When Irving Bablitz walked out to his barn yard last week he thought he’d walked into a battle zone. Dead meadow voles were scattered in his yard.
“It was like the aftermath of a war.”
He doesn’t know for sure, but he’s giving credit for the carnage to a weasel.
“He had a rhythm to his madness. He was very precise,” said Bablitz, an oats farmer from Holden. “It was eerie.”
Dead meadow voles, which look like large mice, were neatly piled by granaries, by shed doors, under combines and in barns.
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Bablitz thinks a spring thaw forced the voles from the flooded field onto higher ground in his yard and into the waiting jaws of the weasel.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed he’ll come back for one more evening. We’ve still got lots more.”
The scene has been repeated across the province. As the snow recedes, Albertans see the devastation of the winter’s mouse plague.
In cities, rows of trees have been ruined. In farms, the mice have tunneled through the deep snow to ruin shelterbelts. Nursery owners expect the damage to their trees and shrubs to reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Amanda Siemens, of the Sprout Fruit Tree Nursery, isn’t looking forward to assessing the damage at her nursery at Bon Accord: “I think it’s going to be a big problem.”
Several people have phoned her asking how they can salvage their trees damaged by mice chewing the bark. To salvage chewed trees with a bridge graft, take three or four pieces of two-year-old stem from the injured tree. With a sharp knife cut the stem in half lengthways for about two inches on either end.
Lightly peel away some healthy bark and place the cut ends from the stem onto the cut bark above and below the wound to form a bridge over the damaged bark. Use elastic or duct tape to secure the stems.
The graft will grow over the damaged bark and the tree will continue to grow.
To prevent future mice or vole damage, try these four tricks:
- Place weeping tile or some other mouse-proof material over the stem at the tree base.
- If there is more than one main stem, loosely pile dirt among the undergrowth and then spray with Scoot.
- During the winter, stamp around the base of the tree or shrub to compact the snow so the mice can’t tunnel to the tree.
- Keep grass cut short around the tree.
