Re: Rodents & Cover Crops
Sal Schettino (sals@rain.org)
Thu, 8 Jun 1995 07:07:30 -0700 (PDT)
I have been organic for sometime and as the years have gone by I find
more and more annual, perennial grasses and ofcourse the usually
assorment of weeds. My small farm is in Southern Cal. and as to your
rodents control question I found cats beleave it or not are the best
bio-control for rodents. I grow some some Macadamia Nuts and Avocados
and the rodents love them. Dam little samplers like to take little bits
out of the avocados and can eat little holes in the macadamia nuts they
also use to gurdle the trees guess they need to chew wood. I tried
traping them. Macabies for gophers,rat traps and glue traps for mice and
rats and have-a-heart for ground squrials. I put up barn owl nest boxes
but have not gotten guest yet. I have lots of snakes gopher-king-bull
and gardner snakes but they are slow . When they eat a rat or mouse it
last
them a long time. I see the Red-tail hawks carry off rodents all the
time the birds (hawks and owls) I think are better than snakes and eat
lots more but Cats are #1 in my book. I'm always learning and people are
always dropping off cats and stuff in the country (bad idea) so one day a
mother cat shows up here and she had babys with her. I started giving
these phro cats a little food in the night and let them hunt. They have
knock the heck out of the rodents around here. They eat rats like
popcorn and I've been getting more Macadamia nuts and cleaner Avocado's
and Cherimoyas. Hope this helps.
n Wed, 7 Jun 1995
gagiusti@ucdavis.edu wrote:
>
>
> Dear Subscribers,
>
> The University of California is preparing a publication focusing on the use of cover crops in vineyards. I have been asked to assist in writing a chapter on vertebrate pests that may be associated with various cover crops.
>
> The main cover crops would be legumes, annual and perennial grasses. I'm interested in any literature or info. regarding management of such forbs for pocket gophers, voles, ground squirrels, and lagomorphs.
>
> Info. re: 1)
> cultural approaches to cover crop management e.g. mowing, herbicidal treatments, etc,
> rodent population controls i.e. flooding, predator attraction, etc.
> forb selection i.e. legume varieties that are less attractive to pocket gophers e.g. tap rooted varieties vs. large rooted varieties.
>
> I realize that this is somewhat of a tall order but I was hoping some of you who have worked in "no-till" situations may be able to provide some guidance.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice or assistance that you may be able to provide.
>
> Greg Giusti
> University of California
> Cooperative Extension
> Ag. Center/Courthouse
> Ukiah, CA.,95482
> phone 707-463-4495
> fax 707-463-4477
> internet gagiusti@ucdavis.edu
>
>
Sal Schettino,Organic Farmer,don't panic eat organic,sals@rain.org
or check out my homepage: http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html .