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nafex - [NAFEX] Juicey Fruit Gum and Voles

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  • From: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Juicey Fruit Gum and Voles
  • Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 06:17:59 -0400

Anecdotal evidence is always suspect, and considering the expense commercial apple growers go to to control voles with poison applications, often applied in tamper proof containers, I kind of doubt that something as wonderful as multi-year control with a few sticks of chewing gum is valid.  I tried a similar rumor of controlling chip monks with gummy bears a few years back and it of course failed miserably.
 
I get both meadow and pine voles in my nursery and some years have suffered considerable damage but the problem is cyclical which makes belief in false cures all the more likely.  I recommend for people who don't want to use poison baits to use mouse traps covered by large trays (sold in home improvement stores for mixing small amounts of concrete and the like).  I keep things under control on my 3 acres with about a 50 traps under several trays using whole hole peanuts.  I use mostly plastic mouse traps purchased from Gemplers that have a nice bait reservoir.  I throw in a few similar rat traps to catch anything too large for the mouse traps (wood rats and chip monks) just so they don't spring all the small traps. 
 
I start trapping in the first week of  November when the pine voles come up from under ground and move the traps throughout my property over the next 2 months.  I started this approach 3 years ago and have trapped lots of both types of voles and only lost a single tree which was in a pot so I hadn't trapped in the area it was.  It was killed (or maybe just severely set back) by pine voles.
 
As far as peanut butter and plaster of Paris, this combination does have a reputation all over the world as an affective rodentcide.  My brother from Alaska and worker from Ecuador both confirm this world-wide, or at least hemisphere-wide endorsement.



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