permaculture

[Rich Blaha <rich@mossbackfarm.com>]

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