Voles: the other unseen menace

VOLES: THE OTHER UNSEEN MENACE Adapted from FOR-121 Vertebrate Pest Management

Often damage by voles is mistaken as mole damage, because meadow voles can create extensive burrow systems, particularly in lush, thick grass lawns. Voles, or

meadow mice, are small, compact mammals with Voles, or meadow stocky bodies; small, mice, are small, rounded ears; short legs; compact mammals and short tails. When fully with stocky bodies; grown, voles are 4 to 5 small, rounded ears; inches long. Their long, short legs; and coarse hair can be blackish, short tails. When grizzled, or reddish, and they fully grown, voles spend most of their lives just are 4 to 5 inches below the soil surface. Voles long. Their long, are plant eaters, so if you

coarse hair can be find bulbs, tubers, shrubs, or

blackish, grizzled, or reddish, and they spend most of their lives just below the soil surface. other plants gnawed on at ground level or just below it, the culprit is likely a vole,

not a mole. You might find 1- inch diameter holes in the turf, indicating the entrance to a burrow system. Prairie and meadow voles feed on tree bark, primarily during the fall and winter. However, pine voles characteristically attack trees of all sizes in all seasons. Most pine vole damage occurs below ground, where the animals feed on rootlets and the bark of larger roots. Voles breed from January through October in Kentucky and

can produce an entirely new generation in about 60 days. Vole numbers

fluctuate from year to year; under favorable conditions, populations can increase rapidly. Voles often experience population booms and busts on about a four-year cycle. It is during the boom years that lawn and shrub damage is usually the worst. Vegetation management is the key to managing vole populations. Because voles like thick, heavy mulch and grass, the key is to not provide this type of habitat. However,

limiting this habitat can conflict with other objectives, such as applying mulch around landscape plants. To reduce the potential for vole damage, mulch should be pulled away at least 36” from the base of the plant material and if possible, the ground should be kept clear of any vegetation or mulch, because bare ground minimizes vole activity around plants. A thick, lush lawn, particularly with fescue as the grass species, creates ideal habitat for prairie or meadow voles. Lawns should be dethatched to reduce potential vole problems. To protect individual landscape plants, place hardware cloth cylinders (1⁄4-inch mesh) around the lower trunks and bury the cylinder’s lower edge 6 inches deep. Tree guards that control rabbit damage do not discourage voles, since voles feed mostly underground. In fact, voles have been known to nest under loosefitting guards! For very small vole populations, trapping may be sufficient control. Use ordinary mousetraps baited with peanut butter or apple. The traps must be placed in the runs and then covered with boards. Check traps

daily and reset as needed. This method is very time-consuming but is often the only solution, as

there are no chemicals labeled for vole control in the landscape.

Two clues to a problem with your compost heap are an ammonia smell

which indicates the need for more browns, or a rotten egg smell that is telling you to reduce moisture and turn for more air.

Making a Difference, One Peel at a Time

By Johnnie Riley Davis Marshall Master Gardener Yes, there is a reason why we should all be composting. According to the EPA, 30-40% of all available food in the US is wasted. Over one fifth of discarded material in landfills is believed to be food. Sadly, the third largest human related methane emission is from landfills. One of the simplest ways for private citizens to make a difference is to set up a compost system in their home. First, decide where you want to place your compost. It should be away from your vegetable garden or water well. The preferred location should be in the shade on a flat surface not prone to flooding. Small amounts of compost can be processed in a bin indoors. Composting methods include cold composting where no structure is needed, and the inner temperature is low; it requires very little maintenance and takes about a year. Hot composting usually is a confined heap that gets hot enough to kill seeds and pathogens, and works faster, but needs regular turning and wetting. Compost heaps should be made up of brown and green material. The browns are the carbon part of the mixture, and greens add nitrogen. The ratio should be 25- parts brown to 1-part green. Browns include yard debris of less than 1 inch, straw, brown leaves, sawdust and newspaper. Greens are grass clippings, eggshells, coffee grounds, vegetable and fruit peels, and herbivorous animal manure (rabbit, cow, sheep, chicken, and horse). Food scraps may be stored in a container near the kitchen sink to routinely add. Items that should not be added to compost include meat, fish, bones, fat, dairy products, chemically treated yard trimmings, plant debris that is disease or insect infested, ash, pressure treated wood, slick paper, pine needles, and thorny trimmings. Two clues to a problem with your compost heap are an ammonia smell which indicates the need for more browns, or a rotten egg smell that is telling you to reduce moisture and turn for more air. About a year after starting, it will be time to cover the heap with a piece of terra cloth and let it rest a few

weeks. Using a framed screen, sift over a wheelbarrow to remove uncomposted material. Adding compost to your soil will improve aeration and drainage, improve water holding capacity, encourage a healthy root system and will add some nutrients. By composting, we all can cut down on the waste of resources, gas, time, manpower, pesticides and fertilizer that goes into producing food in this country.

Protection From Ticks

By Dr. Johnathan Larson, Extension Entomologist and Anna Pasternak, Entomology Grad Student

Because the Lone star and American dog ticks are active during spring and summer and Blacklegged ticks are active through winter, it’s smart to protect yourself from ticks whenever you spend time outside in areas where ticks may live. Using repellants for your skin (such as DEET or picaridin) can help but treating your clothing with permethrin will provide the best protection. Permethrin is not to be used on the skin and should only be applied to clothing items. Everyone should also be performing routine tick checks after spending time in tick habitat to hopefully intercept ticks before they bite. Treating your pets with tick preventive medicine will keep them tick-free and help to prevent them from accidentally bringing the little bloodsuckers into your yard and house. FULL ARITCLE