Vic,
In the PNW, voles (aka meadow mice) will chew the bark at soil level, but
they will also chew off any young roots below the soil and if left alone, they
will reduce the underground part of my nursery trees to marshmallow sticks or
shish-ke-bab skewers.
So the aluminum foil will protect against the soil level chewing, but is no
use against the underground feasting.
For my precious nursery trees, I dig them up and store them in the carport
(also protects against anthracnose canker) and I sell them in the spring.
For those trees which are left in the ground over winter, I use zinc
phosphide as a quick take-down in Oct/Nov and then I set out Tee traps with
Ramik bait.
My nursery rows are surrounded with chicken wire to keep dogs and cats away
from the Ramik and to keep rabbits away from the trees.
For the young trees in my orchard (usually 2+ years old), I put a plastic
tree wrap around the trunk. This is about 16" high and I'm OK so long as we
don't have a big snowfall. A few years ago we had about 14"
snow and this gave the rabbits a boost up and they chewed above the plastic tree
guards.
Once the trees get to be about three years old they seem to be OK, but the
one and two year old trees can be easily killed. I notice them in February
as they stand at an angle in the row. When I touch them they are really
'loose' in the soil i.e. no roots. I still put plastic tree
guards around the older trees until I run out of tree wraps.
Another thing I try to do is keep the surrounding area weed-free. The
mice love to travel in the weeds and are protected from eagles and hawks by the
weeds. I lift my weed cloth in November because I found the
voles were having a great time eating and partying under the weedcloth protected
from the predators.
As for the poison being a danger to the hawks and eagles. I've
erected perching poles in the nursery area (12' high with a cross bar), but I
find these two birds of prey do not work in my orchard, they prefer the open
grasslands of the llama pastures. The
coyotes also prefer the open grasslands.
A member of the BC Ministry of Agriculture told me the voles also like
loose soil, so when I'm finished digging trees I try to stomp down any of
the soil near the remaining trees. I must admit, I'm not convinced that
they like loose soil. They've made a fantastic network of tunnels in the
llama pastures which have very hard-packed soil.
You can see why I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the deer-fencing went
up. And the chicken wire keeps the rabbits (and dogs and cats) away
from the nursery trees, now if I could only get those voles!
Derry
Derry Walsh & Bill Chase email:wchase@interchange.ubc.ca
Aldergrove, B. C., Canada
phone/fax (604) 856-9316
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Home web page http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/wchase/HTML
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Aldergrove, B. C., Canada
phone/fax (604) 856-9316
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Home web page http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/wchase/HTML
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but someone may be able to use it for mice and vole protection.
What has worked well for my nursery trees in 'vole country' NH is heavy duty aluminum foil.vic
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