Common vole. Animal mouse vole: a description with a photo, what it eats, what it looks like, how to get rid of it. Types of voles: common, red, forest, underground

Vole family (Microtidae).

In Belarus, it is distributed throughout the territory. Common, locally abundant.

Until recently, the common vole was considered as a widespread polytypic species with an extensive range. It turned out that the common vole sensu lato consists of at least 5 independent, but similar in morphological characters and biology species. On the territory of Belarus there are 2 such twin species: 46 and 54 chromosome voles. The first was called the common vole - Microtus arvalis. The second, 54th chromosome - Eastern European vole - Microtus rossiaemeridiaonalis.

The boundaries of the range of M. arvalis sensu stricto need to be clarified. The territory of Belarus is included in the range of both species. Proven findings of M. arvalis sensu stricto in Belarus are known in the territory of the Pinsk region of the Brest region, Vitebsk region of the Vitebsk region, Minsk and Stolbtsovsky regions of the Minsk region, Lida region of the Grodno region. The cohabitation of "twin" species has been established.

It is similar in appearance to a mouse, but has shorter ears, a tail, and a compact build. Length: body 8.5-12.3 cm, tail 2.8-4.5 cm, feet 1.3-1.8 cm, ear 0.8-1.5 cm. Body weight 14-51 g. Individuals M. arvalis sensu stricto from Belarus vary in size. Body length in small forms up to 100 mm, in large ones up to 135 mm. Tail length in small ones up to 34, large ones up to 51 mm. On average 33-37% of body length. The predominant color of the upper body is gray, brown and reddish shades can be observed. The number of plantar tubercles is 6, sometimes 5. Intraspecific taxonomy is rather confused, especially in the central part of the range, and needs further study.

Teeth 16. Unlike forest voles, teeth do not have roots.

The color of the summer fur of the back and sides is gray-brown with a slight brownish tinge, the abdomen is dirty whitish. Occasionally there are also lighter specimens. Their general coloration is brownish-gray, the abdomen is whitish with a slight yellowish coating. The tail is one-color or slightly two-color.

According to external signs, it is not reliably identified from M. rosiaemeridionalis. It differs from other voles of the genus Microtus by the presence of 4 protruding angles on the outer side of the first molar of the lower jaw and seven loops separated from each other on the chewing surface of this tooth.

In general, the common vole sensu lato is found almost everywhere in Belarus and is numerous everywhere. It lives in different habitats, but prefers open meadow, treeless spaces, especially agricultural land. The most intensively populated by the common vole are agricultural lands on reclaimed lands, where the banks of all types of reclamation canals are the main habitats for reproduction and survival of the vole. In some places it is numerous, especially in meadows, lands with sown grasses, clearings among bushes, clearings, and gardens. It is rare in mature deciduous and pine forests and completely absent in spruce forests. In winter, it can be found in stacks, haystacks, piles of potatoes, gardens, and in human buildings. The attraction to open biotopes is a feature of the common vole sensu stricto, while the Eastern European vole tends to sparse forests or clearings surrounded by massifs, a mosaic forest-field landscape.

Lives in burrows of varying complexity and depth, depending on habitat conditions. Burrows are arranged on roadsides, borders, wastelands, banks of reclamation canals. In open areas, burrows are located at a depth of 10-30 cm, in the arable layer no deeper than 50-60 cm (up to a maximum of 70 cm). The depth at which the nest of the gray vole is arranged depends significantly on the season, vegetation cover, and the nature of the relief.

In places of settlement, it forms peculiar colonies. Each burrow has several chambers (nesting and food stores) and outlets. Several burrows branch off from the nesting chamber in different directions; The nesting chamber has the shape of an elongated ball with a diameter of 8-10 cm, Savitsky et al. (2005) indicate 14-16 cm. The nest is built from grasses thinly split along the stems. Very dry. The inner part is completely lined with pieces of leaves, stems of cereals, down of Compositae. The exits from the burrows and feeding places are connected by paths. Under favorable conditions, the same burrows are used for several years, which leads to their maximum complexity. The vole sometimes digs a hole from different ends, and quite accurately brings one move to another. Winter holes are laid between the earth and snow; when the snow melts, they remain in the form of characteristic "earth sausages".

Vole mobility is low: daily foraging movements are carried out within a radius of 15-20 m. The young remain to live next to their parents. Voles have a well-developed "instinct at home": animals caught and carried to a distance of up to 2.5 km are able to return to their native family. Animal migration can only occur in the absence of food. This usually happens on arable land after harvest. The animals are good swimmers.

The vole belongs to the herbivorous rodents, its food set is very diverse. Green parts of plants make up 88%, seeds of cultivated plants - 35.1%, wild plants - 27.3%. In spring and summer, these are young shoots of plants: mainly cereals and Compositae. In autumn, berries predominate, in winter - seeds and bark of trees, green or dry vegetative parts of plants. The set of forage plants is determined by the composition of soils and the area where the vole lives. On average, per day, the animal eats an amount of food equal to 50-70% of its body weight. The instinct to store food is very poorly developed.

Vole breeding occurs from April to October. In the southwestern part of Belarus, in normal seasons, it starts breeding in the first ten days of April. In ecologically favorable years it is 10-15 days earlier, in unfavorable years it is the same period later, in the central part of the country it is 5-7 days later. Only in places with an abundance of high-calorie food (in haystacks, stacks of straw) does this cycle continue in winter. Females reach puberty at the age of 20-30 days with a body weight of 12 to 20 g. Males become sexually mature at the age of 30-45 days with a body weight of 18-25 g. The duration of pregnancy is slightly more than 20 days. During the season, the female can bring up to 5 litters of 2-9 cubs (usually 4-6). Under natural conditions, the female manages to have no more than 4 broods, more often 1-3, which is associated with a total life expectancy that does not exceed 8-10 months. By September, overwintered (last year's) animals make up no more than 5% of the populations. The first two generations of the current year begin to breed in July - August, having time to bring 1-2 litters per season. The weight of born naked and blind cubs is 1.2-2.3 g, body length is 34-39 mm. They grow very fast. By the age of 10 days, the mass reaches 6-8 g, the body is completely covered with fur, the eyes open, the animals begin to move freely and independently obtain food, and at the age of 3 weeks they are able to resettle.

Adult voles often live in pairs, and the male also takes care of the offspring. The female can show "collectivism": feed and raise newborns in her own and someone else's nest, or 2 females can bring offspring into one nest. Males are polygamous.

The common vole plays a significant role in the diet of predatory mammals. In the diet of owls (long-eared owl, gray owl) this is an absolutely dominant group. In the Brest and Grodno regions, it makes up 64.89% of the occurrences in the diet of these birds, which is 3.5 times more than the share of the three subdominant food items combined.

The common vole is the main and very serious pest of agricultural crops. It eats almost all cultivated plants. First of all, crops of perennial grasses are damaged - clover, alfalfa, grass mixtures; legumes - peas, wikis; cereals - wheat, rye, oats and, to a lesser extent, barley. By autumn, vole populations reach high numbers and are able to destroy a significant part of the crop. In the meadows, where the vole colonies are located, the grass is almost completely destroyed, and the heaps of earth that the animals throw out when digging burrows make mechanized grass harvesting difficult. In gardens covered with snow, voles eat at the base of the bark and roots of fruit trees. Settling in the basements of residential buildings, they damage the stocks of grain, root crops, cabbage, and potatoes. Animals can be a source of human infection with tularemia, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, listeriosis and swine erysipelas.

Common voles live for 8-9 months; individuals under the age of 14 months and older are rarely found in nature.

Microtus arvalis (Pallas, 1778) - Common vole

systematic position.

Class Mammalia, order Rodentia, family Cricetidae, subfamily Microtinae, genus Microtus, subgenus Microtus (Schrank, 1798)—grey voles. According to various sources, the composition of the species includes from 20 to 30 subspecies; in the fauna of b. USSR - 9-12.

biological group.

Harmful rodents.

Morphology and biology.

Dimensions are relatively small: body length - up to 130 mm, tail length - up to 49 mm (30-40% of body length). The predominant color is gray, the tail is one-color or slightly two-color, the paws on the outside do not differ in color from the top of the body. The diploid set of chromosomes is 46. An inhabitant of the forest-steppe, steppe and semi-desert. It inhabits predominantly cultivated landscapes (agrocenoses). Like other species of gray voles, it arranges shelters such as "complex burrows" that have a multifunctional purpose and ensure survival in open landscapes. With a high abundance, individual complex burrows merge into large settlements, occupying tens and hundreds of square meters.

Spreading.

Most of Western Europe, northern and central parts of Asia Minor, northwestern regions of Mongolia and China. On the territory b. USSR - from the western borders - to the Yenisei and Altai, including: Northwestern, Central Black Earth and Volga-Vyatka regions, Non-Chernozem zone, Ukraine, Moldova, North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Lower Volga region, Kazakhstan, South and Middle Urals, Western Siberia .

Ecology.

High ecological plasticity to habitat conditions. Very high dynamics of distribution of populations depending on external conditions (weather, agricultural practices, predators) and the state of the food supply. With a low abundance, it is preserved in reservation stations - crops of perennial grasses, pastures, inconvenient and abandoned lands. With an increase in numbers and mass reproduction, it populates crops of grain, tilled and industrial crops. It feeds mainly on green parts of plants, making small reserves of food for the winter. Under optimal feeding and heat exchange conditions, reproduction continues throughout the year; during this period there are up to 7 litters, on average 5-7 cubs in each. The intensification of agriculture is accompanied by the expansion of the range.

Economic value.

It harms almost all agricultural crops, especially crops of cereals and perennial grasses. In winter, under the snow, it gnaws the bark of fruit trees and seedlings. Carrier of especially dangerous infections for humans and domestic animals. Protective measures: timely and high-quality (loss-free) harvesting, compliance with crop rotations, deep plowing with layer turnover, bait control method using rodenticides.

The field mouse is a small rodent distributed throughout the world. Refers to the most numerous species of mammals - the classification of mice. There are over 100 species on earth. Perfectly adapt to any conditions of existence. There are no mice only high in the mountains, in an area covered with ice.

Appearance

A small animal is called differently: field, meadow, vole, baby, striped. Appearance is familiar to everyone, since field mice are frequent roommates of people. In cold weather or with the onset of other adverse conditions in the natural environment, they move to barns, warehouses, sheds, outbuildings, and houses. Often live in gardens, vegetable gardens, household plots.

Field Mouse Description:

• The maximum body length is not more than 12 cm, the average size is 10 cm, excluding the tail. A thin tail makes up 70% of the body length.
• The body is elongated, the hind feet are elongated. When running, always come forward.
• Long muzzle, small round ears, oblong nose.

The appearance is very attractive, harmless, cute. Especially interesting red nose. does not differ from the general proportions of most species of these rodents.

The coat is short, hard and has an uneven color. The belly is always lighter, the back with a black stripe. You can tell a vole by the stripe on its back. Coloring, color of wool varies depending on the region. Mouse vole is gray, brown, ocher, red. In summer it is darker, by winter it begins to change. Below are field mice in the photo, you can see the differences between the animal and other rodents clearly.

Interesting!

A vole's unique teeth grow throughout its life. Except for a row of small teeth in the upper jaw. The lower jaw has a pair of long incisors. They appear in the second month of life of mice, grow by 1-2 mm daily. To prevent excessive increase in teeth, rodents are forced to grind them down constantly. They bite hard objects that are not of nutritional value, but surrounding them.

How much a small animal weighs is not difficult to guess. A small animal gains no more than 30 g in weight. On average, a field mouse weighs 20 g.

food addictions

What the field mouse eats is of interest to most of the population. Since pests gnaw almost everything - wood, concrete structures, bricks. Some, plastic, rubber and other synthetic materials.

Lifestyle

In countries with a warm climate, the meadow mouse is active all year round. In our area, with the onset of cold weather, mice do not hibernate, but the process of reproduction of a new generation slows down. Relatively well tolerate low temperatures. They can safely overwinter on the field.

How field mice hibernate depends on the objects surrounding them, natural conditions. In the warm season, rodents live in the field, with an increase in numbers, the onset of adverse weather, cataclysms - fire, drought, flood, premature frosts, they settle in gardens and kitchen gardens. Each individual arranges housing for itself at a depth of about 1 m, in winter it goes down to 3 m deep. Usually, a meadow mouse hibernates in a hole.

Interesting!

The habitat of the vole includes a nest where mice are born and grow up, several chambers with food supplies, labyrinths of passages with an obligatory exit to the water.

In addition to the burrow, wintering occurs in haystacks, stacks left on the field, stacks, in barns, sheds, outbuildings. The most daring or arrogant sneak into the house. The question of where voles live in winter can be answered ambiguously - wherever possible.

Hibernation is uncharacteristic for the field mouse. The rodent living in our area cannot hibernate. With insufficient food, if the animal could not stock up on food, it risks dying. In winter, it occasionally comes to the surface during a thaw.

On a note!

Some varieties of voles sleep in winter, they can wake up with the onset of heat. They prefer to sleep in a hole. They begin to accumulate useful substances in the summer, a layer of fat is deposited, which disappears over the winter.

Behavioral Features

Field mice are extremely active, mobile, which is associated with the peculiarities of metabolism. During the day, the rodent eats about 6 times, but quickly consumes energy. Cannot stand hunger, even more thirsty. Without food, water lives no more than a week.

They adapt well to new conditions. They move along mastered lines, certain trajectories. They mark their territory with urine. Activities are activated after dark. In dark rooms they are active during the day.

Mice are extremely cautious, which makes them shy in the eyes of a person. The slightest rustle, the sound makes the rodent run for cover, hide in a mink. Enemies of mice: lizards, snakes, rats, dogs, cats, wild animals. Danger lurks at every turn. Who eats a field mouse can be listed for a long time.

The small rodent tries not to run far from the hole, moves away by 1 m. It prefers to move in the shade, under bushes, in tall grass. Each individual is assigned its territory. They live in packs, where there is a leader - a male, several dominant females.

On a note!

Life expectancy in the wild is 1 year, although according to genetic data they can live up to 7 years. Predators who daily hunt for field mice are to blame for everything. How long they live in artificial conditions depends on the conditions of detention, proper nutrition. The average age is 3 years.

Reproduction features

The field mouse becomes sexually mature after 3 months. A young female produces from 1 to 3 cubs, an adult - up to 12 in one litter. Pregnancy lasts about 25 days.

Cubs are born blind, naked, absolutely helpless. A photo of field mice after birth is presented below. The female takes care of the young offspring for up to 1 month, then the young are expelled. They equip their own housing, get food.

After 9-10 days after birth, the mouse is again ready for fertilization. Reproduces new offspring up to 4 times per year. The favorable period for this begins in May and lasts until October.

Sabotage

The field mouse can cause enormous damage to agriculture. It digs numerous holes in the fields, damages ears of wheat, leaves mounds of earth. As a result, this makes it difficult to harvest, the grain loses its presentation.

Settling in barns, warehouses, and other premises where a person began to store cereals, grain, flour, mice eat up a third of the reserves during the winter. Contaminate the product with faeces, urine. There is an unpleasant mouse smell in the room.

On a note!

The vole does not bite. At the sight of a person, he tries to quickly hide. But, being driven into a corner, it is able to pierce with sharp teeth. Dangerous spread of viral, bacterial, fungal infections, tularemia, plague, fever, rabies.

Rodent control

An increase in the number of mice in the field threatens with serious losses for agricultural workers. No less damage from rodents in the garden, in the garden. Poison baits are used to kill pests. Struggling,. In the premises they use, products with a pungent odor,. Preventive measures are also important.

Distributed throughout the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Western Siberia (except for the tundra) and the south of Central Siberia. This is a medium-sized animal of a typical brownish-gray color.

Body length 9–12.5 cm, tail 3–4.5 cm, body weight from 14 to 50, but more often about 20 g. Occurs in fields, meadows, forest glades and edges, also in settlements. In winter, it often penetrates into cellars of houses or into haystacks and stacks of straw.

The size of the imprint of the fore foot of this vole is 0.9×0.7, the hind foot print is 1.6×1.1 cm.

The way of movement is typical for all gray voles. She usually runs rather than jumps like a mouse. At the same time, it leaves 2 rows of frequent prints located in a snake. Step length 2–4, track width 2.5 cm.

However, both the length of the step and the width of the track may be somewhat different, depending on the size of the animal. If the animal jumps, then the footprints fall in pairs, like a little weasel. The length of the jumps is about 5, the width of the trail is 2–3 cm. And the paw prints of the gray vole never lie down.

Traces of a common vole: a, b - respectively, traces during a mincing run and a two-step pattern of short jumps: c - an imprint of the paws of a vole moving in long leaps; d - a hole in the snow - an outlet of a snowy mink: d - the front and rear paws of a vole from below; e - animal litter

When winter sets in and deep snow falls, the animals rarely appear on the surface. Living under the snow, they dig long winding passages. Above the settlements of voles, one can notice vents dug in the snow (about 1.5 cm in diameter) - vertical passages from the ground itself to the snow surface.

At the top, the animals are shown only during the relocation from the field to the villages or to other areas. If the weather is mild, then during the night they can move 500–1500 m. In frosty and windy weather, during forced relocation, many voles freeze or die from feathered or terrestrial predators.

Voles feed mainly on green parts of plants, cereals, legumes, and rosaceae. Occasionally they eat mollusks, insects and their larvae. In winter, they gnaw on the bark of shrubs and trees, including fruit trees. They begin to gnaw at the very ground, then rise higher, to the surface of the snow. There are traces of sharp narrow incisors on the sapwood.

In autumn, when the snow barely covers the ground, or in spring, as soon as it melts and the ground is exposed, one can see whole placers of droppings in the passages of voles. The sizes of individual grains can indicate which voles the discovered labyrinths belong to. The common vole has smaller droppings than other voles very similar to it, - (4–3.5) x (1.5–2.2) mm.

These animals live in complex shallow burrows, between which they tread noticeable paths, which turn into snowy passages in winter. In summer, nesting chambers are arranged at a depth of up to 30 cm, in winter they make nests from dry grass, which are located directly on the surface of the earth under a thick layer of snow. Many such nests can be found in the spring when the snow melts.

Under favorable conditions, a female vole can sometimes produce up to 7 broods per year, continuing to breed even in winter. There can be from 5 to 15 cubs in one litter. They are born naked and blind, but they develop very quickly and after 2 months they themselves are able to reproduce.

Funny smart animals and at the same time malicious "biters" of everything and everyone. They are often undeservedly confused with their closest sisters - house mice. However, the inhabitants of the free fields bring no less anxiety and harm to agriculture and the household. Animals beloved by cats and so not loved by women and farmers are part of the natural diversity.

The world is big enough for all species, you just need to coexist intelligently. Let's learn more about the field mouse, its habits, possible danger and methods of control.

Field mouse description

The field mouse has many varieties. Among her close relatives are:

• ordinary - the most common type;
• red - an inhabitant of the predominantly hot steppes of Asia;
• forest, preferring the forest-steppe zones of the Eurasian and North American continents;
• underground - a resident of urban communications and adjacent territories.

Despite the diversity, they all belong to the genus of voles, the family of hamsters, the order of rodents and the class of mammals.

The appearance of a field mouse

All types of voles have an elongated pointed muzzle, dark beady eyes (black or deep brown), pointed ears and a long tail, leaving about ¾ of the body length. This is a miniature rodent up to a maximum length of 13 cm, more often up to 10 cm, not counting the tail. The weight of a vole is about 15 g. On high cheekbones, mice have pterygoid plates, which makes it seem as if they have dimples on their cheeks. The paws are small, with feet about 1.5 - 2 cm long. The claws are short, blunted from constant digging.

The coat of the animal on the back is painted in a brownish-buffy color. It is not soft, but somewhat rough, short, in old individuals it even turns into “soft needles”, like in hedgehogs. A distinctive feature of voles is a dark stripe along the spine. On the abdomen, the coat is light gray.

It is interesting! Color intensity is related to the age of the mouse. More respectable individuals are lighter than young counterparts, among the hairs there are even gray ones.

The male vole is practically indistinguishable from the female. In order not to confuse the field mouse with its relative brownie, pay attention to their differences.

Field mice may well live in the house and in the garden, and domestic mice in the wild.

Vole lifestyle

Field mice in their way of life are somewhat reminiscent of mini-moles: they dig holes close to the surface of the earth and move along them. When digging, mice throw out the earth to their side, so the mound turns out to be gentle on one side, and the “entrance” into it is not from above, like a mole, but from the side. In winter, they move under the snow cover.

Important! Voles do not have a period of winter suspended animation, even in cold weather they need to actively move and look for food. At the same time, mice use supplies prepared in the summer in nests-pantries.

They live in minks or suitable shelters: under branches, stacks of straw, in sheds, etc. If a mouse builds a hole for itself, it makes it vast and branched. At a depth of 5 to 35 cm, there is a labyrinth from 4 to 25 m long with several storage rooms and a sleeping nest, as well as several emergency exits, one of which leads to a source of drinking water.

During the day, field mice prefer to hide underground and sleep, and during the day they become active.. They crawl out to the surface and look for food, gnawing almost everything that they meet on the way: plant roots, flower bulbs, tubers, bark at the bottom of trees. In search of suitable feeding, they can make real migrations.

Mice run fast, moving with a "jumping" gait. They know how to swim, but they prefer to avoid it. They often settle in colonies, often numerous: 1 or several female relatives and several generations of their offspring.

How long does a vole live

The average lifespan of a vole mouse in the wild is 1-2 years, as they have many natural enemies and dangers. If everything goes especially well in the life of a mouse, it can live up to 7-12 years.

Range, habitats

This rodent can be found almost all over the world, except for the hottest corners:

• on the European continent, including Finland and Denmark;
• in Siberia and the Urals;
• in the North American forest-steppe zones (up to the latitudes of Guatemala);
• they are found in Asia - China, Mongolia, Taiwan;
• from the south, their range is limited to Libya (North Africa) and northern India;

Despite the name, voles rarely settle directly on the fields. For them, a large amount of grass is preferable, so they choose meadows, forest edges, clearings, as well as places near human habitation: cellars, greenhouses, sheds, comfortable shelters in the garden and vegetable garden. Voles can even climb into the house and settle under the roof, under the wall sheathing, in the ventilation, in the insulation layer.

It is interesting! If the area is damp and swampy, a smart rodent will not build a hole, but will build a grass ball nest, which will be located on a high branch of a bush.

During floods, during periods of prolonged downpours, winter thaws, the minks of animals are flooded with water, and many mice die.

Field mouse diet

The vole is a herbivorous rodent. Since she belongs to the hamster family, her teeth grow throughout her life, so the instinct provides for their constant grinding. This explains the fact that mice almost constantly gnaw something. During the day, an adult vole must eat an amount of food equal to its own weight.

The mouse eats almost everything it can find from vegetation:

• herbs and their seeds;
• berries;
• nuts, including cones;
• grain;
• tubers, roots, bulbs, root crops;
• buds and flowers of various bushes;
• soft bark of young trees.

Winter stocks in the pantries of field mice can reach a mass of 3 kg.

Reproduction and offspring

With the onset of spring warmth and until the very autumn cold, field mice actively breed.. Pregnancy in mice lasts 21-23 days. During the season, the female is able to give up to 8 litters, more often 3-4, in each of which bring 5-6 cubs. This means that if initially 5 pairs of voles settled on the site, by the end of the warm season the number of mice can reach 8-9 thousand.

Mice are born completely helpless, their eyes are blind. But their development is extremely fast:

• vision appears on the 12-14th day;
• after 20 days they can already survive without a mother;
• after 3 months and even earlier they are able to bear offspring themselves.

It is interesting! Cases are known when female voles become pregnant on the 13th day of their life and bring viable offspring at 33 days of age.

natural enemies

Such fertility is due to the fact that in nature mice have many enemies that limit their population. The most important vole hunters are birds of prey: owls, hawks, red-footed falcons, etc. One owl can eat more than 1000 mice in a year. For some animals - weasels, polecats - mice are the main, almost exclusive food. A ferret will catch and eat 10-12 mice per day.

Weasel is also dangerous for rodents because it has a flexible and narrow body, with which it is easy for her to penetrate the nests and eat the cubs there. With pleasure, a hedgehog, a snake and, of course, a cat will eat a vole.

Population and species status

Vole mice are extremely diverse. Scientists have found that there are more than 60 species and subspecies of them. Outwardly, it is difficult to distinguish them; only the method of gene analysis is suitable for identification.

It is interesting! The mice themselves perfectly distinguish relatives from another population and never mate with them. How they reveal interspecies differences has not yet been clarified.

The vole mouse genome is a scientific mystery: the genetic material is arranged without apparent logic, and most of the information is concentrated in the sex chromosomes. The number of chromosomes is from 17 to 64, and in males and females they either coincide or differ, that is, there is no sexual dependence. In one litter, all mice are genetic clones.

Another unique feature of the field mouse population is the “self-transplantation” of genes into the nucleus from other cell organs (mitochondria). Scientists are still struggling in vain over gene transplantation in humans, while in voles it has been working for more than one thousand years. The only explanation scientists have is a sharp evolutionary jump in the population of field mice over the past million years.

Since the mouse is a prolific animal, its number is highly dependent on the year and season.. We noticed that growth spurts and "demographic pit" in voles alternate after about 3-5 years. The maximum noted number of animals in the population was approximately 2000 mice per 1 hectare of area, and the smallest - 100 individuals per hectare. The family of rodents, in addition to mice, includes lemmings and muskrats.

Vole mouse and man

People have long considered this small, nimble animal to be their enemy. Choosing a place to live near human dwellings, storehouses and arable land, field mice cause damage to stocks and plantations, and besides, they are carriers of many infectious diseases.

Storm gardens, fields and orchards

In the years when reproduction is most active, the harm that the vole causes to plants is very noticeable:

• gnaws underground parts, causing the death of the plant on the vine;
• spoils root crops and gourds;
• sharpens stocks of grain and seeds;
• gnaws the bark of young shrubs and trees.

Voles eat vegetable farm products not only on the ground, but also in storage facilities, on elevators, in stacks and haystacks, cellars.

Important! It is not difficult to understand that a family of voles has settled on your site: the colony will be given out by the so-called "airstrips" - traces left on the surface from digging underground burrows.

Dangerous carrier

The vole mouse can be a carrier of extremely serious diseases, many of the pathogens of which can cause death in humans. Cute and funny animals, especially in the mass, can cause:

• leptospirosis;
• tularemia;
• erysipelas;
• toxoplasmosis;
• salmonellosis, etc.

They have gained notoriety due to the fact that they are practically the only natural carrier of the plague in the Transcaucasian region.

How to deal with a vole

Due to the danger to agriculture, as well as to human health and life, one should strive to limit the number of field mice. There are two areas of struggle for this:

• passive-preventive - scaring away mice from places of residence of people and agricultural objects;
• active - measures aimed at the direct destruction of rodents.

Repel field mice

As part of scaring away, it is effective to use plants for planting and unfolding, the smell of which mice do not like. Among them are garlic, black root, calendula, mint, wormwood, tansy and other strongly smelling herbs and fruits. You can use not the plants themselves, but essential oils, laying out the pieces of cotton wool soaked in them near the intended place of the settlement of mice. Sometimes kerosene, ammonia are used for the same purpose. Mice avoid spilled ash.

Another humane scare option is ultrasonic or vibration devices, which create uncomfortable conditions for mice to stay in the area of ​​action. They can be purchased in stores. The "home" version of such a repeller is an inclined bottle dug into the ground, which will hum and vibrate in windy weather. Similarly, tin cans on poles around the perimeter of the site and even “wind music” hung on trees (ringing sticks or bells) will act similarly. A colony of mice is unlikely to settle on the site and in the house, which is “patrolled” by the natural mouse enemy - the cat.

Destruction of voles

"In war" all means are good. When crops and plantings are threatened with irreparable harm, extreme measures may be justified. The arsenal of folk and industrial methods offers the following options for fighting voles for life and death:

• "Gypsum thrombus" - mix salted wheat flour with lime or gypsum. A rodent that has eaten such a bait will die from a blood clot in the stomach.
• Poison baits - in specialized stores you can buy ready-made poisons for rodents in the form of wax tablets or granules. When laying out, you can not take them with your bare hands, otherwise smart mice will not touch them. Some types of poisons have a delayed effect, and poisoned rodents have time to infect their fellows.

Important! You should not use this method if a cat or dog can eat dead mice - this can be fatal to the life of a pet.

• Physical destroyers- all kinds of mousetraps. Not effective if the mouse population is large.
• Traps - farmers come up with various options, from a jar placed on top of a coin, which a mouse drops under it, to a bottle with a small amount of sunflower oil dug into the ground. Ready-made traps are also on sale. Another option is a board with special glue applied to it, on which the mouse will stick securely.

According to the latest data, it is not traditional cheese that is more attractive as bait for voles, but nuts, chocolate, a piece of meat, bread with sunflower oil. Another unpleasant moment associated with all punitive methods is that you have to regularly clean up and dispose of dead mice.

Why You Shouldn't Exterminate Voles Completely

Like any species on our planet, voles occupy their place in the ecological niche. By eating grass seeds, they limit the growth of grass cover, which prevents young trees from breaking through to the light, thereby preserving forests. In addition, their role in the food chain is very important for the population of birds of prey and many fur-bearing animals. In those years when few mice are born, the number of foxes, owls and other animals that feed on voles decreases. Some types of voles are rare and endangered and are protected:

• Evronian;
• Muya;
• Balukhistan;
• mexican;
• Japanese red;
• Taiwanese;
• central Kashmiri.

Prevention measures

To reduce the likelihood of voles settling in your area, you can:

• get a cat or a dog;
• do not drive away the natural enemies of mice, especially owls;
• prevent littering the site with inventory, firewood, faulty furniture, etc.;
• constantly loosen the ground, destroying the "grooves" of field mice;
• promptly dispose of cut branches, leaves, weeds and other garden debris.

To combat voles, it is necessary to apply an integrated approach that combines prevention, creating an uncomfortable environment for rodents and physical destruction.