Vole. Rodents. Garden, Vegetable Garden Care. Means Of Protection. How To Fight. Destroy, Withdraw. Folk Remedies. A Photo

The appearance of these animals is deceiving. Despite their "cute" and small size, they cause huge damage to the economy and are carriers of dangerous diseases. Common vole, or gray vole, is a rodent, 10-13 cm long, weight - up to 35 g, is distributed throughout Eurasia. The tail is no more than a third of the body length. The fur on the back is dark brown, on the abdomen - dark gray. Lives in open areas, inhabits meadows with various grass stands, forest glades, roadsides. Digs complex burrows at the level of the arable soil layer (15-35 cm deep).

Voles are grouped in several families. Each burrow consists of several chambers and has an extensive system of passages. Very fertile: under favorable conditions, one female per year can bring 5-7 broods of 5-7, and sometimes 10-12 naked blind babies. They grow quickly, on the 8-9th day they become sighted, and 2 weeks after birth they can live independently. They reach puberty at 2 months.

The vole feeds on green parts of plants - trunks, leaves, buds, roots, seeds (especially cereals and legumes). It causes significant damage to gardens in winter, nibbling the bark and roots of young trees. When gnawing annularly, the trees dry out. Damages strawberries and raspberry shoots under the snow. The voles have a poor diet, so they eat a lot. One individual is able to eat more of its own weight per day. Voles' teeth do not stop growing, so they need to grind them all the time. In addition, rodents need to constantly maintain a certain body temperature, and they spend a lot of energy on this. The vole is active practically all day long.

To reduce the number of pests, it is important to timely and thoroughly harvest the crops in the fields and between the rows of gardens, and systematically destroy weeds. It is also important to plow the soil on time, with high quality, which deprives the rodents of food and shelter.

Indoors, voles smell food. They love nuts, flour, sugar. To combat them, you can prepare a solution by taking equal amounts of flour, sugar and quicklime. For efficiency, water is placed next to the bait. You can prepare a gypsum-chocolate mixture for voles - dry chocolate powder is mixed with dry gypsum. After the "treat" they will go in search of water. Another recipe is to mix gypsum and flour (1: 1) and add a few drops of oil to form small balls. Plaster of Paris hardened in the stomach will kill the mice. If there are cracks in the house, fill them with glass wool, which is too tough for pests.

Voles do not like the smell of essential oils, wild rosemary, walnut, elderberry. Therefore, tree trunks are tied with black elderberry branches. Rodents do not like black root medicinal, imperial hazel grouse, garlic. Elderberry twigs, garlic cloves, walnut or wild rosemary leaves are placed in burrows so that pests leave them. This method is popular and effective: a small piece of cloth or cotton wool is moistened with kerosene or ammonia and put into a hole. In the fields, a bottle with a wide mouth is buried in the soil so that it is located at the soil level. A little vegetable oil is poured onto the bottom. A vole attracted by the smell of oil climbs there, but cannot get out.

But most often rodenticides are used against rodents - ready-made poisonous agents, often containing zinc phosphide, which is harmful to them. But these poisons cannot be used where there are children and pets.

Ammonium water (2-3% solution of ammonium nitrate) is fatal for voles, which is poured into the hole, 150-200 ml each, and then trampled. It is also important to inspect all vegetable gardens and orchards after the snow melts. Indoors, the most humane way to deal with rodents is ultrasonic repellents.

Natural enemies of voles are birds of prey, foxes, martens, ferrets, weasels, cats, dogs, snakes, etc. One owl, for example, eats about 1000-1200 rodents per year. The reasons for the death of voles are snowless winters, prolonged rains and downpours, sudden winter thaws with flooding of burrows, dry springs and summers.