North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

The photo is fascinating.  But my problem is not with meadow voles (which 
chew the trunk 
bark), but with pine voles, (who live in underground tunnels, dining off the 
roots of my apple 
trees.)  The tree guards won't help here.

In passing, I don't use the spiral guards, which run into a bit of money if 
you have a lot of 
trees.  Instead I cut sections of the corrugated black plastic drainage pipe, 
(what is called 
"Big-O" locally, although I don't know whether this is just a local term).  I 
slit this down one 
side and pop it on the trunks in the Fall.  It is important to take it off in 
the Spring, otherwise 
the round-headed apple borers use it to hide their egg-laying.).  One gets 
this pipe at the 
local building supply, where it is sold in long lengths, which are easy to 
cut into sections with 
a saw.  (I use a jig saw, which cuts sections and slits them in seconds.)