what about dairy barn cats. ? That’s the name we use down here for feral cats that work, abandoned, Barn and fields I know feral cats can create another problem. But feral cats are mice and vole eating machines
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we don’t have feral cats here. or not many as its too cold for them to survive the winter. our cat refuses to go outside from Dec. to April. moving around in 5ft deep snow is also a problem, but not for the voles. they have free reign under the snow. we see their tunnels on the top of the grass, when the snow melts.
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I try to look at the problem as an outsider. As an immigrant with kind of different background of let me say a different philosophy toward rodents extermination procedure.
Here in America I can see a very expensive and extensive approach to getting rid of any rodents.
My garden is surrounded by a forest and mostly suffering from a porcupines damage. Number two evil are woodchucks : both rodents/animals can infiltrate in through my plastic deer stopping fence on a bottom. There is nothing effective on a market for those creatures.
Now we are talking about voles and mice. NYC is fighting with rats spending million of taxpayers money on that sanitation procedure. Any success ? I doubt it.
My simple question is about more radical approach to exterminate unwanted rodents. Why nothing with genetically transmitted poisonous effect is available ?
Why should we buy and feed those unwanted rodents till our wallet became thin ? Over the time all bait blocks became eaten but instead of our local voles and mice , another are coming from a forest or a neighborhood. It seems like a never ending story. I cannot feed them permanently.
I don’t feel comfortable to spend my salary for feeding those creatures. Our modern chemical industry supposes to offer us - humans/farmers/gardeners with more effective “one bite” poison or something with a sterilization effect. Our scientists could choose what gender to target : male or female.
Honestly, it seems so stupid for me to fight with wild rodents by feeding them with bait blocks. Those blocks are not distributed for free and they are extremely law effective. Have no idea how many rodents I have now on my property and how many resides around.
Your comments would be nice to read here.
If you are willing to invest money and time into trees which take many years to bear fruit and a vole can easily kill it over the winter, it seems like not an onerous investment (and wrapping the base of trees in window screen mesh as well as a redundancy also seems reasonable)
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done that and the bastards climbed up over the screen while under the snow and still girdled my tree 4ft up. why there are few orchards up here. the ones that are, poison them like i do.
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I feel blessed not to have that problem. It’s probably all our barn cats, they are always carrying mice and rats with the off event of a rabbit or squirrel.
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every region has its issues. with us its voles . in the cities and burbs its deer, coons and squirrels. out west its pocket gophers, etc… they all love fruit trees and bushes. and the age old battle with mother nature for the fruit continues…
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Dear rubus, the topic was about homemade bait station for voles, rats and mice and the way to get rid of them. Your suggestion is great but does not fit the topic. Those rodents are feeding not only on young trees bark, they chew everything under the ground : roots, potatoes, carrots, name it. And they multiplies enormously.
Here we do discuss such rodents extermination ways, not plant protection techniques.
Um, I thought I was… and this topic is in another thread as well; my point was to use both and stated the mesh was a redundancy if you didn’t catch that