North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

I have been checking my apple trees for signs of Round Headed Apple Borer (yes, they deserve capitals) (aka Saperda candida).  I was taken aback to discover that the trees which have not been attacked by Saperda are serving as nests for what I think is likely Pine Voles. (The burrows are several inches underground; my understanding is that meadow voles tend to burrow through the mulch but remain pretty much on the surface.)  Now, there was a thread awhile back on getting rid of squirrels with a mixture of peanut butter and plaster of Paris.  Would this work on voles??  Is there anything I can dump down the holes to terminate them? Any other advice in getting rid of them?

(I am not sure whether there is any significance in the fact that the trees with voles have no Saperda and vice versa.  This is 100%, but may just be chance, because there are trees with neither, (although most of them have terminal scab, or canker, or RAA, or fall caterpillar complex, or just plain mysterious fatal condition.)