Creative Pest Control: Beehives

From research underway in Kenya, the BBC's Matt Walker reports:

A simple fence made from wood, wire and beehives can deter elephants from raiding farmers' crops. A pilot study in Kenya has shown that such fences reduce the number of raids by elephants by almost half.

The work is the culmination of previous research which showed elephants are naturally scared of African honey bees.

A much larger trial is now under way in the hope the fences will provide an elegant solution to years of conflict between elephants and farmers. ...

This sort of thinking, though usually dealing with smaller organisms, is behind various integrated pest management solutions. When you can't just completely eradicate every single critter that wants to eat the food you're growing, what do you do?

Solutions range from natural deterrents for your crop pests, like the beehives, to providing them something else to eat, such as a row or two of a crop they prefer and will gravitate to instead of going after the farmers' main course.

It's the strategy framework plants themselves have adopted - which is to say that selection pressure has favored plants that use it. Some organisms they feed, like the insects that pollinate them or the animals that spread their fruit seeds. Some organisms they deter, with spines or toxins, etc. Some they cooperate deeply with, like the symbiotic root fungi, the mycorrhizal species that bring them water and nutrients in exchange for sugars.

That's worked for plants because it uses diversity itself as a buffer against innumerable pests that are also alive, adapting, and simply too diverse themselves to ever be completely protected from, too diverse and mutable to ever completely wipe out. Considering that it's a design principle that's been field tested for millions of years, it's probably plenty good enough for us to learn to take advantage of.