Cute native sugar gliders offer pest control solution for southern NSW farmers

PHOTO: Farmers in south east NSW are building nests boxes for sugargliders
in order to protect their native trees from pests 

Sugar gliders are more than just a cute little creature, they also act as a natural pest control, eating Christmas beetles and protecting young native trees.

In the Bega Valley in southern New South Wales landholders are building boxes to house sugar gliders on their properties.

Sugar gliders look a lot like a tiny possums, weighing in at just at 160 grams. They spend their nights gliding between trees in search of food.

As their name suggests they love their nectar, but they are partial to insects too.

Sugar gliders usually live in old tree hollows, but if these aren't available then a purpose built nesting box is the next best thing.

Dr Doug Sommerville has been collecting data measuring the success of the nest boxes on his property.

The data collection involves climbing up a five metre ladder, opening each box and counting the sugar gliders.

"This is only the tenth box and there are over 50 boxes around the property. I've only found one with a family in it [so far] but nine out ten [boxes] are active," he said.

"You just see a bunch of ears and heads and tails and things. I don't like getting in there and disturbing them but you just make sure there is more than one; there's a mum and a dad, and a few offspring from the previous litter which is pretty normal.

"When you open the lid you can see them curl up in a big cluster. In the winter time they are buried under all the leaf matter and you can't see them so you weave your hand down very tentatively, just feeling for the fur. So far they haven't nipped any fingers," he laughed.

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It is hoped Dr Sommerville's data will prove the nest boxes are valuable to sugar gliders.

"I want to see the rate of occupation over time. They'll start doing things next month, nesting and raising another batch of young, so over the next six months I want to see how many [boxes] are occupied.

"Given all these trees, where the nest boxes have been put, are less than 25 years old, it has been interesting to see how quickly these little fellas move into the tree line and the tree lots, given there are no natural hollows within this whole network.

"We've got a whole bunch of native birds, marsupials, native mice and bats, and most of the marsupials require hollows to live in.

If they don't have hollows then they struggle to find somewhere safe to reproduce, so by putting the nest boxes up you encourage wildlife to move into this area."

PHOTO: Dr Doug Sommerville checking a sugar glider nest box on his property in south east NSW

A natural pest control

Landowners and farmers involved in creating biodiversity corridors and planting tree on their properties have been particularly receptive to the sugar glider nesting box project being co-ordinated by the Far South Coast Conservation Management Network.

Sugar gliders have a reputation for a voracious appetite for Christmas Beetles.

"[They're] little cute things, but they're reputed to eat a hell of a lot of Christmas beetles," said Dr Sommerville

"In previous years we had younger trees decimated by Christmas beetles, so I figure putting up the nest boxes should help.

"So far we haven't had any damage, so that's encouraging. Having a whole bunch of things that like eating them is a pretty good idea as far as I'm concerned."

Ali Rodway, the co-ordinator of conservation network, said carpentry workshops have been popular among landowners.

"We had a local carpenter run a workshop in Bega and invited landholders to come along and build their own nest boxes. We had nine people come along and they are going to install them on their sites," she said.

"We've got a lot of landholders in the Bega Valley Shire who have been putting in biodiversity corridors, shelter belts or just planting trees across their land to connect up remnant vegetation, and those trees will take up to 100 years to start developing natural hollows."

"The animals that could occupy those sites would be beneficial to farmers just in terms of natural pest control."

"And just the joy of having them in the landscape. People get a lot of joy out of bringing animals back to a place they haven't been for a while."

The Far South Coast Conservation Network is planning more workshops to teach farmers how to build and install their own sugar glider nest boxes.

Source : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-19/sugar-gliders-helping-farmers/6709334