tom cat. got it at TSC. comes in a qt. plastic tub. every spring , when i check the bait stations its all cleaned out so now i put 2 pieces and they ate all of that too. last winter my neighbor lost 15 of his 5yr. old blueberry bushes to voles. suprising as it was a mild winter. i told him what i was doing and now he does the same. between the 2 of us it should really bring down the population.
Chinook, fair enough all zone 4’s are cold, though relative, I’m sure for those in lower zones! But what I was getting at is the USDA climate zones are misleading as they only refer to average winter lows. I grew up in zone 4 SW WI, which is a different summer climate and makes a difference when determining what will grow well compared to the cool lake-influenced climate along the shore of Lake Superior where I’m planning my second attempt at a little orchard and attempting to avoid too many poor choices. Appreciate your experience with Honeycrisp, I never thought of it as a particularly late ripening apple!. I do like Zestar flavor, and have been considering it, seems to keep pretty well for an earlier apple or so I’ve heard. Goodland is a recommended apple for my location, though not personally aware of anyone growing it here, but find conflicting reports on keeping abilities… Can I ask what part of the country your orchard is in?
1 Like
@JinMA yes, I’m trying the snow stamping this year in hopes of discouraging voles. Old aluminum window screening wrapped around the base always worked for me, cheaper and rubbed against the tree less than hardware cloth. I didn’t know the voles would simply overtop it when it the snow was deep enough…
2 Likes
@steveb4, I tried a poison one year that was supposed to be specific to voles in a similar pipe structure, but after they ate a bit, they seemed to just avoid it. Can’t remember the brand/formulation. I’m always worried I’ll kill off some predators and have generally avoided the poisons since. I have some luck with apple core or peanut butter/oatmeal baited mousetraps, though they also seem to learn to avoid that also. I also made wooden boxes with vole sized holes and put an unbaited trap just inside the hole inside the box. That works at least well as anything else (maybe better), especially when you put it on one of their runs. Trapping has helped but even when just trying to protect a small area, has never been 100% for me. I hope improved tree protection and snow stomping does the trick because it’s clear the voles are still around this year.
1 Like
Yeah, I kind of wish I had tried window screen. Hardware cloth is kind of a pain to work with, though it does seem to do the job pretty well. We don’t get the snow you’ll be getting up there, so I don’t have the problem with things going over the top. (At my grandparents’ house, which was cobbled together out of a couple of double-wides, there were years when they could walk out of the front door, around the back, and up onto the roof. Or so I am reliably informed…)
1 Like
MA I am outside of the box. I am a 80 minute drive north of Sweet Grass, Montana. I envy your lake location. It may cool your summers, but it also lengthens your falls. More time for Honeycrisp to reach it’s peak.
1 Like
@steveb4 I’ve been using the greenish RAMIK bait block pieces in T-shaped homemade PVC pipes…and that seems to work pretty well for me. Rather than putting them out in the Fall, however, I put my bait stations out at the end of Winter, as soon as the snow is partially melted. I put about twenty bait blocks in each of the two stations, and move them near to the areas with the most signs of activity. The first year, I think I got most of the ground squirrels/prairie dogs (no more of those big holes that would try to swallow a wheel) along with some voles too. This past year, there was more vole activity on the other side of the pasture and I moved the stations over that way…and now it seems they moved again–closer to my garden now. Next year, I think I’ll try some of that repellant which is put in a broadcast spreader to drive them away from the garden. And perhaps since it’s looking like such a mild winter, perhaps I’ll set those bait stations up this weekend and see what happens. Why not, eh?
1 Like
ive had good luck with the peanut butter flavored tomcat bait. i either have a huge population or they really like the bait as come spring, theyve eaten it all every year ive put it out so far.
@JinMA, yes regarding walking out of the house and up onto the roof on the snow, that happened to us a our second winter here. The kids loved it, of course… Roughly 10-12 feet of snow is average here though we are not on track for that so far this winter.
2 Likes
we get about the same here but only 8in. so far and very mild temps. you ever have the problem of your trees and bushes getting snow pruned? its a big problem here. esp my highbush blueberries . they are 5 yrs old and only 4ft. its so depressing. hopefully our low snow totals with last season will give them a chance to get out of that 3-4ft danger zone finally. my currants, honeyberries and other bushes dont seem to have this problem.
1 Like
winter of 2007-2008 we had a record of over 200’’ here. my neighbor drove his snowmobile onto his house and parked it on the peak. wish i had took a pic of that. many people did the same just because.
1 Like
@steveb4, not sure what you mean by “snow pruned”? Is that where heavy snow/ice breaks branches? Probably one of the few issues I haven’t had here, though we developed a really serious ice crust last year and lost a few low branches on fruit trees that were pulled down as the snow melted. I guess most of my blueberries are either young or lowbush/hybrids and aren’t that tall. Among other things, the voles ate most of the flower buds off my blueberries last winter which was a serious disappointment!
2 Likes
Was the snow deep or did the voles climb the blueberry bushes? I wasn’t aware voles would do that. I wonder if that was why I had so few berries last summer. This December I squirted some Liquid Fence near the base of most of my trees and bushes as an extra precaution in addition to the fencing and hardware cloth. I also trapped about 130 mice.
1 Like
In Sheboygan, our púcas bend over to chew on the lower branches of apples. I don’t know why they would do that, but you never can tell about púcas.
thats exactly what happens in the years there is alot of snow, there is alot of ‘‘pruning’’ of branches. smaller trees and bushes mostly. once they get over 5ft. they are usually ok but its to get them there. last winters low snowfall has given them a chance. looks like we are going to get even less this winter so they might be out of the danger zone by thjis summer.
they tunnel under the deep snow which allows them to make tunnels up and over the hardware cloth to eat the bark. luckily the last few winters have had less snow and warmer temps so they had the feed to get thru the winters and no incentive of way to get over the wire. when its really cold they get desperate . thats when the most damage happens. and yes. field mice will also do damage when desperate.