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  • From: Rich Blaha <rich@mossbackfarm.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] mice, voles, rodents, oh my!
  • Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:27:53 -0700

Hi Kevin

All the advice is good so far...I'd add that adding roosting poles, and
kestrel nestboxes, for the daytime raptors would complement the other
strategies. The effectiveness of that would depend on the size of the
garden, proximity to human activity, and adjacent habitat.

The downside of relying on the cold-blooded snakes is that they stop working
once the weather cools, and vole damage can be worse for your slower growing,
cool-season crops.

Voles are related to lemmings, and share the population boom-bust cycles of
their more infamous kin. No-till sheet mulching definitely creates excellent
habitat for them. You may want to consider taking some locations out of no
till and see if there's an effect on their population and your crop damage in
those areas. Their holes are pretty easy to see, and you can get some
estimates of different measure's effectiveness in just a few weeks.

I posted a bit about our vole population dynamics here
http://www.mossbackfarm.com/archive/000225.html a month ago

Good luck

Rich
www.mossbackfarm.com/journal

------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:21:28 -0400
From: kevin s <k.skvorak@verizon.net>
Subject: [permaculture] mice, voles, rodents, oh my!
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <a06210200c30c3117e3b9@[141.149.117.187]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

hi folks,

here in NYS we are approaching the end of our second season growing for our CSA primarily using mulchbeds. we have grown so far in three different locations, each with very different soil conditions, and very different wider ecological conditions, and the systems have proven themselves to be very productive means of growing.

pests, unfortunately, are another issue. particularly the fact that mulch beds provide wonderful habitat for rodents. (and we won't even get into slugs, and other overwintering pests here)

though we have seen consistently good yield, our losses to pests are often unacceptable under the circumstances, and as a CSA and market farming operation we have an obligation to provide produce of a certain quality, or we will simply not make it financially. while we can eat food damaged by rodents chewmarks, we can't pass it off on our members if we want them to stick around.

we want to continue moving no-till fwd, and continue promoting it both in our own communities, and in the wider farming community, but we can't do that if it just doesn't work to provide an economically viable yield.

so, i am earnestly seeking advice and help out there. though i hate to do it, i am thinking about some rounds of poisons over the coming months, and again in the spring to knock down the population, and then some limited change in cultural practices to try to minimize breeding sites, but just by observing the scale of our problem, i don't have high confidence in the success of any of this.

of course each area that we grow in has vastly different existing ecologies and concurrent opportunities for IPM strategies, and that is where we get the real benefits ie- more snakes=less mice. this isn't always something that can be created quickly, or even at all in some circumstances depending on the growing area and what is around it etc

eager for help (and feeling anxiety in advance of flippant advice from armchair permies like "get yourself some ducks mate! duck love mice...." etc)


thanks
kevin





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