North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov]

The APPARENT success of the juicy fruit for me has inspired me to see if
I can set up an experiment on my property to test the method.  The only
problem will be finding comparable test tunnels and control tunnels.
Historically, I have treated the tunnels that are out in my lawn, and
ignore the tunnels at the edge of the forest.  However, I know that this
will not be a valid comparison for a treatment test.

I anticipate that I will have to wait to find some tunnels where the
location, soil, sun exposure, vegetation seem comparable and give it a
few trials.

-Major apparent limitation:  I will not be able to assess time of
tunneling.  Alan made the point that tunneling is cyclical so I assume
that tunnels are abandoned naturally at some point? I may find and
compare tunnels of very different but unknown age.  All I can think of
is repeated trials to minimize the tunnel age factor.

For those of you that know meadow voles - are there any other factors to
consider when I try to match variables between prospective treated and
control tunnels?

Betsy Hilborn
7a NC