Specieswatch: fighting pollen beetles in the margins
Written by Paul Brown
With insect numbers falling because of pesticides, natural controls are being sought for a pest threatening valuable oilseed rape crops
One of the pests that troubles British farmers is the pollen beetle, Meligethes aeneus, which is particularly fond of yellow flowers and is a menace to oil seed rape. On some plants it is a beneficial pollinator, but on oilseed rape it destroys the plant’s ability to produce the all-important seed.
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