Voles worse than bears?

[Maddog66]

Check out my 15+ year old apple trees from this past record winter. Bears only destroyed 2 last fall…..about the same age.

They haven’t had screen for the last 5 years and I thought they didn’t need it anymore. I was wrong. Just brutal.

I talked to the guy at the local feed mill, and he said our whole area saw terrible vole damage this year. Everyone has been in looking for how to fix it. He’s telling people to paint them white and hope for the best. I think I have 3 that are goners, and 1 or 2 that might survive.

FYI, we have a blizzard warning tonight and tomorrow. Another 12-18” predicted after just melting 40” in the last 5 days.

 

[Fair oak]

Wow, that tree damage sucks! So does the snowstorm knocking on our door! I did a bunch of scouting and habitat work on my property in the western UP yesterday and noticed a ton of damage to conifer plantings, porcupine chews everywhere and tons of rodent nests in my food plots. Can only assume they were voles as I could see shallow tunnels everywhere. Thanks for the heads up to keep mesh or window screen on trees!

 

[Maddog66]

Speaking of porcupines, I found this huge den and waste pile. I wonder if it makes good apple tree fertilizer?

 

[bigboreblr]

Think that poop might attract voles. Mice eat that stuff, not sure if voles do.

Cage them back up, maybe put a small circle of crushed stone to deter them too.

At my home I have a frequent old coyote visiting my house. He has a bad limp, but uses my plot to catch mice. I leave him alone, thinking he might help the cause.

Been doing good putting a piece of plywood down with mice poison under it.

Had a strip of clover between rows of young and mature trees. Vole paths all in it. They girdled most of the plum seedlings planted there. Oddly enough, I have toringo crabapple unprotected. Not a single nibble on them. The tops lightly browsed by deer, but not bad.

I amended the soil of these plums trees and transplanted from pots. The voles went to town in the loose soil. Planted my fall trees without amending. I did rototill, but packed down the soil ontop. Regular weedmat, bark mulch, and put a 1/4 mesh cage around them, all survived the winter.

There was a crabapple vs apple debate. I think certain crabaaple have more aggressive bark than other varieties. I think this is the reason these wild species

I am running out of room and my wife patience of turning here home into an orchard. I would like to give whitetail crabs 10 point a try, they claim it good against voles.

 

[silver_yummies]

I can sadly relate. I lost 7-8 trees due to Voles this last winter. I got lazy this past fall and didn’t re-secure my window screens properly nor have I painted them with white paint in 2 years now.

Also in Wisconsin and I’ve lost a couple trees to voles in the last 6 years but never more than 2 a winter. Last year was 0.

It’s a bummer for sure, lesson learned for me.

 

[Worm]

I have around 100 apple trees ,anywhere from 15 + years to still putting more in the ground . Early on , I lost a few to voles . I havent lost any in years . I stopped putting mulch around my trees and started using gravel in a 2 to 3 foot circle . In my experience , I also believe that keeping the vegetation cut low around the orchard and individual trees also makes a big difference . I live in central Virginia and my rocky , clay soil probably helps my cause quite a bit . if I was a vole , I wouldnt like it either . I should note that I also use tree tubes .
Just my 2 cents worth !

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

i had more vole damage this year in SE MN than any prior winter as well. One nice 8 year old tree was completely girdled, so I cut it down and hopefully I'll have better luck with the regrowth. That tree had aluminum screen on the trunk, but it wasn't tight enough.

Another tree had a plastic trunk guard, but the snow was deep enough that the voles chewed the bark above the guard. That tree wasn't girdled completely around the tree, so I'm hopeful that the tree can recover with the 1/3 remaining.

 

[Rubee]

Sorry that you lost some nice trees. Are you sure it’s vole damage? Could it be rabbits?

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Voles, mice, rabbits - all can kill your trees. Best advice is to keep your fruit trees wrapped with aluminum window screen or 1/4" hardware cloth to a depth that you MIGHT get snow. If the screen isn't tall enough, and you get snow deeper than your screen protects - the critters will just walk on top of the snow and eat all the way around your tree trunks = lost trees. If a critter girdles (de-barks) all the way around your whole trunk - likely the tree's toast.

Bears can do damage to your fruit trees - but usually don't kill them outright. Voles, mice, and rabbits can kill them.

 

[chickenlittle]

I often roll my eyes when folks suggest bridge grafting, usually for very young trees or ones that aren’t fully girdled. But for these older trees, I’d sure give it a try. Might still lose the trees but I’d try. Graft some pieces across the girdled section so it can continue to move water and nutrients.

 

[Maddog66]

In the interests of everyone else, I think I may have made a second mistake too. When I pruned them this year, the snow was up past my waist. Had to take my snowmobile in and wading around in the snow was rough.

So instead of taking all the pruned branches and throwing them in the woods like I usually do, I just dropped them outside the cages thinking I’d come back and clean up when we had less snow.

What I think that did was essentially create a critter bait pile around the circumference of each tree I pruned. Maybe it was me that encouraged the little bastards to investigate the trees in the first place.