At your next happy hour, be sure to thank barn owls!

Barn owls are great at pest control for anyone who works in agriculture. They take care of rodent populations that damage plants by eating the bark or the roots.  

But, specifically, what are some of the crops they protect?  

Grapes – vineyards tend to have high rodent populations that can interfere with the soil and destroy the plants from the roots. 
 

Sugar Cane – rats come in droves to eat sugar cane. 

Nuts & Fruit – voles and pocket gophers interrupt the soil, eat bark off trees, and eat through the roots. 

 

More and more farms are heading toward sustainability. With nesting boxes, owls can maintain a presence in these areas and combat the pest problem.

This saves money, since the farmers no longer need to pay for harmful chemicals to take care of it.

It also saves money by stopping the irreparable damage that can be caused by these pests to growing plants. 
 

Through our dissection experience, you can figure out more information about where your owl may be from. Depending on the features of the pellet, you can determine where your owl lives. For example, finding hay points to a barn, while feathers indicate a nesting box. 

See if you can match what you find in the pellet to where the owl may be from! Grab them here or click on the picture below to see what you can discover!