29.03.2024

The water rat or vole methods of pest control

Summer is not only a season of holidays and vacation for many people is a time of hard work in the gardens. Plowing, planting, watering, weeding, weed control – all this takes a lot of time and effort from gardeners.

And as happens it is insulting, when after such works a part, if not most of the crop is permanently damaged. Who made it and how many is anyone’s guess. Today we talk about one small, inconspicuous animalthat is able to create a very big trouble for you and your crop.

The water rat, or as it is called – water vole

At first glance, it is a small harmless animal, its weight is about two hundred grams, and the size comes to just 25 inches. From water rats, small blunt muzzle and massive body. Voles usually have a gray color with brown tint, but there are quite rare examples of the black colorant. The fur of these rodents is so dense and thick that the body and the ears for him to make out quite difficult. These creatures live on the basis of the names near bodies of water – streams, rivers swamps are the main places of their habitat. Water voles are great swimmers and excellent divers.

During high water vole prefer to move to nearby fields, orchards, gardens, and equipping there, digs a hole, thereby causing great harm to these sites. Vole burrows are always very long, shallow, have a complex structure.

Eats the water rat is mainly what grows near bodies of water in which it lives: runaways of a reed, bulrush, sedge, cattail – all of it is consumed by the rodent in very large quantities, as it has very low nutritional value. If the habitat of a water rat is elected to the garden, she eats almost everything that grows on it – vegetables, herbs, bark fruit trees, berries, flowers roots. All this is eaten in large quantities. If in the garden settled a whole bunch of voles – they can destroy the entire crop.

In one season the water rat is capable of producing 3-4 broods, and each brood can be from 5 to 7 cubs! Young voles since the time of switching to “adult diet” and join in the destruction of crops. As part of the cubs becomes capable of reproduction already in 7-8 months. All these factors lead to very fast flood the garden with water voles.

The water rat is very Thrifty rodent – in the winter it makes a very good stocks – often you can stumble upon “warehouse” water vole. These stocks deserve special attention: all tubers in them, neatly stacked and they are all the same size and perfect shape.

Methods of dealing with water vole

Trap to combat a water rat is very weak, and they are unable to destroy large flocks. The same can be said about the traps. Of course, if you have a plot there is no large “group” of voles, you can try to set the trap or a trap – and worse it becomes exact not. Than you have the cat-rat-trap you can use it in the capture of a water rat.

One of the effective methods is the so-called arc trap, which is designed specifically for the capture of fur-bearing animals. You will need to detect the exit of the hole the water vole and near it at a depth of approximately 25 centimeters to set the trap.

There are also a number of lures from which the water vole is killed:

  • 20 gr. rosin + 20 gr. powdered sugar + 15 gr. borax. Baits should be laid out in the evening near the burrows of water voles.
  • 25 gr. gypsum is mixed with 40 gr. flour and a couple drops of vegetable oil. Stomach water voles plaster starts to harden, and the rodent dies. The bait is laid out for the night and in the morning burned. The next day, the procedure is repeated until, until all voles are destroyed.
  • Poisoned grain.
  • Sugar, malt and lime mixed in equal proportions. Next to the bait is to place a saucer of water. After water vole eats the bait, she immediately wants to drink. A mixture of quicklime and water in the stomach of the water vole, will result in her death.
  • Gypsum and roasted bran mixed with fat (one part of plaster and bran to two parts fat). The resulting mixture is required to roll small balls and put them in places where water voles.
  • Grated vegetables: carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, potatoes. They should also be put in places where pests. This lure has efficiency only in springtime.
  • Specialized chemical lure. They can be found in any retail outlet, specializing in a variety of poisons.
A few important conditions
  • Throw the bait in places where they will not have access to other animals and children.
  • It is desirable to hide the bait, for example, in cut off plastic bottles or pieces of pipe.
  • Bait in any case should not contain water.
  • In the preparation of baits can not be contacted with bare hands – if the rat will feel the human scent, she will not touch the bait. Preferably during cooking can use plastic or wooden utensils.
  • When pest control it is important that all surrounding neighbours have joined you. Otherwise, the struggle will become useless in a few days with the neighbor’s gardens to you again descend to the uninvited guests.
  • When cleaning dead rats should be more careful and do it with gloves on. The water rat is a carrier of a dangerous infection – tularemia.

Finally, I will show you how to see if rodents on your site translated.

You need to find the holesleading from the burrow to the surface, and stamp down their legs. If the hole is left untouched for several warm and Sunny days – then the hole is empty, and the rat died. And in the case when the hole is reopened – this should put the bait.

We wish you abundant harvests and the lack of attention from pests!

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