Urban Birds Oust Bugs With Butts

[Judi Lynn]

BY CARRIE TATRO JAN 8, 2018





The house sparrows and finches of Mexico City are proud to be called bird brains. And why not? They have figured out how to use one of the most disgusting things on Earth – cigarette butts – to repel two of the other most disgusting things on Earth – ticks and mites. These blood-sucking, feather-feasting ectoparasites are a constant and pervasive threat to the nests of mama birds.

Country birds have easy access to nature's bountiful nest-making materials, including certain insect-repelling herbs and plants. City-dwelling birds, on the other hand, face a concrete and steel urban landscape, and must curate their nests from a more anthropogenic, or man-made, palette.

Enter cigarette butts.

A Dec. 5, 2012 study published in Biology Letters details the ongoing investigation of an urban population of breeding house finches and house sparrows at the National University of Mexico in Mexico City. The authors found that both species interweaved anywhere from a few to a few-dozen smoked cigarette butts into their twiggy, eclectic domiciles. In fact, the study concluded, the more butts, the healthier the nest.

If you just gasped, exhale already. Mama bird knows best.

More:
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/urban-birds-oust-bugs-with-butts.htm#mkcpgn=rssnws1

[msongs]

1. beneift more likely coincidence as lots of butts around and available compared to other stuff nt

[hunter]

6. It seems more likely they recognize the smell as something similar to plants they'd use in the wild.

They'd also remember the smell from the nests they were hatched in.

If cigarette butt lined nests increase the survival rates of baby birds the "tradition" spreads.

Many bird behaviors are learned.

[progressoid]

2. Or they are addicted to the nicotine.

[OregonBlue]

3. Native Americans soaked tobacco and poured the water over their plants to get rid of

all kinds of bugs. It's a great pesticide in small doses.

[mopinko]

4. yeah, i remember seeing tobacco tea recommended for bugs

back in the day.
maybe i need to brew up my butts.

[OregonBlue]

5. I vape and I make my own, so I buy liquid nicotine. I use it, diluted with lots of water to get rid

of bugs in my indoor plants. My son uses it, also very diluted, to get rid of gnats in his pot plants. Works like a charm.