Integrated Pest Management - Enemy's Enemy is my Friend - Snakes

In our Agriculture for Everybody blog series, we are going to see how the proverb (in action) is useful to a farmer.


The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) uses the proverb in its fullest form.




There are few things that we can do to ensure that our friends (like Snakes, Owls, Bats, Chameleons etc) are able to live in the farm.

1. Conducive Environment - By providing shelter and proper nesting facilities, we can create a conducive environment for them to survive and reproduce.
2. Provide Helpers - Helpers here means providing "T" perches for birds, sticks for Spiders to spin their webs etc enable them to help us better.
3. Do Nothing - When we come across our friends in our farm, if we do not threaten them in any way or kill them and just leave them to mind own their business will help us to prosper and reap rich benefits in the long run.

Snakes help us by controlling the rodents (rats) in the farm.  This act will help us in the initial stages of the crop as well as in the advanced stages of the crop thereby increasing our productivity.

Monkeys are a menace in the farm and they eat coconuts, fruits, vegetables, fruits etc.  If Snakes are in the farm, monkeys get scarred and they do not come down to the ground and over a period of time they will never visit the farm again.

Similarly, Squirrels are also afraid of the snakes and they will not visit our farm once they see the snakes.