Blind Enemies Of The Gardener. Part 1

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

For gardeners, the appearance of land heaps and underground labyrinths on the site is the reason moles are blamed for all their failures, including a decrease in yield. But are they really the only ones to blame? In nature, there are many other small "diggers", whose vital activity leaves traces similar to molehills. Not all digging animals harm the garden, so do not rush to drastic measures. It is better to find out which animal liked the land and try to evict it from there in any humane way

Shredders include moles, voles, mole rats, ground squirrels and other animals. These vertebrates lay food passages in the soil and dig holes for shelter.

Shrew

The insectivorous shrew is a relative of the mole and hedgehog. Just like rodents, they prefer to live in burrows, but more often they do not dig them themselves, but use other animals left behind. The diet of shrews mainly consists of insects, earthworms, small vertebrates and larvae. They are distinguished by a very intensive metabolism and cannot live without food for more than 5-9 hours. Because of this feature, shrews are forced to eat more food than their own weight. And this circumstance makes the animals be in a constant, round-the-clock search for food.

Most often in the gardens there are such (beneficial) species as shrews and shrews. Thanks to them, the soil is loosened and aerated (oxygenated), in addition, they destroy the larvae of various insects - known pests in agriculture.

Common mole

A mole can be identified by its missing outer ear, tiny eyes, and a not pronounced neck. The body length of this mammal reaches 26 cm, and the tail is 4.5 cm. The mole has velvety thick matte black fur, which grows exclusively upwards - this helps it to move in an underground tunnel in different directions. With its front paws, shaped like a shovel, the animal digs the ground in front of itself and throws it back. He cannot cut off the ground with incisors, as rodents do, therefore he chooses places with pliable soft soil. The mole practically does not appear on the surface, since here it can only move by crawling, which makes it extremely awkward.

Favorite habitats are gardens, forest edges, meadows and river floodplains, as well as areas with humus-rich soil. The food for the animal is molluscs, soil invertebrates, insects, larvae, wood lice, spiders and millipedes. He does not neglect small vertebrates - mice, frogs and lizards. In the pauses between eating food, the mole sleeps in its nest. In winter, his need for food is significantly reduced, and the basis of the winter diet is paralyzed earthworms. Deep freezing of the ground in severe snowless winters destroys a large number of individuals, however, the mole also does not tolerate summer drought.

The multi-tiered underground galleries, in which this animal spends its entire life, are divided into two types: residential and forage. The latter are special traps for capturing invertebrates. During the night, he is able to dig a passage with a length of more than 50 m. As a rule, the nesting chamber is located in the ground at a depth of 1.5-2 m in a securely protected place - under stones, bumps, stumps, residential buildings and outbuildings, as well as in the roots of trees. The area of greatest distribution is forest and forest-steppe zones, sometimes steppe (along river channels).

What the mole brings more, benefit or harm, is difficult to determine. It is believed that its vital activity improves the quality of the soil, because through moleholes (characteristic piles of land) excess moisture for agricultural crops sinks into the lower layers. At the same time, the mole digs between the roots of garden trees and plants in the beds, thereby causing considerable damage.