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the official magazine of australia's sugarcane industry
SPICY SOLUTION Chilli spray has been successfully used to deter unwanted pests from eating sugarcane. Summertime fires followed by unusually dry conditions in the Bundaberg region last year left little natural feed for local kangaroos. So, they went for the next best thing: young sugarcane. Chairman of Bundaberg CANEGROWERS, Mark Pressler, was among the farmers whose crops were being decimated, until a neighbour offered an unlikely solution. “The roos were really flogging the ratoon cane and they were starting on the Spring plant cane too,” he explained. “Where we farm is close to town, so shooting wasn’t an option. A neighbour rang and said he’d sprayed chilli two years ago and the roos just cleared out.“ Mark hired the help of a drone spraying company to deliver the fiery, but natural, deterrent. Sure enough, it worked.
Drone sprayer in flight
“I put it on about 10 days before it rained,” he said.
Mark treated 12-13 hectares of both ratoon and plant cane. The biggest challenge was getting the timing right.
“The roos just didn’t come back.”
“It hasn’t got a long life span and I had to let the cane come up enough to make sure the spray was on the shoots,” he said. “They were eating the ratoon cane on the other end of the plant cane, but I wanted the plant cane to come up enough for it to work.”
“I don’t think it’s poisonous, but it probably burns.” It was a relatively cheap option too, with the spray costing around $240 for 20 litres that are diluted with water.
The solution was delivered by Oztech Drones, which is already known in the region for spraying a few thousand hectares of cane land every week with a mixture of insecticides, herbicides and fertilisers.
Business owner Jamin Fleming said that like any other application, safety precautions are needed for the chilli spray. “You need your protection,” he said. “But it’s all natural—it’s just chilli.” Jamin said he’s since fielded calls from other growers interested in the approach. “A few guys have asked about it and want to look into it in 2024,” he confirmed. For Mark Pressler, it’s a no-brainer. “When the chips are down and it’s dry, you suffer from all sorts of pests,” he said. “I will definitely do it again.”
