The rodents are the animals like the squirrels, rabbits, voles i.e. mouse, groundhogs, etc cause great damage orchards. They feed on the fruits or the other parts of the plants that may reduce the yield. Some eat the leaves, some flowers, some eat branches and buds, etc. all this makes great loss to the total production. Therefore making provisions for the prevention of them is of very much importance in the practice of growing any crops or orchards. It requires a constant watch for them.
The types of rodents
The most damaging for the orchard is the squirrel. It lives on the trees and eats the flowers fruits of the fruits trees. In addition to them the voles, rabbits and the other rodents feed on the fruits leaves buds flowers etc. Eating of the fruits reduces the harvesting yield of the fruits. If they eat up the buds then there will not be flowers and branching. Some even damage the bark of the trees and therefore
They also damage the harvested fruits from the storeroom.
Methods of preventing the damage from the rodents
If you have to prevent the damage, then there is only one method and that is to kill them. For killing, them various methods are in use. You can know about their presence through the signs remain after they eat.
One is poisoning them.
For poisoning them, you should poison and place the foods that they like, in the orchard. Many commercial formulations are available in the market that you can use for this purpose. They may eat them and then because of the poison they may die.
Traps
Many types of traps are commercially available in the market for catching the rodents. You can keep the food items that they like in them. This will lead them in the trap.
However, it is important to remain cautious while using either of the above methods as the traps and the poison may harm the humans or domestic animals as well.
Natural methods
In addition to the above methods, some natural methods also prove to be useful. These are the use of the animals and birds, which feed on them. If you keep dogs cats etc in the orchard then they might help in reducing the problem to some extent. You can even block the burrows that they make in the orchards.
It would be better if you use combination of two or more methods for the purpose of prevention of the rodents in the orchards.
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