The Sustainable Agriculture team at NACC NRM are excited to announce that the Building a Buzz for Beneficial Bugs (BABFBB) project will run for a second year in 2022!
Funded by the Western Australian Government’s Natural Resource Management Program, the BABFBB project will demonstrate how to increase beneficial insects in horticulture systems, while reducing pest insects and reducing pesticide use, through the use of habitat manipulation techniques.
The project will work closely with Professor Geoff Gurr and his team who are based at Charles Sturt University along with local representatives from DPIRD, and two NAR growers, Bao Duy Nguyen of Sun City Produce, and Jack Davoren of Chally Bridge Farms.
In 2021, we achieved the establishment of the two demonstration sites, insect trapping and identification by David Knowles, a community engagement ‘insect hotel’ workshop at the Mingenew Expo with Dr Kit Prendergast and a Soil Health Webinar with Joel Williams. In 2022, we aim to expand on the demonstration sites with native vegetation windbreaks and strips of insect-attracting flowers inside the growing tunnels. We will also be hosting a field walk through these demonstration sites and an insect workshop at the end of winter, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
To celebrate another year of buzzing around we have created a beneficial insects poster! A special thank you to David Knowles from Spineless Wonders for providing us with his extensive information on local beneficial insects and the photos of them. Thank you also to Dr Kit Prendergast (the Bee Babette) and Nadine from the Irra Wangga Language Centre at Bundiyarra for the Wajarri insect names.
The poster is publically available to everybody in the community. It can be downloaded from our website or you can email anna.cornell@nacc.com.au! We aim to deliver it to local schools and community groups for everyone to ‘build’ their knowledge around beneficial bugs!
