2014 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report
Developing More Options for Vole Control in Artichokes
Vole feeding on an artichoke stem. (Photo by D. Stetson)
Larger than house mice but smaller than rats, voles are also called meadow mice. Voles are active both day and night and all year round. (Photo by D. Stetson)
IN BRIEF
- Baldwin is looking for alternatives to anticoagulant baits to manage voles.
- While safe and effective, two issues with anticoagulant bait use are potential harm to predators and voles developing resistance to anticoagulants.
- Mixing a lower dose of anticoagulant with cholecalciferol reduced vole numbers in test fields.
Voles feed on artichoke plants and reduce yield. To manage voles, anticoagulant baits are commonly used because they are effective and one of the safest rodenticides to use. However, there are some issues with their use. Anticoagulant baits pose some toxicity risk to predators and scavengers who may feed on poisoned voles. Also, vole resistance to anticoagulants can develop after repeated use, such that the anticoagulants no longer work. Other choices for vole control are needed.
Wildlife Specialist Roger Baldwin teamed up with Gary Witmer from the National Wildlife Research Center to test an alternative toxicant combination that involved mixing a lower dose of anticoagulant with cholecalciferol. They tested the mix on treated artichoke bracts and as pellet baits in artichoke fields.
Baldwin’s findings indicate that baiting with bracts coated with cholecalciferol plus an anticoagulant is an effective method for reducing vole numbers in artichokes. Hopefully, these positive research results will encourage the registration of this product for use by artichoke growers.
Controlling voles with cholecalciferol plus an anticoagulant can protect artichokes from vole feeding, resulting in more harvestable artichokes and a greater profit by growers. Additional benefits would include reduced risk to predators and scavengers due to the lower toxicant doses. Resistance to anticoagulants can also be delayed; or in areas where there already is resistance, this mixed treatment could be used to control voles effectively.
|
