One of key issues, preventing high yields, is water rat(water vole). An uninvited guest mercilessly damages seedlings, steals sweet root crops and potatoes from the beds, destroys bulbous flowers and causes irreparable damage to the root system of fruit and berry plants.
Such a rat is called a vole because of its habitat in natural natural conditions.
Body length - up to 24 cm, tail - about 10 cm, covered with small thick hairs, body weight - about 200 grams. The muzzle is blunt, shortened. Ears are small, hidden in wool. The fur is very lush, gray-brown. Sometimes there are black individuals. The vole chooses swamps, streams, small reservoirs, reclamation ditches located in close proximity to summer cottages as its habitat. swims well, dives well. In the natural environment, it feeds on soft and succulent parts of marsh plants: young shoots of reeds, basal parts of sedge, reeds and cattails; for complete saturation, the animal consumes such low-nutrient food in very large quantities.
Under natural conditions water vole, the fight against which is often inconclusive, is an active shrew. It digs large and complex burrows at a shallow depth, and equips exits to the surface in unremarkable places: dense grassy thickets, littered areas, nearby landfills.
During the season, water voles produce 2-4 broods, each of which has 6-7 cubs. At the age of one month, the animals are happy to switch to juicy food, including the rhizomes of garden flowers and young trees. Part of the younger generation begins to breed in the same year.
For the winter, the water vole (photos are presented in the article) is carefully stocked; gardeners often find her warehouses, in which several buckets of selected tubers that have migrated here from the garden are neatly stacked. Moreover, even the type and size of vegetables is important for the animal: carefully selected tubers are one to one - medium and even.
Signs of the appearance of a water vole in a personal plot:
The vole has no natural enemies. Traps and mousetraps for this animal are ineffective and are aimed at destroying a small number of individuals. An arc trap is set in the ground at a depth of about 20 cm near the exit from the hole, which is used when catching fur-bearing animals. Holes with traps should not be covered or covered with earth.
It is extremely difficult for a person to deal with such a neighbor. One of the methods of dealing with an uninvited guest is bait. Diverse in composition, they are aimed at achieving the same goal. Baits are recommended to be laid out in cut plastic bottles, pipe cuts, under boxes with holes made in them. The product should be kneaded with a wooden stick or a plastic object, because water voles are sensitive to human smell.
Water voles do not tolerate the smell of garlic, milkweed, black root and hazel grouse. A large number of such plants planted on the site will cause an exodus of rodents. To be sure of the method, it is recommended to put walnut leaves, fish heads, garlic cloves in holes.
Many gardeners are trying to expel water rats from their territory by inserting into the discovered underground passages hose, the other end of which is connected to the car. An idling engine fills the passages with harmful exhaust gases. The method does not always work if the underground labyrinths are highly branched and intricate.
Some gardeners scare voles with loud noises. To do this, plastic bottles with holes made in them must be buried at an angle in the soil. The wind that gets inside will be transformed into a mournful whistle that rats cannot stand.
Special ultrasonic rodent repellers sold in stores are effective. The operation of these devices requires a constant power source or regular replacement of batteries. It is also recommended to change the sound range, in order to avoid animals getting used to it.
Interesting materials for expelling odor sensitive water vole are:
If the above methods are ineffective, you will have to use chemicals that need to be decomposed into holes or near them. This action is recommended to be repeated after 5-7 days. Chemicals are a direct danger to pets, so there should not be beloved pets in the area of \u200b\u200btheir application.
In addition to using various baits, be sure to keep the area clean; late autumn in order to protect against frost and pests, tie tree trunks with covering materials. After each big snowfall during thaw days, the snow around the trees needs to be trampled down: compressed, after a cold snap, it becomes an insurmountable obstacle for rodents.
When cleaning dead animals from the territory, it should be remembered that they are carriers of tularemia, a dangerous infectious disease. Therefore, the vole should never be taken by hand.
Subsequently, in order to prevent water voles from entering the well-groomed area, it is recommended to build a fence on a solid deepened (minimum 40 cm) foundation. It is important to prevent the presence of gaps in the fence sections and attachment points through which water voles could penetrate inside.
If minks are found in your garden, and vegetables are in a deplorable state. Their tops are broken, the roots are gnawed, which means that a water rat has settled nearby. But this definition is based on the fact that there is a reservoir next to your garden.
The water rat settles along the banks of streams, lakes, ponds. She has an excellent hairline, lives in the water, builds huts on the shore, but sometimes she is not averse to eating vegetables in the garden or suburban area. If you notice signs of the presence of such rodents, then immediately start fighting them, otherwise your crop will be gone by the fall, and you will even lose potatoes.
The biological name of the rat is the water vole. It differs from the usual gray house rat in size, also large, but has a thicker constitution and a shortened tail.
The length of the body sometimes reaches 22 cm, and the tail outgrowth is up to 12 cm, which is half of the entire rat (in an ordinary rat, the tail is several times longer than the length of the body). The cover of the water inhabitant is thicker and has a dark gray color.
Its muzzle is flattened, while that of an ordinary land rat is more elongated. The eyes are set very close to the nose, chubby cheeks are located on the sides. By appearance the water rat looks more like a hamster.
In the summer, it settles on the shores of shallow reservoirs, but closer to autumn it moves closer to the gardens, where there is a lot of food.
Many summer residents confuse the stay of rats with moles, but there are differences here too: the mole digs a tunnel, and piles the earth on the surface of the soil in the form of a hill, the water pest digs minks, and at the location of the depression there are mutilated plants, with roots turned out to the surface.
The female water vole is able to bring litter twice during the summer period. And at once on 6-10 cubs. Therefore, think about what kind of harvest you can wait for in the fall. The water rat family feeds on meadow plants, but in the spring, while they are succulent.
V hot weather the rat climbs into the garden and eats roots and young shoots of cultivated plants. Makes stocks for the winter, it can be potatoes, carrots, beets. If the tubers are large, then the rodents eat them in the garden, and the smaller ones are dragged into holes.
All measures to eliminate the water vole can be divided into two types:
The first type is more effective, since the more rats you exterminate, thereby protecting yourself from the re-invasion of rodents. But the second species is more humane in relation to nature, but having scared away the vole once, it is not a fact that it will not return to you for potatoes.
These are perhaps the most effective methods. This includes the capture of animals by large pets, this is a cat or dog. If not such a rat trap, then the presence of a cat's smell in the garden is enough to frighten away an uninvited guest.
They do this: sawdust soaked in cat urine is poured into the rat holes that have appeared and they are added dropwise. Smelling the smell of excrement, the rat turns into a run. Dogs are also able to frighten off a small rodent, although they will not eat it, but they can bite it. At night, hedgehogs and ferrets fight rats.
These methods have been tested for centuries. Since ancient times, mousetraps and traps have been used to capture rats and mice. Here, these adaptations can also be useful, but if the populations are small.
Here we should mention rat poisons, which can be found in any veterinary shop. Poison should be used as a last resort, in case of a large invasion of rodents. But since pets can live on the site, it must be used very carefully.
As a poison, you will need powders containing zinc, phosphorus or arsenic. To prepare a bait with a poisoned agent, you can make the following design:
You can pour poison into small boxes, bury it in the ground at some distance from the hole, put bait in it. Works with a bang.
An alternative to purchased poisons can be simple bleach. Once on the mucous membranes of the rat, a reaction begins, after a while the animal will die.
Everyone knows the modern method of repelling rodents - this is ultrasound. The more placed on the site, the better. The emitted sound waves adversely affect nervous system voles. When installing the device, it is necessary to set the maximum amount of radiation so that the effect is enhanced.
As repellers, you can use combined devices that emit sound and vibration waves, such are intended, but they are also suitable for such rodents.
Since the rodent lives in the ground and moves like moles, the methods applicable in the fight against moles are also suitable for the extermination of water rats.
Of course, the listed actions with banks and one and a half will not bring the maximum effect, but you can still frighten off a few individuals. It is better to use such designs in conjunction with ultrasound, poison and traps.
It is known that any rat will not start from scratch. If your site is adjacent to a small body of water, try to keep coastline clean, do not throw away food waste nearby.
Then the rat will have nothing to react to, and it will go to another garden, where there is sewage, overgrown with grass beds. But if individuals have appeared, then you must immediately engage in a duel with them.
Arvicola terrestris Linnaeus, 1758
Order Rodents - Rodentia
Family Hamsters - Cricetidae
Spreading. In the Moscow region - widespread, common in most districts. she's kind. Within the boundaries of Moscow in 1985-2000. the water vole was registered in 28 natural and natural-anthropogenic territories, including the middle part of the city - the Sokolniki camp, GBS and LOD (1). In 2001-2010 its habitat is established in Losiny Ostrov, Izmailovsky forest, on Kosinsky Black (1) and Holy (2) lakes, in Maryinskaya (3) and Brateevskaya floodplains (1), the valley of the Yazvenka river (1, 3), near Saburovsky Bay. , south of Znamensky-Sadkov (1), in the Setun river valley in 2003 (4), Mnevnikovskaya (1, 3) and Krylatskaya floodplains, Serebryany Bor, ++ +Tushinskaya Chasha (1), Skhodnya river valley in Kurkino (5.6), in the Filinsky swamp, Dolgoprudnensky V-BK, in the floodplains of the Altufevskaya river and the Chermyanka river (1). In all these territories, as a rule, it lives in local areas.
Number. In general, the abundance of the species in the city is quite significant, but in some areas it is not numerous, and in some areas only single individuals were noted. Relatively large groups exist only on the Kosinsky Black and Holy lakes, in the valley of the Yazvenka river, the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain and the valley of the Skhodnya river.
habitation features. In Moscow lives mainly on natural areas, where there are swampy and shrubby river floodplains, oxbow lakes and other reservoirs with well-developed coastal vegetation, including old drainage ditches. In the warm season, it lives near the water, where it makes holes on dry banks, and on low and swampy ones it builds ground spherical nests from grass or settles in the cavities of rotten trunks of fallen trees; solitary individuals or broods are usually found.
Does not withstand pollution of water bodies by storm drains and bank protection. As in natural conditions, it feeds on various near-aquatic plants - succulent bases of leaves and stems of forest reeds, cattail, reeds, etc. It can tolerate active recreational use of coastal zones if wetlands with near-water vegetation remain within them.
V autumn-winter period in small groups, up to 8-10 ind., lives in swampy areas of river floodplains, where under snow it feeds on green seedlings and rhizomes of reeds, eats tender bark and branches of willow and aspen. In autumn and spring, it can make significant migrations and even crosses built-up areas along watercourses with natural banks. It is an indicator of slightly polluted rivers and reservoirs with well-developed near-water vegetation.
negative factors. Pollution of small rivers by storm drains. Park improvement of river floodplains, accompanied by the strengthening of the banks and the destruction of near-water vegetation. Unordered recreational use of coastal zones and the resulting degradation of near-water vegetation. Deficiency in the natural areas of Moscow of swampy areas suitable for wintering water voles with the necessary reserves of plant food.
Conservation Measures Taken. The main habitats of the species are located in protected areas - in the NP "Losiny Ostrov", P-IP "Izmailovo", "Kosinsky", "Tsaritsyno" (PPR "Valley of the Yazvenka River"), "Moskvoretsky", "Tushinsky" (PPR "Tushinskaya Bowl), PP Skhodni River Valley in Kurkino, PP Silver Forest. It is planned to form the Federal Law “Brateevskaya floodplain” and “Long ponds”, the forestry zone “Valley of the Chermyanka river”, the establishment of the PPR “Filinskoye swamp” and “Kosinsky lakes”,
ZU "Saburovsky Bay" and several ZU in the habitats of the species in the Mnevnikovskaya and Krylatskaya floodplains. Change the state of a view. After 1985, the distribution and abundance of the water vole, both in individual natural areas and in the city as a whole, decreased significantly. In 2001-2010 this trend has continued. At least in 4 previously known habitats, the water vole has reliably disappeared. The species is listed in the Red Book of Moscow with KR 3.
Necessary measures for the conservation of the species. Priority creation of the Federal Law “Maryinskaya Poyma”, “Brateevskaya Poyma” and “Long Ponds”, PPR “Filinskoye Bolot” and “Kosinsky Lakes”, establishment of planned zoning facilities in known habitats of the species. Development and implementation of effective measures to reduce the level of pollution of small rivers and floodplain water bodies flowing through protected areas. Preservation during the improvement of river valleys of oxbow lakes, near-water vegetation and the allocation of landfills in places suitable for wintering and summer habitation of water voles. ordering recreational use coastal zones in places of stationary habitat of the species.
Sources of information. 1. Data from B.L. Samoilov. 2. V.I.Bulavintsev, b.s. 3. Data by G.V. Morozova. 4. Inventory of natural objects.., 2003. 5. Data of O.O. Tolstenkov. 6. Reconnaissance survey.., 2004. Authors: B.L. Samoilov, G.V. Morozova.
The water vole or water rat is a representative of the Khomyakov family. Prefers to settle near water bodies, hence the name. The rodent can be found on the banks of rivers, lakes, ponds. With the approach of cold weather, it gets closer to pastures, meadows, forests, hayfields, grain storages, orchards and orchards. Hence, there is a danger to agricultural crops, especially for cereals, the poet.
The water rat eats grain, stocks up for the winter, drags it into holes, and also makes it impossible to collect ripe crops normally. The field vole turns the field into solid mounds, and the fallen stems are covered with earth. In addition, it damages seedlings of young trees, horticultural crops. Water rat in one warm season gives 4 young offspring.
Young individuals, in turn, are ready to reproduce their own kind 2 months after their birth. A vole invasion can be intimidating if left to chance.
If there are mounds of loosened earth in the garden or in the garden plot, suspicion falls on moles. However, the difference lies in the fact that moles are very harmless creatures, they do not spoil the crop, and during the period when there are no crops on the plots, they even saturate the soil with oxygen by loosening. The vole makes numerous moves, builds holes, equips storage facilities. With a large population on the site, the water rat is able to destroy the entire potato crop underground, does not leave carrots, beets. The vole drags small potatoes to storage, eats large ones on the spot, because they are unable to drag them with them. Gardeners suffer from a water rat no less than gardeners. Rodents spoil young shoots, loosen the ground, turn the roots of plants to the surface. As a result, young trees, flowers, shrubs dry up. Meanwhile, voles and moles can safely live together in the same area, without interfering with each other. The main question arises: “How to save your lands from the invasion of harmful voles and leave moles alive?”
If you managed to find a vole when it had just begun to develop the land, you can fight it with traps and traps. There is a special arc trap for fur-bearing animals. It is buried in the ground at a depth of 20 cm near the entrances to the hole. Top is not sprinkled with earth. In this case, it should be borne in mind that if a water rat lives in the neighborhood, it will most likely not be possible to get rid of it in this way. They will periodically visit new lands, harm the crop, spoil the nerves of the owners.
You can poison a rodent with poison. Buying poison is not difficult. You can attract the animal with bait. To do this, use a crust of bread, cookies, grain. They are rubbed with rat poison, the bait is laid out at the base of the holes. Having tasted such a delicacy, the vole will surely die. And in order for the water rat to do this more willingly, it should initially be fed with the same bait, but without poison. When the animal calms down, it will eat a treat without fear. Then feed the water rat with poison.
However, in such a not very humane method of struggle, there are several disadvantages. Other animals can get poisoned, and even pets that like to walk around the garden, in the garden, in flower beds. In addition, after death, the water rat will begin to decompose. Finding all the corpses can be difficult. And it's not just the unpleasant odor, but the bacteria and microorganisms that are present on the decomposing body. For example, potatoes, beets, carrots can be hazardous to health.
Perhaps the most effective method vole control. At the same time, they use folk methods expulsion and professional appliances. - the most sought after weapon. They differ in power and radius of influence. Work from a network and from batteries. On the land or in the garden, you may need several of them. Manufacturers claim that the device emits a sound of a certain frequency, which affects only rodents. Pets and people do not suffer from the device. An unpleasant sound affects the nervous system of a vole. The water rat feels discomfort, cannot lead a habitual way of life. A few days in such conditions - the vole leaves the area.
However, when the area is heavily infested with rodents, the effectiveness of such devices is questionable. It is necessary to emit ultrasound long time. And its temporary shutdown allows pests to rest and resume activities. Other than that, it is not known how far they will go, and whether they will want to return. Although rats are considered cunning smart animals, they have a short memory. Forget about the troubles, and again on the sites. Tolley matter folk methods of exile. They are expelled from the territory, and do not allow back to return. And the costs are much less.
In the people there are several methods of dealing with a water rat. From funny and ineffective to effective.
Repelling a vole with loud noises. There is an opinion that the water rat does not like loud noise. You can take an enameled bucket, basin, knock on them with a spoon, hammer or other similar object. You will have to do this for several days in a row. But the effectiveness remains in doubt. Yes, and the neighbors will not be happy with this method of dealing with a water rat.
In the garden or garden plot you need to run a cat or a dog. If home pet does not suffer from hunger, will not eat a water rat, but simply strangle it. The dead carcass should be doused with kerosene, gasoline or other flammable liquid. Set fire. The remains of the carcass must be thrust deep into the hole of the water rat. Interestingly, after such an event, rodents leave the territory very quickly and do not return. Efficiency 100% with any number of water rats on the site.
Use rabbit skin. It is necessary to cut into pieces, burn, put the remains into the minks of a water rat. The result is similar to the previous method.
Collect oven soot, dilute with water to the form of sour cream. Pour into the mink of a water rat. Resin irritates the skin, mucous membranes. The rodent will feel a burning sensation, pain, in this state it will rush to get away from a dangerous place.
The water rat does not tolerate sharp unpleasant odors. Abundantly moisten rags with engine oil, kerosene, gasoline. They put them in holes.
If the rat infestation repeats every season, you need to take care of the fence. It must have a foundation. The water animal digs minks at a depth of about 20 cm. It is necessary to make a barrier underground. Above the ground, the fence should not contain large holes. Water pest - enough large rodent, but it can crawl through a gap in the fence. For the purpose of prevention, it is necessary to periodically inspect your site for the presence of loosening, burrows, mounds. The same should be done after exile. Since there is a risk of returning animals to their former territory.
Water vole, or rat. The sizes are large (body length up to 250 mm). Along with signs of adaptation to digging that are common to many other voles, it reveals some features of specialization for an amphibian lifestyle, which, however, is far from reaching its degree characteristic of the muskrat. Eyes of moderate size, not shifted upwards; the outer ear is small. Internal outgrowths upper lips behind the incisors are significant, densely covered with hair, but do not grow together and do not completely isolate the incisors from the oral cavity.
The tail reaches 2/3 of the body length, not flattened, slightly covered with short, stiff hair. The tail is rounded in cross section. The first fingers on both limbs are not shortened. The third finger on both limbs is longer than the fourth, the inner (first) fingers are not shortened; claws of moderate length. The soles are bare, with well-developed calluses, with comb-like fringes of thick hair on the sides. The color of the top is one-color, dark brown, sometimes almost black. The hairline is well differentiated into a dense, thin underfur and a relatively coarse awn. Seasonal fur dimorphism is weakly expressed. External auricles are small. The internal outgrowths of the upper lips behind the incisors are of considerable size, densely covered with hair, but do not grow together and do not completely isolate the mouth from the oral cavity. Both males and females have specific lateral skin glands. Teats 4 pairs.
The structure of the skeleton of the limbs and their belts, as well as the skull in basic terms, as in gray voles. They differ from them in a somewhat shortened iliac part of the pelvic bone, a relatively longer femur and an adherent part of the tibia, as well as in the foot and hand. The skull is characterized by relatively widely spaced zygomatic arches, strongly developed fronto-parietal ridges, and postorbital projections of the anterior margins of the temporal bones. The incisal openings are shortened due to their narrowing and fusion in the posterior sections. Auditory tympans are small, thin-walled, spongy bone tissue in their cavity is poorly developed. The angular process of the mandible is relatively small; the build of the articular head varies depending on the predominantly burrowing (northern and mountain forms) or predominantly semi-aquatic (southern forms) lifestyle; the same differences affect the proportions of individual links of the limbs and the details of the structure of the incisors and molars. Cement deposits in the incoming corners are always well developed; additional education at the posterior ends of the anterior upper molars are absent. The posterior end of the lower incisor further than in most gray voles, penetrates into the articular process. Stronger developed and isolated from the mandibular bone and the alveolus of the last molar (M3). The lower jaw has a small angular process. The cheek teeth do not have roots and grow throughout the life of the animal. Chromosomes in the diploid set 36.
Water voles are distributed in floodplains and swampy areas of the watersheds of the northern part of the Eurasian continent, from the forest tundra and southern parts of the tundra to the desert steppes inclusive; in the mountains - to subalpine meadows. South to north coast mediterranean sea, Asia Minor, northern and southeastern parts of Kazakhstan (here, apparently, it does not occur west of the watershed of the Chu and Ili rivers), Northwestern China, Altai-Sayan mountain country and northern Mongolia. East to the river Irkut, the western Baikal region and the Verkhoyansk ridge.
Biology. The most characteristic habitats are river floodplains, shores of various types of lakes, irrigation canals and other natural and artificial reservoirs, raised and floodplain bogs. It settles in meadows, in thickets and swampy undergrowth, along the banks of forest streams, on fields and vegetable gardens, and even in buildings. It rises in the mountains to subalpine meadows to a height of up to 2800 m above sea level. The seasonal change of habitats is well expressed, especially in the forest zone, where for the winter the animals migrate from the shores of water bodies to floodplain meadows or to thickets of shrubs. In the deltas major rivers with a well-developed floodplain, the flood regime has a special effect on the change of habitats.
The water rat lives in holes, and in warm time year and in high water - in ground and above-ground nests. Permanent (brood) burrows are usually shallow, feeding passages are laid at a depth of 10-15 cm, chambers, including nesting ones, are located up to a depth of 1 m. Surface earth emissions often resemble those of a mole. The autumn and winter period of life is characterized by active burrowing activity. In the warm season and during floods, underground or ground nests are made from grass and other plant materials. Before freezing upper layers soil, when digging, soil is thrown to the surface, forming, in particular, characteristic snow-covered earthen "sausages"; after freezing by the ground, the unused part of the passages is clogged.
The breeding season continues throughout the warm season, and in mild winters mass reproduction was noted already in February (Volga floodplain). During the breeding season, the female brings at least 4 and up to 6 litters; in the lower reaches of rivers with a spring flood regime, a break in reproduction can be observed for a period of high standing of the flood water level. The average number of cubs in a litter is 6-8. The duration of pregnancy is about 40 days.
population subject to sharp fluctuations, and often there are mass reproduction; they are especially characteristic of floodplain populations with a well-defined flood regime, as well as lakes, the level of which varies greatly over the years (Northern Kazakhstan); however, for these places, as well as for most of the territory of the taiga zone, mass reproduction is uncharacteristic. High flood years are years of decline; the latter is also facilitated by high summer temperatures, combined with drought, which make most of the meadow areas of the floodplain unsuitable for habitation and reproduction.
Like other voles, it is a plant-eating species, however, animal food is constantly noted in the food: the remains of mollusks, insects, small fish etc. The seasonal change of food is well expressed. In the warm season, these are juicy, green parts of aquatic and coastal plants - reeds, cattails, arrowheads, sedges, water lilies, as well as many types of meadow grasses. V winter time the water vole switches to feeding on the underground parts of plants, as well as the bark and shoots of willows, poplars, bird cherry. The storage instinct in the water rat is less developed than in many gray voles, and more strongly in animals in the north and east of the distribution area. Reed rhizomes are especially often stocked, and from cultivated plants - potato tubers.
Geographic variation and subspecies. Geographical variability is significant, but its general patterns have not been clarified enough, since ecological and biotopic variability is superimposed on it, which is especially clearly manifested in signs associated with the degree of adaptation of animals to a semi-underground lifestyle. These features are more distinct in populations from the western (Western Europe) and northern (European North) parts of the range, as well as in voles from some mountainous regions (northern slopes of the Main Caucasian Range). In the direction from west to east and from north to south, the size of the animals increases. The most distinct are the small water voles of continental Western Europe with well-marked signs of adaptation to digging. For this reason, many consider them as an independent species. For a significant number of other subspecies, many of the characters that characterize them are only age-related or signs of personal variability, the first of which are especially pronounced.
Economic value. The fur of water voles is used as a secondary raw material. Sometimes they seriously harm forest nurseries, orchards, orchards, especially those located in river valleys. Carriers of tularemia infection and
