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The efficacy of two treatments in protecting sugar beet sprouts from damage by birds was tested. Dense sowing of inexpensive sugar beet seeds as an alternative food between the rows of the commercial ptanting reduced the damage to the commercial crop by about 9%. The same treatment followed by foliar spray (2.25 kg a.i./ha) of Mesuroi -a chemicat repellent -gave a ~ 20% reduction in damage, but losses were still heavy. The effects of plot size and of local conditions are discussed.

Temik, the granular formulation of aldicarb [2-methyl-2(methylthio) propionaldehyde 0-(methylcarbamoyl) oxime], was ptaced together with sugar beet seeds during sowing along the rows, at a rate of 1.4 g/m, in a 1.5-ha experimental area within a 6-ha sugar beet field in an arid area with a long history of bird damage. Thirty-three chukar partridges, a major pest of sprouting crops, were observed foraging in the experimental area throughout the 4-week period between sowing and assessment of damage. Damage was restricted to the borders of the field, with a significant difference in level of damage between treated and control plots located along the borders; the size of damaged areas was about five times smaller in the treated plots than in the control plots. The results were interpreted as reflecting the repellent effect of aldicarb absorbed by the sprouts, and as establishment of a conditioned aversion by the chukars to sugar beet sprouts. The high toxicity of the treated sprouts was demonstrated when adult Japanese quail were fed sprouts coUected from treated plots.