consumed the leaves irrespective of whether the trees had been sprayed.