Water vole or water rat. Water voles: description, photos, control methods

Vole family (Microtidae).

In Belarus, the water vole is an ordinary, widespread species, found throughout the territory, reaching its highest numbers in the southern regions. The main habitat of the water vole is western Polesie; it is less common in the floodplains of the Dnieper, Drut, Berezina, Sozh, Neman and even less often in the basin Western Dvina, which is due to varying degrees of swampiness in the floodplains of rivers and lakes. The animals studied belong to the typical subspecies A. t. terrestris. For the south of Belarus, another subspecies is indicated, perhaps even a species - A. t. schermani. Previously it was not indicated for Polesie. There is a contact zone between these subspecies across Belarus, which requires additional research.

Body length 13.5-21.5 cm, tail 6.3-12.8 cm, hind foot 2.3-3.3 cm, ear 1.3-1.9 cm. Body weight 80-180 g. Externally resembles a rat. The body is massive, clumsy, the limbs are relatively short. The third toe on the fore and hind limbs is longer than the fourth. The soles of the paws are hairless, with the exception of a comb-like fringe of coarse, dense hair along the edges. The tail is covered with sparse, hard and short hair. The head is large, the ears barely protrude from the fur. The inner outgrowths of the upper lips are quite large, covered with hair, but not fused with each other and do not completely isolate the incisors from the oral cavity.

There are 16 teeth. Cheek teeth have no roots and grow throughout life.

The hairline is quite high, silky, thick and soft, with a sharp division into guard and down hairs. There are specific skin glands. The color of the back is reddish-brown, dark brown, sometimes dark chocolate or black, on the sides it is lighter with a gray-rusty tint. The color of the chest and belly is gray-lead, with a weak or well-defined rusty admixture. Specified for the south of Belarus A. t. schermani is the smallest, dark-colored form with poorly developed reddish tones in the color of the top and sides, a clearly two-color tail, and a bare calcaneal tubercle.

It differs from rats by its short ears, slightly protruding from the fur, from muskrats by its round tail, and from gray voles by its larger size.

Lives in colonies along meadow and swampy floodplains, lake shores, swamps, alder forests, thickets of rivers and their tributaries. In typical habitats, the water vole makes highly branched burrows with several exits, sometimes opening under water, as well as short feeding burrows. When digging holes, it throws out heaps of earth similar to molehills, but they are flatter and contain the remains of plants.

At the end of August - September, when there is less food and shelter in wetlands, water voles partially migrate to adjacent fields, gardens and orchards. Here they make complex wintering burrows with supplies for the winter and live until spring. During the years of mass reproduction, evicted water rats cause considerable damage. In gardens they build winter nests in the root system fruit trees, usually apple trees, gnaw the juicy bark from the roots, and most often gnaw them completely root system at the very trunk. In the spring, such a tree falls from its own weight. In the fields, rats dig holes in potato crops, eat tubers, and spoil beets, corn and other crops.

Residential burrows, about 3 m long, have a nesting chamber located at a depth of up to 1 m. In heavily swampy places where digging burrows is prohibited, the animals make their homes in high hummocks, rotten stumps and hollows of fallen trees. Sometimes in thickets of sedge and reeds they make spherical nests and huts. Where voles live, there are many paths trodden among the thickets.

The vole is active (with interruptions) around the clock. The animals swim and dive well. They can climb sloping trees and bushes, where they often escape during floods.

Of all the mouse-like rodents found in Belarus, the water vole has the highest migratory activity. For this species, 5 types of migrations are distinguished, differing in nature and the reasons that cause them: feeding migrations, dispersal migrations, concentration migrations, migrations of displacement by competitors, migrations of displacement by floods. Feeding migrations can be of the nature of seasonal evictions, when animals leave their habitats for 1, 2, 3 seasons, up to the beginning of the breeding season, arrange temporary shelters and shelters in places of eviction, or be short-term (daily), when animals leave their habitats for feeding and regularly return to burrows and huts in the main biotopes. The distance of daily feeding migrations reaches 1.5-2 km, seasonal migrations exceed 5 km.

IN summer period The water vole feeds mainly on green food, consisting of coastal and floating plants (reeds, cattails, arrowheads, reeds, sedges, horsetails, pondweeds, egg capsules). They prefer the basal parts of stems, leaves, rhizomes, flowers; they also love seeds, buds and bark of young trees and shrubs. It eats food in certain places where trampled areas are formed, the so-called “feeding tables” with the remains of chewed plants. Occasionally, the animals obtain mollusks, insects (diving beetles, dragonflies) and other animal food. In autumn, after the herbaceous vegetation dies, voles switch to feeding on tubers, rhizomes and other underground parts of plants. They make significant reserves for the winter. In winter, voles make long passages under the snow and gnaw the bark of trees, sometimes causing great damage to orchards.

The water vole is highly fertile. In the conditions of Belarus, animals reproduce throughout warm period years, bringing 2-4 litters with 2-10 cubs (average 6-7) each. The first pregnant females appear in May, the last in August. Pregnancy lasts about 3 weeks. Peak breeding usually occurs in June. Young voles develop very quickly and some of the young first broods, starting from 1.5-2 months of age, begin breeding in the same year. As a result of mass reproduction in separate years sharp “outbreaks” in numbers are observed, and then hordes of animals rush into the fields in the fall, causing significant damage to potato crops, root crops, grains, eating fruits and seeds, and also damaging seedlings of fruit trees.

A feature of the biology of the water vole is very high fluctuations in numbers over time with large intervals between them having the character of deep depressions. The last, very large outbreak in Belarus, which had the character of mass reproduction, was noted in 1956-1959. It should be noted that the areas mass reproduction water voles have a relatively limited area, local character, while depression recent years affected almost the entire territory of Belarus. Greater fertility determines fast recovery water vole numbers after depressions, high population density, especially in the southern regions. The causes and mechanisms of depression have not been studied enough.

The water vole is of commercial importance. Its skins are secondary fur raw materials. Vole fishing is permitted year-round. They feed on predatory mammals and birds.

Water voles are carriers of pathogens that are dangerous to animals and humans - tularemia, leptospirosis, etc.

In nature, there are many animal pests that prevent high yields. These include such a rodent as the water rat (the animal can also be called a water vole). The animal harms not only the seedlings, damaging them, but also steals various root crops and bulbous flowers from the beds, causing the death of fruit and berry plantings. Complicating the situation is the fact that this very active and voracious representative reproduces very quickly. What does a water rat look like, what does it eat, where does it live and how to deal with it - you will find the answers to all these questions in this article.

Description

Water rats are very large rodents that live in nature. This type of vole weighs about 200-250 g. The body length of a water rat can reach 22-24 cm. Below is a river rat in the photo.

Externally, the animals resemble ordinary ones. They also have some similarities with guinea pigs (sea rat in the photo). not difficult. The main characteristics of water rats are:

long, but more rounded body;
shortened muzzle;
small ears;
thick and fluffy fur, only on the abdominal part it is of lighter colors;
The length of the tail of a water rat usually does not exceed 10-12 cm.

Below you can see what a water rat looks like in the photo.

Where does it live?

The question of where the water rat lives is puzzled by those who once met a rodent on their property. In summer, the vole prefers to live in small reservoirs, swamps and streams. The animal can also be found in drainage ditches located near summer cottages. With the arrival of cold weather, it changes its habitat, moving to dry meadows, where it winters.

The animal lives in a hole, at the end of which there is a nesting chamber. You can determine that the hole belongs to a vole by looking at the passage, the height of which is much greater than its width and has a rounded shape. Water rats also live in rotten tree trunks and even inside swamp hummocks, lining their nests with dry grass.

Nutrition

Soft succulent parts of plants growing in the swamp, young shoots of reeds, basal parts of sedge, cattail or reeds are what the water rat feeds on. In addition to semi-aquatic plants, rodents also eat root crops. The favorite delicacies of pests are carrots, beets or potatoes.

They try to eat large root vegetables on the spot. Small-sized tubers are carried into holes by the animals, making supplies for the winter. Moreover, for these purposes, rodents select exclusively smooth and unspoiled vegetables. By the beginning of spring, such preparations are finished. This forces the vole to change its habitat, moving to summer cottages, where it uses the roots of garden plants for food.

Note!
A clear sign that a waterfowl has appeared in the garden is uprooted plants, as well as the appearance of holes with grass eaten around them.

Reproduction

The water rat is highly fertile. After all, females have the ability to reproduce even in the year of their birth, even before reaching the weight of adults. The first litter appears in the spring. Usually 6-7 cubs are born at a time. During the warm period, one female can breed up to 4 litters of rats.

At first, the female cares for and protects them from attacks by other animals. In case of danger, she is even capable of attacking, brutally biting her pursuer. After a month, young rat pups become practically independent and are even able to eat succulent food, rhizomes of young trees or garden flowers.

How to fight a rat

Underwater rats pose a danger not only to crops, they are also spreaders of dangerous infections. Therefore, having discovered a rodent on the site, it is very important to get rid of the uninvited guest as quickly as possible.

Rodent control involves the use of various methods:

Ultrasonic repellers. You can control pests with. Its operating principle is based on the formation of high-frequency signals that affect nervous system animals. Because of this, rodents try to leave the territory they occupy as quickly as possible.
Attracting biological enemies. An ordinary mongrel cat is quite capable of protecting an area from a vole. Its smell will repel rodents even before they appear on the site.
The mechanical method of controlling rodents involves the use of various. However, this method is effective only with a small number of pests.
Use of pesticides. Various baits are prepared from them, which are placed near rodent burrows.

Experienced gardeners claim that water rats are afraid of weeds. Animals try to avoid plants that have seeds with sticky thorns. An example would be burdock or. Animals are not able to remove spines from their fur, so they prefer not to live near such plants.

More precisely, the largest species of this family.

The animal has size from 16.5 to 22 cm(of which the tail is 6-13 cm) and body weight from 180 to 380 grams.

The body is massive, with a large head and a blunt muzzle, small almost invisible ears. The tail is round, long, covered with fine hair.

In winter the coat is thick and long, in summer it is short and sparse. Rats living in different regions differ in the type of fur they have. different places habitat or different ages.

Back color - dark brown, with various shades, the belly is dirty white. Sometimes they meet completely black animals.

The toes on the front paws are short, ending in long, slightly curved claws. The hind legs are extended. Swims great.

Vivid photos of the earth rat:

Distribution and reproduction

The ground rat can be found in the European part of the country, in the Caucasus, in Siberia (except for the regions Far North). A large number of rodents are concentrated in the south of Siberia and Central Asia.

For life selects damp places- along the banks of reservoirs, swamps and damp meadows. When the population is high, it can colonize gardens, fields and orchards.

During floods, it migrates, moving to drier and more convenient places to live.

REFERENCE! Often lives in populated areas, settling on personal plots and creating passages in thin walls and under floors.

In the southern regions, under comfortable conditions, the ground rat can reproduce all year round. In other places, the process occurs from spring to autumn, two or three times.

The number of individuals in the offspring depends on the lifespan of the animal - the older the female, the more cubs she can bear. The offspring are bred underground, in a separate equipped place.

When they reach the age of one month, the young begin to live independently.

Under optimal conditions, the number of ground rats increases several times, and their number can reach 400 animals per hectare fields.

Lifestyle

Rodent exhibits activity all year round , spends almost all of its time underground in winter. By time of day, the greatest activity is concentrated in the evening and at night.

It emerges from the hole only for a short period of time, moving away a short distance - as a rule, while eating plants on the ground.

During the hottest summer and winter clogs holes from the inside. The earth produced when digging passages is thrown to the surface, forming small flat heaps different sizes and at different distances from the exit point.

Underground passages are located 10-15 cm from the ground surface. The nest usually consists of an extensive network of labyrinths, a nesting chamber and several storehouses with supplies.

REFERENCE! If moles live near the habitat of an earthen rat, then they can use the moles’ ready-dug passages to quickly get to the roots and tubers.

Differences from other rodents

From earthen distinguished by soft wool and a shorter tail without ring scales.

They differ from the smaller size of the underground passages, which also have irregular shape. Also, rats do not hibernate in winter.

The tracks are similar to prints, but have a longer step length - 6-8 cm.

Harm to a human farmer and ways to combat it

Burrowing holes, it immediately eats all the food it encounters. The earth rat destroys alfalfa most of all; it also causes significant damage to rice during the ripening period, cotton, wheat, barley, and some melons, including watermelons and melons.

Also harms young trees, gnawing them underground at the root collar or seriously gnawing the bark - it especially often “gets” bird cherry, apple trees, and willow.

Eats small animals - field mice, crayfish, mollusks, insects and others. Swims deftly and climbs trees, destroying birds' nests.

Can settle in human dwellings, where it eats food products and feed. Can gnaw through adobe walls and make passages under the floor.

The natural enemies of the ground rat are dogs, cats, jackals, foxes, weasels and many other predatory species, as well as birds - owls, eagles, hen harriers.

REFERENCE! Control methods are different, and they can be divided into radical, when the goal is the complete destruction of the rodent, and humane, if you need to drive the rat out of its habitat.

Initially, all methods are divided into:

Mechanical devices- this includes all kinds of traps, traps, scarers;
Animals- several cats in an area where earthen rats live will not be able to catch the entire population, but they can scare away the rodents and force them to leave their habitat;
Chemicals- spraying of poisonous gases is used: carbon monoxide, chlorine, or substances are sprayed onto the soil, licking which the rat will die.

Radical methods- traps and poisons are used when there is not much time to scare away. However, it is worth keeping in mind that rats are smart animals and will not approach the mechanism if they see that someone has died in it.

In addition, radical methods can also harm other animals and plants nearby.

Humane methods involve repelling rodents:

Ultrasonic repellers- installation of ultrasound-generating devices on the site. It happens that some rodents do not react to it, and also adapt to a constant irritant;
Smoking- substances that produce a pungent, unpleasant odor are placed in the burrows. This could be singed wool, bunches of wormwood or mint. One interesting solution is to plant black elderberry on the plot, the roots of which release cyanide into the soil, poisonous to rats;
Filling holes with water- earth rats swim well, however, they will have to leave such a habitat.

IMPORTANT! There is no need to hesitate when you find an earthen rat on your property; you must choose how to get rid of it yourself, but you should not leave things to chance - the more time passes, the larger their population becomes, which means it will be more difficult to completely get rid of the rodents.

Conclusion

The earth rat is a dangerous rodent that lives on the banks of rivers, swamps, as well as in vegetable gardens and fields. Lives underground, where it digs labyrinthine passages.

Destroys plantings rice, barley, wheat, cotton, young trees. Methods of controlling rodents are varied and are divided into radical (traps, poisonous gases and bait) and humane (repellents, damage to burrows).

Video

In the video you can clearly see the earth rat in the water:

Good day! Last year, a friend of mine decided to buy a summer cottage. She thought for a long time which one was better to buy. One was located next to a pond and had a wonderful view from the window. The second one was a couple of streets away and was much larger in area and also more well-kept.

At a family council, they decided to find out from their neighbors about each of the plots. And as it turned out, the one near the lake was very often attacked by water rats. Therefore, the owner decided to sell it so that he would no longer look for answers on how to solve this problem.

As a result, Yulia took a plot on another street and was very happy about it. Later I found out that rodents had come to that garden again. In this article you will learn: water rat in the garden - how to fight it, the best repellent methods, what prevention methods are the most effective.

Water rat in the garden: how to fight and drive away the pest

Rodent pests that can be found in the garden are diverse. Among them you can find both ordinary mice and their larger relatives. For example, a water rat in the garden is not so rare occurrence in those places that border on water. Find out how to fight the pest and which methods are more effective.

Description of the pest

The water rat is a mammal of the hamster family. It looks like an ordinary rat, but differs from it in its more elongated body, covered with soft, smooth and silky fur. The water rat has a shorter snout than the common rat, topped with short ears, and shorter legs hidden in long fur.

Water rat in the garden: how to fight

The water vole or ground rat, as this animal is also called, is the largest vole; only the muskrat is larger than it in its family. However, the body sizes of these rats vary significantly depending not only on geographical areas, but also on the different territories included in these areas.

The water rat also differs from the muskrat in that its tail is not flat, but round in cross-section, thin and not completely naked, but covered with sparse hairs and ending in a kind of brush half a centimeter long.

The water rat can also be distinguished by its smaller eyes and yellow-brown middle incisors. Rats weigh from 120 to 330 g with a body length of 11 to 26 cm, with the tail accounting for half or even two-thirds of the length of the rat’s body. The coat consists of clearly demarcated thin but dense down and rough hair.

The coat color is uniform, dark brown with slight red or almost black. Doesn't depend on the change of seasons. The fur of the water rat, thick and long, is good enough to be used for sewing outerwear and women's hats.

Habitat and lifestyle

Water rats are so named because they live near water and can swim. You can meet them near large streams and rivers, reservoirs and lakes with weakly flowing or standing water and swamps. But aquatic environment these animals are not limited.

They love to enter areas adjacent to water, including fields, garden plots and vegetable gardens.

Rats especially often come to visit humans in the fall and cold winter, as well as during floods and fires. When the situation improves, they return back. Rats live in burrows dug underground, characterized by considerable length and complex system ramifications. Near the entrance to them you can see heaps of soil thrown to the surface.

The offspring of the water rat are born in warm spring and summer. Pregnancy in females lasts only 20 days. During the season, each female brings from 4 to 6 litters, which can contain from 6 to 14 babies. Rats leave their burrows as soon as their weight reaches half the weight of adults. It’s not hard to guess what the water rat eats.

These rather cute animals are omnivores; their diet includes both aquatic plants and small fish, mollusks, crayfish, adult insects and their larvae.

If there are vegetable gardens or orchards nearby, they also visit them, where they are damaged:

roots;
young fruit plantings;
berry bushes.

Young trees and shrubs attract rats with their bark and roots, which they are not averse to eating. In winter, they feed on what they stored in summer. Water voles live in the northern part of Eurasia. The southern border of the habitat runs along the northern coast Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor and Western Asia, the northern regions of Mongolia and China. In Russia lives in non-chernozem zone, Stavropol Territory, Lower Volga Region and Siberia.

Damage caused

The water vole is considered a massive pest of agricultural land - pastures, hayfields, gardens and fields, as well as gardens and summer cottages.

Moreover, rats cause the most significant damage to cultivated plants in areas located in floodplains and adjacent to reservoirs.

The damage caused by rats is as follows:

In grain fields, they make holes in the ground, pull the soil to the surface and cover the ripening grains with it, making harvesting difficult.
Carrots, potatoes and beets are eaten in vegetable fields. Do not touch garlic, onions, or legumes.
In gardens and forestry, they gnaw the bark on trees, causing them to dry out.
Private owners in their summer cottages are spoiling the harvest of vegetables and fruits.
They also visit warehouses where finished vegetable products are stored.

But the harm caused by water rats to humans is not limited to this.

They can infect people with pathogens of hemorrhagic fever, tularemia, plague, tick-borne encephalitis, and leptospirosis. Therefore, the fight against these animals is carried out not only for agricultural crops, but also for the sake of public health.

Fighting methods

Trying to fight water voles in various ways. Methods to combat them include destruction by physical, chemical and biologically.

Measures to exterminate rodents are carried out in populated areas where they are spotted, on agricultural land and in outbreaks of infectious diseases caused by water rats.

Physical methods include the destruction of water rats using:

mechanical rat traps;
glue traps;
electrical barriers;
ultrasonic emitters.

Destroy the rat and chemicals, for which rodenticides (for example, rat poison) and repellents are used.

Seal the entrance to pest burrows with a rag soaked in acetone, kerosene, an alcohol solution of naphthalene, or gasoline. To make the pungent smell last longer, place rags in bags and make small holes in them.
Set fire to a piece of wool and throw it near the hole. The unpleasant smell will make rodents run away.
In the garden, plant plants that repel water rats - garlic, legumes, mint and onions.
For the same purpose, scatter mint, chamomile, tansy and wormwood around the area.
Sprinkle the beds with root vegetables with ash.

If it gets on the skin of animals, it will cause irritation, and if it gets into the stomach, it will cause eating disorders. In addition, this is a good feed for the plants themselves.

To combat water rats, scatter baskets of burdock around the garden so that they fall on long wool rodents

Coat tree trunks with lime solution and copper sulfate. Or put protective belts on them made of roofing felt, plastic bottles, pine branches, etc.

If possible, do not use baits with rat poison, as they can harm domestic cats, dogs and other animals.

All these measures are humane and aimed at expelling pests from the site, and not physically destroying them, and also preventing their subsequent settlement.

In order not to worry about how to remove water voles from your garden or garden, you need to do your best to prevent their appearance there. To do this, install a metal mesh fence around their perimeter on a deep cement or brick foundation. This will create an obstacle in the way of rodents.

Preventive measures

In order to prevent the appearance of water rats on farmland, storage facilities and forest areas, a number of preventive measures are carried out, the purpose of which is to eliminate favorable conditions for feeding and breeding of pests, as well as their destruction.

It includes:

Autumn deep plowing of fields, which destroys rat holes.
Installation of various automatic devices that prevent water rats from entering warehouses, granaries, cellars and communications in them.
Maintaining cleanliness in the area of these facilities.
Cultivation of forest areas and freeing them from dead wood, weeds and fallen leaves.
Preventive deratization using pesticides and mechanical traps for rats.

This set of measures allows you to control the number of pests and prevent them from spreading to new territories.

The appearance of water rats in gardens is a nuisance that can happen to those who live near various bodies of water. To prevent them from damaging trees and beds, all measures should be taken to prevent pests from entering the area, and if they appear, drive them out of there. Only in this case can you count on the fact that in the fall it will be possible to harvest the entire grown crop.
Source: "vredinfo.ru"

Why a water rat is worse than a mole: how to get rid of it

The water rat brings a lot of trouble to gardeners whose plots are located near water bodies. Her home consists of burrows, which she builds in hummocks on the shore, in reeds, and hollows of tree trunks lying near the water.

Water rats love to swim and dive, but they also find many favorite treats on land. If there is a ripe crop nearby, then the owners need to think about how to get rid of the water rat on the site before it is completely destroyed.

The invasion of these animals can be frightening, since during the summer they reproduce up to 4 times, and the young begin to bear cubs already 2 months after their birth.

When autumn approaches, these rodents move to land, closer to the crops of root crops and grains. It is at this time that they inflict maximum losses, constructing burrows in the ground with numerous passages. If rodents have settled in the garden, you will have to start dealing with them real war, since you can only get rid of a water rat on your site using harsh methods.

The fact that they appeared can be guessed by the dug up earth. Sometimes land owners think that moles are digging the ground, but they do not eat vegetables, and water rats are dangerous because they can destroy the entire harvest of potatoes, carrots, and beets.

They don't necessarily eat everything on the spot. They tend to stock up by dragging crops into storerooms built underground.

So, small potatoes These animals store food for the winter, and eat large ones that they cannot drag away on the spot. Moles and water rats get along well with each other, so both can settle on the site. However, it is necessary to fight against rats, since they become the culprits of crop losses.

Many traditional methods are aimed at expelling these rodents, but before you destroy the water rat, you must carefully choose one of two options. First: rodents can be poisoned, but this method may not work. The second method is more humane and effective. It is based on the complete expulsion of rodents from the site.

Gardeners suffer from water rats just as much as gardeners. They eat young shoots, flowers, and literally devastate everything in their path. Many plants die not because animals eat them.

The reason for the death of flowers, bushes and trees is the very fact of digging holes by water rats. They plow the ground, the roots turn out, dry out and die. The earth rat (water vole) prefers to settle along the banks of rivers, lakes, irrigation canals, and on irrigated lands.

The rat is an excellent swimmer, and at the same time it is adapted to underground life. Like a mole, the earth rat digs underground passages. It feeds mainly on plant foods. By undermining the roots of plants, the earth rat destroys crops of barley, wheat and rice, and perennial grasses. Vegetables and melons suffer from its activities.

The earth rat in the garden breaks through a branched system of passages at a depth of 60 cm. The rodent prefers cluttered areas where it can hide under a pile of peat, branches or manure.

Rat holes can be detected by the release of soil to the surface. Unlike mole rats, the ground rat's mounds are flat. The exit from the rat's hole in the garden is masked with branches, leaves, and garbage. Arc traps are installed against the pest. To do this, the found hole is dug up a little, the device is installed and sprinkled with earth on top.

earth rats caught with trap cylinders. This trap is made of galvanized sheet. The diameter of the catching cylinder is 15 cm and the height is 50 cm.

Dig deep, long ditches along the perimeter of the site.
Dig catch cylinders in the middle and along the edges of the grooves so that the edges of the cylinders are located at the level of the bottom of the groove.
The cylinders are regularly inspected and any rats trapped in them are removed.

Inspection of traps and destruction of animals can be replaced by a more humane method of control: installing an ultrasonic repeller in the garden.

Inaudible to the human ear, high-frequency sound is intolerable to a rodent. If an area is heavily infested with rodents, ready-made poisoned baits are laid out throughout the area:

Grain bait "Difa-Neo".
Paraffin briquette "Difa". Briquettes are used in conditions of high humidity.
Ratron Giftweizen is a granular, fast-acting preparation.

If there are few rats on the site

You can catch a rodent using a trap. However, this method is suitable if there are only a small number of them. For them, an arc trap is used, which is used for fur-bearing animals. It is installed in the ground at a depth of approximately 20 cm from the surface.

For the trap, they dig a small hole where there is an exit from the hole.

It is easily recognized by the round passage in the ground under the dug up places. However, this method is not suitable if rodents are found among neighbors, as they can move from them. Important: holes with traps are not covered from above and are not covered with earth.

Rat poison poisoning

The method is not very humane, but it certainly works. Rat poison should be placed near the minks. However, before destroying the water rat, it must be attracted to this poison; for this, it is ground with bait.

It can be special additives that are offered by the retail chain.

You can also use bread crust. This method can harm pets if they are not kept in enclosures. Disadvantages of etching: water rats begin to decompose after death, and not all of them can be found and burned.

How to drive water rats away from your property forever

The retail chain offers a humane way to get rid of these rodents. Ultrasonic repellers force animals to abandon their minks forever. Many gardeners believe that rats will get used to a certain range of sound and come back.

You can avoid this if you purchase a repeller that automatically and regularly changes the sound range, preventing the animals from getting used to them. The advantages of this method: it expels all rodents from the area, and not just water rats.

Folk methods of expelling these animals forever are based on their sensitivity to unpleasant odors.

The most effective are the following:

Set fire to the rabbit skin (you can cut it into several pieces) and stuff the entrances into the burrows with it.
Dilute the stove soot with water to a viscous consistency and fill the entrances to the burrows.
Place poisoned bait in the holes.

The bait can be wheat grain soaked in the drug Ethylphenacin (take 30 g of the drug per 1 kg of grain). 10 g of bait is placed into holes with a spoon with a long handle.

Dig grooves up to 10 cm deep around tree trunks. Fill the grooves with peat chips soaked in kerosene.

How to prevent pests from returning

After getting rid of rodents, you can protect yourself from the invasion of new ones by erecting a fence on a deep, solid foundation. It should go into the ground at least 40 cm.

It is important that the sections of the fence and the places where they are attached to the supports do not have gaps into which animals could crawl. It is better to build a permanent fence from natural or artificial stone; the sections should be high enough.
Source: "noklop.ru; vogorodah.ru"

Water rat or vole - methods of pest control

Summer is not only a season of vacations and relaxation, for many people it is a time of hard work in the gardens. Plowing, planting, watering, weeding, weed control - all this takes a lot of time and effort from gardeners.

And how disappointing it can be when, after such labor, part, or even the majority, of the harvest is irrevocably spoiled. Who did it and how, many can only guess. Today we will talk about one small, inconspicuous animal that can create very big troubles for you and your crop.

At first glance, this is a small, harmless animal - its weight is about two hundred grams, and its size reaches only 25 centimeters.

The water rat has a small, blunt muzzle and a massive body. Voles are usually gray with a brown tint, but rarer black specimens are also found. The fur of these rodents is so dense and thick that it is quite difficult to see the body and ears behind it.

Based on their name, these creatures live near bodies of water - streams, rivers, swamps - these are their main habitats. Water voles are excellent swimmers and excellent divers. During high water, the vole prefers to move to nearby fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens, and, settling there, digs holes for itself, thereby causing enormous damage to these areas.

Vole burrows are always very long, shallow, and have a complex structure.

The water rat feeds mainly on what grows near the reservoirs in which it lives: reed shoots, reeds, sedges, cattails - all this is consumed by the rodent in very large quantities, as it has very low nutritional value.

If a garden is chosen as the water rat’s habitat, then it feeds on almost everything that grows on it - vegetables, herbs, fruit tree bark, berries, flower roots. All this is also eaten in large quantities. If a whole brood of voles has settled in the garden, they can destroy the entire crop.

In one season, a water rat can produce 3-4 broods, each brood can have from 5 to 7 cubs!

As early as a month, vole cubs switch to the “adult diet” and join in the destruction of crops. And some of the cubs become capable of reproduction after 7–8 months. All these factors lead to a very rapid flooding of the garden with water voles.

The water rat is a very thrifty rodent - for the winter it makes quite good supplies for itself - you can often stumble upon a water vole’s “warehouse”. These warehouses deserve special attention: all the tubers in them are neatly stacked and they are all the same size and perfect shape.

If a water rat has settled on your property, you should prepare for a long and grueling fight against rodents. The main disaster is that it causes significant damage to the crop throughout the season.

The animal is distinguished by significant fertility, activity and gluttony. An extensive network of passages in the fertile soil layer makes it possible to move throughout the entire area without restrictions, and along the way the animal gnaws the roots of plants.

During measures taken will help get rid of rodents on the site. But don’t forget to discuss the situation with your neighbors. If these harmful animals also appear on their territory, you will have to fight together and in radical ways. The water vole (also called the water rat) is a fairly large rodent, similar in appearance to a rat, but thicker and with a short tail.

The body length of an adult animal reaches 15-22 centimeters.
The tail is approximately 8-12 centimeters, about half the length of the body.
The fur of the animal is noteworthy - dark in color and very thick.

It lives in damp and swampy places near lakes, rivers, and ponds. IN warm time lives in burrows near water for a year, and by the end of the season moves to dry places closer to food sources. If you carefully look at the photo of a water rat, it immediately becomes clear that it looks more like a hamster than its gray relative.

Quite often, having discovered tunnels and damaged plants, property owners come to the conclusion that they have moles.

In fact, it is very simple to distinguish them - moles dig up heaps of earth, and a water rat can be detected by uprooted plants. As soon as you see a dead perennial bush with damaged roots undermining, think about it: a water vole is somewhere nearby.

The rodent eats aquatic and meadow plants, and from mid-summer begins to feed on root crops. For the winter, it stores several kilograms of rhizomes and potatoes in its burrows. A water rat in a garden can destroy almost the entire crop.

Considering that one female gives birth to two or three litters of 2 to 10 cubs each summer, the problem turns into a real natural disaster.

Rodents enjoy eating and eating up potatoes, beets, and carrots. They drag small tubers into holes and store them for the winter. Larger ones are eaten on the spot. The animals are different good appetite, or rather, thorough gluttony.

Closer to spring, when all supplies are eaten up, the water rat moves to garden plots and vegetable gardens and begins to eat plant roots. The first sign that you have water rats is dead perennial plants being uprooted. It could even be trees and shrubs.

Basic methods of struggle

Mousetraps for fighting water rats are very weak, and they are not capable of destroying large flocks. The same can be said about traps. Of course, if you don’t yet have a large “squad” of voles on your property, then you can try installing a trap or mousetrap - it certainly won’t make things worse.

If you have a rat-catcher cat, you can use it to catch a water rat.

One of the effective methods is the so-called arc trap, which was created specifically for capturing fur-bearing animals. You will need to find the exit from the water vole’s hole and set a trap near it, at a depth of about 25 centimeters.

There are also a number of baits from which water vole dies:

20 gr. rosin + 20 gr. powdered sugar + 15 gr. Boers. Baits should be placed in the evening near water vole burrows.
25 gr. mix gypsum with 40 gr. flour and a couple of drops of vegetable oil.

In the stomach of water voles, the gypsum begins to harden and the rodent dies. The bait is laid out overnight and burned the next morning. The next day, the procedure is repeated until all the voles are destroyed.

Poisoned grain.
Mix sugar, malt and quicklime in equal proportions.

Place a saucer of water next to the bait. After a water vole eats the bait, it will immediately become thirsty. A mixture of quicklime and water in the stomach of a water vole will cause its death.

Mix gypsum and fried bran with lard (one part of gypsum and bran to two parts of lard). From the resulting mixture you need to roll small balls and place them in places where water voles accumulate.
Grated vegetables: carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, potatoes. They should also be placed in areas where pests are concentrated. This bait is effective only in spring time.
Specialized chemical bait. They can be found in any point of sale, specializing in a variety of poisons.

A few important conditions

Place baits in places where other animals and children will not have access to them.
It is advisable to hide the bait, for example, in cut-off plastic bottles or into pieces of pipes.
Lures should under no circumstances contain water.
When preparing baits, you should not contact them with your bare hands - if a rat smells a human smell, it will not touch the bait.

It is advisable to use plastic or wooden utensils during cooking.

When dealing with pests, it is important to get all your nearby neighbors on board. Otherwise, the struggle will become useless - in a few days, uninvited guests will come to you again from the neighbors’ gardens.

When cleaning up a dead rat, you should be careful and wear gloves. The water rat is a carrier of a dangerous infection - tularemia.

Finally, we’ll tell you how to find out if all the rodents in your area have disappeared. It is necessary to find holes leading from the holes to the surface and trample them with your feet.

If the hole remains untouched for several warm and fine days, it means the hole is empty and the rat has died. And if the hole opens again, it’s worth putting bait here. We wish you abundant harvests and no attention from pests!

How else can you fight water rats on your property?

The fight against the water vole consists of removing it from your site or garden as quickly as possible. When choosing means, you will need to decide which method you prefer to choose - humane or inhumane, but more effective and faster. It depends on your personal qualities and the stability of your nervous system.

Humane methods include those that force the rat to leave your area. All rodents are extremely sensitive to ultrasonic waves. It is on this fact that methods that create uncomfortable living conditions for rodents are based.

One of these methods is the use of ultrasonic repellers, which will force both moles and voles to leave the area.

When installing devices, it should be taken into account that concrete foundations are an obstacle to the passage of ultrasonic waves. For this reason, several devices are located at different ends of the personal territory so that there are no uncovered areas.

Important! See our rating of the most effective repellers of water voles and moles for the site, based on reviews from gardeners. If it is impossible to purchase ultrasonic repellers, you can try using traditional methods, although their effectiveness is an order of magnitude lower than ultrasonic devices.

One of them is to create sound vibrations above the ground. To do this, a thin iron pin is driven into the ground no less than 40 centimeters.

An empty tin can is placed on the ground part (from 50 to 100 cm). It’s not bad if a cat or male cat lives in your house; it’s better to have a mongrel cat. They may well deal with an entire family of water voles without your participation. It would be more correct to say that the smell of cats can scare away rodents only when they appear on the site.

This section will also be devoted to the so-called inhumane methods of struggle. The first of them is the familiar traps for rodents. You should buy a trap designed for fur-bearing animals. This method is suitable for cases where there are very few water voles.

Near the hole (a round hole next to the dug areas), a groove 20 cm deep is dug, and a trap is installed in it. Then all you have to do is throw it away or finish off the pest.

Important! View the rating of the best traps for moles and water voles and read the instructions for installing them. The trap is not covered with earth or covered with grass. The second method is the use of poisons. To do this, prepare various kinds of bait and place them in habitats and, if possible, in passages.

The following chemicals are used as poisons:

Zinc phosphide;
Arsenic preparations - Paris greens, calcium arsenate.

The process of preparing poison looks like as follows. Carrots, potatoes or beets are cut in half, the core is scooped out and filled with one of the poisons. Then the halves are fastened and placed in holes. Instead of root vegetables, you can use the underwater part of the sedge, chopped into pieces and mixed with the indicated preparations at the rate of 5 grams of poison per 100 grams of plant.

You can also soak the sedge in a solution of sodium arsenic acid for two days and, again, spread it out in burrows.

You can find a list of the most effective poisons against rodents in our section - rodenticides. The black water rat does not die immediately, but 10-15 days after eating the bait. For this reason, she cannot convey information to other individuals about the danger.

Another option is to place small boxes with an entrance hole in grooves, covering them with branches, grass or leaves. The inner surface is pre-pollinated with zinc phosphide. Be sure to place a piece of carrot or beet on the bottom. You can also pour bleach into such boxes.

In case of contact with an animal's body chemical substance begins to corrode the soles of the paws and the mucous membrane of the eyes, the animal soon dies.

To get quick results, you can use all methods of getting rid of rodents at the same time. Very important. Rat poisons pose a danger to humans and pets. Therefore, the preparation and placement of baits must be done with great care.

The water vole or water rat is a representative of the Hamyakov family. It prefers to settle near bodies of water, hence the name. The rodent can be found on the banks of rivers, lakes, and ponds. With the approach of cold weather, it gets closer to pastures, meadows, forests, hayfields, grain storage facilities, garden plots. This creates a danger for agricultural crops, especially grains.

The water rat eats grain, stores it for the winter, drags it into holes, and also makes it impossible to properly harvest ripened crops. The vole turns the field into continuous mounds, and covers the fallen stems with earth. In addition, it damages seedlings of young trees and garden crops. The water rat gives birth to 4 young offspring in one warm season.

Young individuals, in turn, are ready to reproduce like themselves 2 months after their birth. A vole infestation can be terrifying if left to chance.

If there are mounds of loosened soil in the garden or garden plot, suspicion falls on moles. However, the difference is that moles are very harmless creatures, they do not spoil the harvest, and during the period when there are no more crops on the plots, they even saturate the soil with oxygen by loosening it. The vole makes numerous moves, builds holes, and arranges storage facilities. If there is a large population on the site, the water rat is capable of destroying the entire potato crop underground, leaving no carrots or beets. The vole drags small potatoes into storage, but eats large ones on the spot, since it is unable to take them with it. Gardeners suffer from water rats just as much as gardeners. Rodents spoil young shoots, loosen the soil, and turn plant roots to the surface. As a result, young trees, flowers, and shrubs dry out. Meanwhile, a vole and moles can live peacefully together in one area without interfering with each other. Gets up main question: “How to rid your lands of the invasion of the harmful vole and leave the moles alive?”

Control methods for small numbers of pests

If you managed to find a vole when it had just begun to develop a plot of 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. Do not sprinkle earth on top. It should be taken into account 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, damage the harvest, and spoil the nerves of their owners.

Rat poison against water vole

You can poison a rodent with poison. Buying poison is not difficult. You can attract the animal with bait. To do this, use the crust of bread, cookies, and grain. They are ground with rat poison, and bait is placed 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 the treat without fear. Then feed the water rat poison.

However, this not very humane method of struggle has several disadvantages. Other animals, and even pets who like to walk around the garden, in the garden, or in flower beds, can become poisoned. In addition, after death, the water rat will begin to decompose. Finding all the corpses may be difficult. And it’s not just the unpleasant aroma, but the bacteria and microorganisms that are present on the decomposing body. For example, potatoes, beets, and carrots can be hazardous to health.

Expelling uninvited guests with professional devices

Perhaps the most effective method fight against voles. In this case, folk expulsion methods and professional devices are used. - the most popular weapon. They differ in power and radius of influence. Operate from mains and batteries. On plot of land or you may need several of them in the garden. Manufacturers claim that the device emits a sound of a certain frequency, which only affects rodents. Pets and people do not suffer from the device. An unpleasant sound affects the vole's nervous system. The water rat feels discomfort and cannot lead its usual lifestyle. For several days in such conditions, the vole leaves the area.

However, when the area is heavily infested with rodents, one has to doubt the effectiveness of such devices. Ultrasound will have to be emitted for a long time. And its temporary shutdown allows the pests to take a break and resume their activities. In addition, it is unknown how far they will go, and whether they will want to return. Although rats are considered cunning and intelligent animals, they have a short memory. They will forget about the troubles and go back to the polling stations. It's just a matter of folk methods of expulsion. They drive you out of the territory and don’t allow you to return. And the costs are much lower.

Folk methods of expelling voles

People have several methods of dealing with water rats. From funny and ineffective to effective.

Scaring away a vole with loud sounds. There is an opinion that the water rat does not like loud noise. You can take an enamel bucket, basin, and 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. And the neighbors will not be happy with this method of fighting water rats.

In the garden or on garden plot you need to run a cat or a dog. If pet does not suffer from hunger, will not eat a water rat, but will simply strangle it. The dead carcass should be doused with kerosene, gasoline or other flammable liquid. Set it on fire. The remains of the carcass need to be stuffed deep into the hole of the water rat. It is interesting that after such an event the rodents leave the area very quickly and do not return. 100% effective for any number of water rats in the area.

They use rabbit skin. It is necessary to cut into pieces, burn, and put the remains into the holes of a water rat. The result is similar to the previous method.

Collect stove soot, dilute with water until it looks like sour cream. Pour water rats into holes. The resin irritates the skin and mucous membranes. The rodent will feel a burning sensation, pain, and in this state will rush to move away from the dangerous place.

The water rat does not tolerate harsh unpleasant odors. Moisten rags generously with machine oil, kerosene, and gasoline. They put them in holes.

If the rat infestation recurs every season, you need to take care of the fence. It must have a foundation. The aquatic animal digs holes at a depth of about 20 cm. It is necessary to make a barrier underground. The fence should not contain large holes above the ground. The water pest is a fairly large rodent, but it can crawl through a crack in a fence. For preventative purposes, it is necessary to periodically inspect your site for the presence of loosening, holes, and mounds. The same should be done after expulsion. Because there is a risk of the animals returning to their former territory.