home » Summer clothes » Common vole (Microtus arvalis). Vole mouse: what does it look like, what does it eat and how to deal with it? How much does a vole weigh?

Common vole (Microtus arvalis). Vole mouse: what does it look like, what does it eat and how to deal with it? How much does a vole weigh?

The appearance of these animals is deceiving. Despite their “cuteness” and small size, they cause enormous damage to the economy and are carriers of dangerous diseases. The common or gray vole is a rodent, 10-13 cm long, weighing up to 35 g, distributed throughout Eurasia. The tail is no more than a third of the body length. The fur on the back is dark brown, on the belly it is dark gray. Lives in open areas, inhabits meadows with various grass stands, forest clearings, and roadsides. Digs complex burrows at the level of the arable soil layer (15-35 cm deep).

Common vole (Vole)
©Dieter TD

Voles are grouped into several families. Each burrow consists of several chambers and has an extensive system of passages. Very prolific: under favorable conditions, one female per year can produce 5-7 litters of 5-7, and sometimes 10-12 naked, blind babies. They grow quickly, become sighted on the 8-9th day, and 2 weeks after birth they can live independently. At 2 months they reach sexual maturity.

The vole feeds on green parts of plants - trunks, leaves, buds, roots, seeds (especially grains and legumes). It causes significant damage to gardens in winter by gnawing the bark and roots of young trees. When ring nibbled, trees dry out. Under snow it damages strawberries and raspberry shoots. The diet of voles is low in nutrition, so they eat a lot. One individual can eat more than its own weight in a day. Voles' teeth do not stop growing, so they need to grind them down all the time. In addition, rodents need to constantly maintain a certain body temperature, and they spend a lot of energy on this. The vole is active virtually throughout the day.

The entrances to the burrows of voles
©Manuel R.

To reduce the number of pests, it is important to timely and carefully harvest crops in the fields and between the rows of gardens, and systematically destroy weeds. It is also important to plow the soil in a timely manner, which deprives rodents of food and shelter.
Indoors, voles follow the smell of food. They love nuts, flour, sugar. To combat them, you can prepare a solution by taking flour, sugar and quicklime in equal quantities. For effectiveness, water is placed next to the bait. You can prepare a gypsum-chocolate mixture for voles - dry chocolate powder is mixed with dry gypsum. After the “treat” they will go in search of water. Another recipe is to mix gypsum and flour (1:1) and add a few drops of oil, form small balls. Plaster of Paris that hardens in the stomach will kill the mice. If there are cracks in the house, fill them with glass wool, which is too tough for pests.

Vole nest
©Manuel R.

Voles do not like the smell of essential oils, wild rosemary, walnut, and elderberry. Therefore, black elderberry branches are tied around tree trunks. Rodents also do not like black root, imperial hazel grouse, and garlic. Elderberry branches, garlic cloves, walnut or wild rosemary leaves are placed in holes so that pests leave them. This method is popular and effective: a small piece of cloth or cotton wool is moistened with kerosene or ammonia and placed in a hole. In the fields, a bottle with a wide neck is buried in the soil so that it is located at soil level. Pour a little onto the bottom vegetable oil. A vole, attracted by the smell of oil, climbs in there, but cannot get out.

But most often rodenticides are used against rodents - ready-made poisonous agents, often containing zinc phosphide, which is harmful to them. But these poisons cannot be used where there are children and pets.

Sunflower destroyed vole
©José-Manuel Benito

Ammonia water (2-3% solution of ammonium nitrate), which is poured 150-200 ml into a hole and then trampled, is destructive for voles. It is also important to inspect all vegetable gardens and orchards after the snow melts. Indoors, the most humane way to control rodents is with ultrasonic repellers.

Natural enemies of voles are birds of prey, foxes, martens, ferrets, weasels, cats, dogs, snakes, etc. One owl, for example, eats about 1000-1200 rodents per year. The causes of death of voles are snowless winters, prolonged rains and downpours, sudden winter thaws with flooding of burrows, and dry spring and summer.

Source: botanichka.ru

The field mouse, often referred to simply as the field mouse, is a rodent whose habitat covers almost the entire continent of Eurasia, in addition to some southern regions. You can meet them in meadows and thickets of various bushes, where they dig burrows for themselves or inhabit empty ones. They hide in these same holes with enviable swiftness, barely sensing minimal danger. Sometimes they can be seen in large city cemeteries.

For greater safety, these rodents lead a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle, this helps to avoid many predators who will not miss the opportunity to feast on a small animal.

The characteristics of all types of voles are approximately the same, but the easiest way to distinguish them is by the color of their fur.

It is reddish, but depending on the breed it has different shades: ocher, brown, brown. As old age approaches, hair color becomes much lighter, and individual hairs even begin to turn grey. A characteristic element of the color of these rodents is a narrow strip of black fur that stretches along the entire back of the mouse. The belly is usually white or light gray.

Dimensions

The body length of these rodents reaches a maximum of 15 centimeters, but the length of the tail is not great: most often it is no more than half the length of the rodent’s body, although in some cases it can reach 70% of the length of the body. They usually weigh no more than 30 grams.
And it is size that is the main feature that distinguishes a field mouse from a house mouse, since the former is more miniature.

Their muzzle is slightly pointed with a slightly elongated nose. Ears and eyes are small. The claws are blunt and short. The fur is rough to the touch. They have 4 pairs of nipples.

This rodent is one of the best diggers of the mouse family, and this could not but be reflected in physiological indicators: it is the only representative of its genus that has shortened hind feet and a tail.

Reproduction

One can only envy the fertility of these rodents. The most fruitful season for breeding is spring, but they are not far behind at other times of the year. Over the course of one year, the female bears up to 4 litters, each of them containing up to 8 pups. The gestation period lasts on average 22 days. Babies are born blind and completely helpless, but they develop quickly and reach puberty at the age of 2 months, becoming completely independent.

At home they can live up to 7 years, but in the wild their life expectancy rarely exceeds 2 years. For the most part, this is due to the fact that in their natural habitat they have many enemies. They are hunted mainly by birds of prey, most often owls. But many mammals are not averse to feasting on field mice, for example, animals such as foxes, ferrets, weasels or martens exterminate these rodents with enviable speed, as soon as they get in their way.

These mice live in large colonies.

The area of one burrow can reach 10 sq.m. and have dozens of exits. In one hole there are up to 10 nests and about 20 “storage chambers” for supplies.

Signs of appearance:

Burrows. The presence of a home is perhaps the first thing that all mammals care about, and the appearance of depressions in the ground is the first alarm bell, notifying about new neighbors;
Traces of teeth. These rodents leave them almost everywhere, since their teeth grow throughout their lives, which means there is a need to gnaw on something all the time.

What does a field mouse eat?

The rodent does not deny itself food and shows considerable gluttony: in a day it can eat as much as it weighs, which in one season equates to about 10 kilograms of food. In addition, they store food for the winter, storing it in special compartments of their home, but this instinct is much less expressed in them than, for example, in wood mice.

If we talk about what the vole eats, it is mainly plant foods: nuts, berries, grains and herbs.

The peculiarity of their diet is that, unlike many other representatives of the mouse family, they prefer green parts of plants, while most of their relatives are greedy for seeds and grains. This helps voles and other representatives of the rodent order to live peacefully in the same territory.
Their diet often includes various larvae and small insects.

Eating plants, it does not disdain either roots or flower bulbs, which often leads to serious negative consequences for the garden.

There are many folk signs based on the behavior of rodents. One of them says that if winter is coming, then mice will run away from the fields. And indeed, with the onset of cold weather, when the search for food becomes difficult, these rodents leave inhabited meadows, settling in food and grain warehouses and cellars, thereby significantly undermining production and bringing with them irreparable damage. Due to this behavior of the vole, many are thinking about how to get rid of these pests.

Water voles: how to get rid of pests

And if we add to this the spread of various infections, then few people will be happy with such a neighborhood.

Methods of disposal

To prevent the settlement of large colonies of rodents, it is worth promptly removing plant debris from the area. It is advisable to dig up the soil by the time autumn approaches.

If mice have already settled on the site, then in order to rid your home and storage areas of these rodents, you can go in two ways. The first of them is more humane and is based on the intolerance of some odors by these mice. If you place some plants in the pest holes, you can survive the small pests without harming them. Such plants are:

elder;
garlic;
mint;
sagebrush;
black root;
Imperial hazel grouse.

You can also use chemicals, such as kerosene or ammonia. They should not be poured into the hole from the bottle. Simply soak a piece of cotton wool in the liquid and place it in the rodent’s home. He will leave him and never return.

If humane methods for one reason or another do not bring the desired result, then you can take a more cruel route, using resources such as:

mousetraps;
ultrasonic repellent devices;
ash;
cats.

Mousetraps and cats are commonplace, but this cannot be said about ultrasonic repellers. They can be easily purchased in specialized stores. The principle of operation is to produce sounds that are inaudible to humans, but painful to the sensitive ears of rodents. The voles will not be able to tolerate it and will leave the area.
For certain reasons, they also try to avoid ash.

The field mouse is quite cute in appearance, you can see this just by looking at its photo. But its pleasant appearance absolutely does not justify the irreparable harm it causes to agriculture. Therefore, one cannot but rejoice at the fact that although it appears easily, getting rid of it will not be particularly difficult.

How to get rid of rodents in a summer cottage?

In years with warm, dry summers, all kinds of rodents breed in huge numbers. Having fattened up in the fields and meadows, the gray army rushes closer to human habitation towards winter. Common and gray voles, forest and field mice, water voles, or water rats, moles and hares can cause significant damage not only to fruit, berry or vegetable crops, and also floral and decorative. Various types of voles are among the first in terms of harmfulness. They are distinguished by high fertility: at one time, mother mice give birth to from 3 to 8 cubs, which become sexually mature after 1-2 months. And 48 hours after birth, they are again ready to mate, regardless of the season.

voles easily adapt to any living conditions. Quickly mastering new territories, they settle down like owners on lawns, lawns, beds and flower beds, making “numerous burrows with underground passages. They live in colonies.

Vole the common one reaches a length of 13 cm, has a squat body of a gray-red color. It differs from ordinary mice in having a shorter tail, covered with hair, and a blunt muzzle with short ears. If on a field or lawn there are areas with trimmed vegetation, green stems dragged into holes, we can say with confidence that they have been chosen as the place of life of a vole. Unlike other rodents, all voles are predominantly green-eating.

For them, the best bait is not grain, but carrots. To the taste of animals, bulbs of tulips, daffodils, and lily bulbs often only have a few scales left by spring. And you can find out that young trees and shrubs in the garden are completely ringed only after the snow has melted. All creeping plants, plantings of cloves and other biennials, as well as seedlings buried for the winter suffer greatly from rodents.

Water vole, or water rat, lives along the banks of rivers, lakes, swamps and other bodies of water. This is a large rodent, so the damage it causes is especially significant in garden plots, where the animal usually moves closer to winter. Even a few individuals can cause irreparable damage. Distinctive feature this species is underground habitat in cold season. Having built a whole gallery of passages and practically not appearing on the surface, rats damage in winter root system bushes and trees, and in spring and autumn - tubers, bulbs and root vegetables.

It is very important to distinguish between the traces of the life activity of a water vole and a mole (by the way, it belongs to the order Insectivores), to which all its sins are often attributed. The presence of a water rat is indicated by chewed remains of stems and roots. Ejections of earth from burrows are very similar to molehills, but unlike them they do not stretch in even chains, but are distributed unevenly over the area. The mounds, as a rule, are less high and do not have a conical shape, like a mole's, but a more flattened shape.

Conventionally, methods of controlling rodents can be divided into:

biological;
mechanical;
agrotechnical;
chemical;
well, and all kinds of 21st century technologies.

Considered the most effective chemical method. However, in personal plots it is quite possible to get rid of rodents without resorting to help toxic substances. With biological methods it is easiest - cats, hedgehogs, dogs, birds of prey (even snakes are practiced in the east), the means are well-known and reliable. They are capable of causing significant damage to the gray hordes.

Vole mouse

But it’s very difficult to train your pet Vaska to guard the flower garden.

Many devices have been invented that catch mice and rats; there are even very complex designs. It is clear that it is unrealistic to destroy the enemy with one or two mousetraps. It is better to approach the issue of mechanical warfare with mice systematically. It is known that voles live in colonies and adhere to certain constant routes when moving, creating noticeable paths with piles of droppings and dust. By placing mousetraps in the right places, you can destroy their populations by half.

The most recent solution is ready-made sticky traps. All you have to do is decide whether you want to apply the glue to the board yourself or use ready-made sticky surfaces.

Agrotechnical measures include deep plowing or digging up plots for the winter where possible. In this case, mouse holes are destroyed, nests and cubs are destroyed.

For the winter, young trees and bushes are tied with special protective nets or spruce paws (needles down), and flower beds are also covered with them. It is better to plant bulbous and corm plants in special containers or nets. You can use regular plastic bottle, making as many holes as possible in it with a soldering iron.

In late autumn, be sure to remove and destroy plant debris under which animals like to live. The more uncultivated places there are on your plots, the more rodents there will be.

Most modern “technological” devices are designed to repel animals. The range of frequencies perceived by mice is very wide: they hear sounds well with a frequency of up to 110 kHz, while humans have an upper threshold of hearing sensitivity of 20 kHz.

Therefore, the devices emit ultrasonic screams in the range of 30-110 kHz, informing animals of dire danger. The method is good, but over time the animals adapt to it and the frequency characteristics of the devices need to be constantly adjusted. They also have a serious drawback: in addition to rodents, these toys will also drive most pets (cats and dogs), and even some particularly sensitive people, into a state of stress.

To combat rats and mice, baits made without the use of toxic substances are used. They are cheap and safe for humans. At home, they are prepared from substances aimed at damaging or blocking the gastrointestinal tract. Rodents readily eat baits filled with plaster, quicklime, broken glass etc. To make them attractive, they add all sorts of “goodies” - milk porridge, animal fat, sugar, flour, etc.

Mice are not very picky about food, but rats will not approach it if they smell a person. Therefore, it is recommended to wear rubber gloves while preparing bait.

The range of chemical control agents is quite wide (Storm, Klerat, etc.). When using them, follow the instructions strictly. Do not forget that dead animals must be disposed of: buried to a depth of at least 0.5 m or, better yet, burned.

Rat teeth are second only to diamond in strength and grow at a rate of 3 mm per week.
Mice can live up to three weeks without water, and rats can live no more than three days.
A healthy rat can live for two years. But more often, for every rat that lived up to a year, 15 died.
If a rat decides to chew through a concrete wall, it will do it. To do this, she just needs to find a hole with an area of 1 square cm.

Potato leaves curl - how to deal with this?

In our store warehouse, mice often used to run around. No matter how hard we fought them. First they installed mousetraps, it didn’t help, then they installed an ultrasonic tornado repeller, at first it seemed to help, but then it somehow stopped working, then we bought a Yastreb400 repeller on the official Yastreb-tm website. It’s already the second year, it’s standing there, it’s scaring me away. Doesn’t take up much space, doesn’t ask for much to “eat”, but does its job with a bang

Fighting mice in the garden

Mice, rats and other rodents in the country house and garden

Spring is coming, gardeners and summer residents rush to their garden plots. And the first spring task is to fight mice in the garden. All the soil on the lawn and under the bushes is pitted by these pests. Rats and mice ruled in the basement, in the country house, in the hives and in the garage. Rodent droppings in the barn, in the shelves with garden tools. And if the young seedlings are also gnawed, then the summer resident declares a real war on mice and rats.

How to get rid of rats and mice

Rats and mice move closer to human habitation for the winter. Even if you don't live all year round at the dacha, then mice and rats are very comfortable in rooms protected from wind and cold. Chewed things, greenhouse film, bags - this is only a small part of what rodents make their nests from.

In order for rodents to enter the premises, they need little - ventilation ducts, loosely closed doors, weak floor boards. A mouse, like a rat, can crawl through even small cracks. The space behind plasterboard walls is a real paradise for mice.

In addition to spoiled things, rodents carry many serious infectious diseases, including salmonellosis, rabies, and plague. Making their moves and labyrinths in the walls, they severely damage the insulation and the house cools down faster. Rats chew electrical wiring without harming themselves, and then finding a damaged cable is not so easy. Who wants to dismantle the entire house just because of a damaged wire?

For those who constantly live in a country house, mice and rats become terrible neighbors. They interfere with sleep by making their nightly walks in the walls and attic. Unwittingly, people and rodents are forced to share food. Sacks of cereal, cheese, lard, potatoes - all this is good feeding for gray parasites.

Remedies for rats and mice:

ultrasonic repellers - fight against mice and rats using sound waves of a certain frequency.

You need to buy these devices and place them in those places where you need to drive out mice and rats. Ultrasonic waves are unpleasant for rodents and they leave the house where the repellers are located.

One way to deal with mice is glue traps

A special glue is applied to the backing of such a glue trap.

Common vole

You need to put bait in the center of the glue mat and, following the tasty smell, the mouse will stick tightly to the mat.

ordinary rat traps and mousetraps

If there are only a few rodents in the house, and not a whole brood or flock, then you can simply use ordinary traps with a snap mechanism.

But such mousetraps need to be checked, otherwise the caught mouse will become a delicacy for its compatriots.

poisons and chemicals against rats and mice

If there are a lot of parasites, but you cannot look into the dacha every day, then you have only one way out - poisons and poisoned baits.

How to deal with rodents in your garden

You can place poisoned baits for mice and rats in a barn or country house. Keep in mind that poison should not be placed in chicken coops or where other domestic animals are kept.
Universal traps for rats and mice. Such homemade folk devices will require a little patience and diligence from you. For example, put a barrel of water, add chaff to the water and put bait on top. Mice smell the bait and fall into the water and cannot get out.
Electronic and ultrasonic repellers, properly installed and configured, will help you protect your country house or barn.

Prevention is the key to success in the fight against mice in the garden

If you do not want constant autumn migration of mice into your garden and home, do not choose plots next to fields for your summer cottage. Otherwise, this mouse fight will become your annual activity.

In order not to attract rodents to their plot, in the fall, summer residents need to remove all plant debris from the beds. Cabbage stumps, small roots of carrots and beets, open compost heaps - all this attracts mice and rats. You should not prepare winter canteens for rodents.

Mice cannot stand the smell of wormwood, so experienced gardeners advise tying fruit trees for the winter with bunches of wormwood and Chernobyl, which often grow in abundance in wastelands. Wormwood also protects the trunks from sunburn, and at the same time the plants are well ventilated. The wormwood stems should be tied with the tops down, leaving no uncovered areas on the trees.

Installing traps and mousetraps in the garden is a Sisyphean task, because you cannot know for sure whether a mouse will get through to them. Pesticides openly scattered along paths and under fruit trees are also not an option. After all, poisons can poison birds that are useful in the garden.

The only option left is with repellers. But, as many gardeners and summer residents say, mice and rats may not respond to some models of such devices.

Another convenient place of residence for gray rats and mice can be your garage. Often, summer residents completely forget to put poisoned baits or repellers in their garages. And rodents are absolutely free to feast on wiring and other inedible, but necessary, things in garages.

Funny, smart animals and at the same time malicious “biters” of everything and everyone. They are often unfairly confused with their closest sisters - house mice. However, residents of free fields bring no less concern and harm to agriculture and households. Animals that are loved by cats and not loved by women and farmers are part of natural diversity.

The world is big enough for all species, we just need to coexist intelligently. Let's learn more about the field mouse, its habits, possible dangers and methods of control.

Description of the field mouse

The field mouse has many varieties. Among its close relatives are:

ordinary - the most common type;
red - an inhabitant of the predominantly hot steppes of Asia;
forest, preferring forest-steppe zones of the Eurasian and North American continents;
underground - a resident of city communications and local areas.

Despite their diversity, they all belong to the genus of voles, the family of hamsters, the order of rodents and the class of mammals.

Appearance of a field mouse

All species of voles have an elongated, pointed muzzle, dark beady eyes (black or deep brown), pointed ears and a long tail, leaving about ¾ of the body length. This is a miniature rodent with a maximum length of 13 cm, more often up to 10 cm, not counting the tail. Vole weight is about 15 g. On the high cheekbones, the mice have wing-shaped plates, which makes it seem as if they have dimples on their cheeks. The paws are small, with a foot about 1.5 - 2 cm. The claws are short, dulled from constant digging.

The animal's fur on its back is brownish-ochre in color. It is not soft, but somewhat rough, short, and in older individuals it even turns into “soft needles,” like those of hedgehogs. Distinctive feature voles - a dark stripe along the spine. The fur on the belly is light gray.

This is interesting! The intensity of the color is related to the age of the mouse. More respectable individuals are lighter than their younger counterparts; among the hairs there are even gray ones.

The male vole is practically no different in appearance from the female. In order not to confuse the field mouse with its relative the brownie, pay attention to their differences.

House mouse	Harvest mouse
Small, up to 10 cm	Slightly larger, up to 13 cm
The back is gray-black, dark	The back is brown with a stripe in the middle
The abdomen is almost white	Abdomen light gray
Short muzzle	Pointed muzzle
Ears are large and rounded	Ears are small and triangular
Tail up to 60% of body	Tail up to 70% of body

Field mice may well live in the house and in the garden, and domestic mice can live in the wild.

Lifestyle of a vole

Field mice are somewhat reminiscent of mini-moles in their lifestyle: they dig holes close to the surface of the earth and move along them. When digging, mice throw the earth away from them, so the mound turns out to be flat on one side, and the “entrance” into it is not from the top, like a mole’s, but from the side. In winter they move under snow cover.

Important! Voles do not have a period of winter suspended animation; even in cold weather they need to actively move and look for food. In this case, the mice use the supplies stored in the nest-storage rooms from the summer.

They live in burrows or suitable shelters: under branches, stacks of straw, in barns, etc. If a mouse builds a hole for itself, it makes it extensive and branched. At a depth of 5 to 35 cm there is a labyrinth from 4 to 25 m long with several storage rooms and a sleeping nest, as well as several emergency exits, one of which leads to a source of drinking water.

During the daytime, field mice prefer to hide underground and sleep, and during the day they become active. They crawl to the surface and look for food, gnawing almost everything they encounter along the way: plant roots, flower bulbs, tubers, and the bark at the bottom of trees. In search of suitable feeding, they can make real migrations.

Mice run quickly, moving with a “jumping” gait. They know how to swim, but prefer to avoid it. They often settle in colonies, often numerous: 1 or several female relatives and several generations of their offspring.

How long does a vole live?

Average lifespan of a vole mouse in the wild natural environment 1-2 years, as they have many natural enemies and dangers. If everything goes particularly well in the life of a mouse, it can live up to 7-12 years.

Range, habitats

This rodent can be found almost all over the world, except for the hottest corners:

on the European continent, including Finland and Denmark;
in Siberia and the Urals;
in North American forest-steppe zones (up to the latitudes of Guatemala);
they are found in Asia - China, Mongolia, Taiwan;
from the south their range is limited to Libya (North Africa) and northern India;

Despite the name, voles rarely settle directly in fields. For them, a large amount of grass is preferable, so they choose meadows, forest edges, clearings, as well as places near human habitation: cellars, greenhouses, sheds, convenient shelters in the garden and vegetable garden. Voles can even climb into a house and settle under the roof, under wall sheathing, in ventilation, or in a layer of insulation.

This is interesting! If the area is damp and swampy, a smart rodent will not build a hole, but will build a ball-nest of grass, which will be located on a high branch of a bush.

During floods, periods of prolonged rainfall, and winter thaws, the animals' burrows are filled with water, and many mice die.

Field mouse diet

The vole is a herbivorous rodent. Since she belongs to the hamster family, her teeth grow throughout her life, so her instinct is to constantly grind them down. This explains why mice are almost constantly gnawing on something. During the day, an adult vole should eat an amount of food equal to its own weight.

The mouse eats almost everything it can find from vegetation:

herbs and their seeds;
berries;
nuts, including cones;
grain;
tubers, roots, bulbs, root vegetables;
buds and flowers of various bushes;
tender bark of young trees.

Winter supplies in the pantries of field mice can reach a weight of 3 kg.

Reproduction and offspring

With the onset of spring warmth and until the very autumn cold, voles actively reproduce. Pregnancy in a mouse lasts 21-23 days. During a season, a female is capable of giving up to 8 litters, more often 3-4, each of which brings 5-6 cubs. This means that if initially 5 pairs of voles settled on the site, by the end warm season the number of mice can reach 8-9 thousand.

Mice are born completely helpless, their eyes are blind. But their development is extremely fast:

vision appears on days 12-14;
after 20 days they can already survive without their mother;
after 3 months and even earlier they are able to bear offspring themselves.

This is interesting! There are cases where female voles become pregnant on the 13th day of their life and bear viable offspring at 33 days of age.

Natural enemies

This fertility is due to the fact that in nature mice have many enemies that limit their population. The most important hunters of voles are birds of prey: owls, hawks, falcons, etc. One owl can eat more than 1000 mice in a year. For some animals - weasels, polecats - mice are the main, almost exclusive food. A ferret will catch and eat 10-12 mice per day.

The weasel is also dangerous for rodents because it has a flexible and narrow body, with which it is easy for it to penetrate nests and eat the cubs located there. A hedgehog, a snake and, of course, a cat will happily feast on a vole.

Population and species status

Voles are extremely diverse. Scientists have found that there are more than 60 species and subspecies. It is difficult to distinguish them externally; only the gene analysis method is suitable for identification.

This is interesting! The mice themselves perfectly distinguish their relatives from another population and never mate with them. How they reveal interspecific differences has not yet been clarified.

The vole genome is a scientific mystery: the genetic material is arranged without apparent logic, and most of the information is concentrated in the sex chromosomes. The number of chromosomes is from 17 to 64, and in males and females they are either the same or different, that is, there is no sex dependence. In one litter, all pups are genetic clones.

Another unique property of the field mouse population is the “self-transplantation” of genes into the nucleus from other cell organs (mitochondria). Scientists are still struggling in vain with gene transplantation in humans, while it has been working in voles for thousands of years. Scientists' only explanation is a sharp evolutionary jump in the population of field mice over the last million years.

Since mice are prolific animals, their numbers vary greatly depending on the year and season.. We noticed that growth spurts and “demographic pitfalls” in voles alternate after about 3-5 years. The maximum recorded number of animals in the population was approximately 2000 mice per 1 hectare of area, and the smallest was 100 individuals per hectare. In addition to mice, the family of rodents includes lemmings and muskrats.

Vole mouse and man

People have long considered this small, nimble animal to be their enemy. Choosing a place to live close to human dwellings, storage facilities and arable land, voles cause damage to stocks and plantings, and they are also carriers of many infectious diseases.

Thunderstorm of gardens, fields and vegetable gardens

In the years when reproduction is most active, the damage that the vole causes to plants is greatly noticeable:

gnaws underground parts, causing the death of the plant on the root;
spoils root crops and melons;
sharpens grain and seed reserves;
gnaws the bark of young bushes and trees.

Voles eat farm produce not only on the ground, but also in storage facilities, elevators, stacks and stacks, and cellars.

Important! It is not difficult to understand that a family of voles has settled on your site: the colony will be identified by the so-called “runways” - traces left on the surface from digging underground burrow paths.

Dangerous carrier

The vole mouse can be a carrier of extremely serious diseases, many of the pathogens of which can cause death in humans. Cute and funny animals, especially in large numbers, can cause:

leptospirosis;
tularemia;
erysipelas infections;
toxoplasmosis;
salmonellosis, etc.

They became notorious due to the fact that they are practically the only natural carrier of plague in the Transcaucasian region.

How to deal with a vole

Due to the danger to agriculture, as well as to human health and life, efforts should be made to limit the number of voles. For this purpose, two directions of struggle are used:

passive-preventive – scaring away mice from places of residence of people and agricultural objects;
active – measures aimed at the direct destruction of rodents.

Repelling field mice

As part of repelling, it is effective to plant and lay out plants whose smell mice do not like. Among them are garlic, black root, calendula, mint, wormwood, tansy and other strong-smelling herbs and fruits. You can use not the plants themselves, but essential oils, laying out pieces of cotton wool soaked in them near the intended place of mice settlement. Sometimes kerosene and ammonia are used for the same purpose. Mice avoid spilled ash.

Another humane repellent option is ultrasonic or vibration devices, which create uncomfortable conditions for mice in the action area. They can be purchased in stores. A “home” version of such a repeller is a tilted bottle dug into the ground, which will hum and vibrate in windy weather. Tin cans on poles around the perimeter of the site and even “wind music” (ringing sticks or bells) hanging on the trees will act in a similar way. A colony of mice is unlikely to settle on a property or in a house that is “patrolled” by the mouse’s natural enemy – the cat.

Destruction of voles

“In war” all means are good. When crops and plantings are threatened with irreparable harm, extreme measures may be justified. The Arsenal of folk and industrial methods offers the following options for means of fighting voles for life and death:

"Gypsum thrombus" - mix salted wheat flour with lime or gypsum. A rodent that eats such bait will die from a blood clot in the stomach.
Poisonous baits - In specialized stores you can buy ready-made poisons for rodents in the form of wax tablets or granules. When laying them out, you cannot take them with your bare hands, otherwise smart mice will not touch them. Some types of poisons have a delayed effect, and poisoned rodents have time to infect their fellows.

Important! This method should not be used if a cat or dog can eat dead mice - this can be fatal to the life of the pet.

Physical destroyers- all kinds of mousetraps. Not effective if the mouse population is large.
Traps - farmers come up with various options, from a jar placed on a coin, which the mouse drops once under it, to a bottle dug into the ground with a small amount sunflower oil. Ready-made traps are also sold. Another option is a board with a special glue applied to it, to which the mouse will stick securely.

According to the latest data, it is not traditional cheese that is more attractive as bait for voles, but nuts, chocolate, a piece of meat, and bread with sunflower oil. Another unpleasant point associated with all punitive methods is that you will have to regularly clean up and dispose of dead mice.

Why you can’t completely destroy voles

Like any species on our planet, voles occupy their place in an ecological niche. By eating grass seeds, they limit the growth of the grass cover, which prevents young trees from breaking through to the light, thereby preserving forests. In addition, their role in the food chain is very important for the population of birds of prey and many fur-bearing animals. In those years when few mice are born, the number of foxes, owls and other animals that feed on voles decreases. Some species of voles are rare and endangered and are protected:

Evronian;
Muyskaya;
Balukhistan;
Mexican;
Japanese red;
Taiwanese;
Central Kashmir.

Prevention measures

To reduce the likelihood of voles settling on your property, you can:

get a cat or dog;
do not drive away the natural enemies of mice, especially owls;
do not allow the area to be cluttered with equipment, firewood, faulty furniture, etc.;
constantly loosen the ground, destroying the “grooves” of field mice;
promptly dispose of trimmed branches, leaves, weeds and other garden debris.

To combat voles, it is necessary to use an integrated approach that combines prevention, creating an environment that is uncomfortable for rodents, and physical destruction.

Voles, voles (Arvicolinae or Microtinae) are a subfamily of rodents of the hamster family. Includes voles, pied mole voles, lemmings and muskrats.

The common vole (Microtus arvalis) is a species of rodent of the genus Gray Vole.The animal is small in size; body length is variable, 9-14 cm. Weight usually does not exceed 45 grams. The tail makes up 30-40% of the body length - up to 49 millimeters. The color of the fur on the back can vary from light brown to dark gray-brown, sometimes mixed with brownish-rusty tones. The abdomen is usually lighter: dirty gray, sometimes with a yellowish-ochre coating. The tail is either single-colored or weakly two-colored. The lightest colored voles are from central Russia. There are 46 chromosomes in the karyotype.

Po levka aboutordinary

The vole is widespread in biocenoses and agrocenoses of forest, forest-steppe and steppe zones of mainland Europe from the Atlantic coast in the west to the east. In the north, the border of the range runs along the coast Baltic Sea, southern Finland, southern Karelia, the Middle Urals and Western Siberia; in the south - along the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Crimea and northern Asia Minor. It is also found in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, in Northern Kazakhstan, in the southeast of Central Asia, and in Mongolia. Found in the Orkney Islands.

In its vast range, the vole gravitates mainly to field and meadow cenoses, as well as to agricultural lands, vegetable gardens, orchards, and parks. Avoids continuous forest areas, although it is found in clearings, clearings and edges, in open forests, in riverine thickets of bushes, and forest belts. Prefers places with well-developed grass cover. In the southern part of its range, it gravitates towards wetter biotopes: floodplain meadows, ravines, river valleys, although it is also found in dry steppe areas, on fixed sands outside deserts. In the mountains it rises to subalpine and alpine meadows at an altitude of 1800-3000 m above sea level. Avoids areas subject to intense anthropogenic pressure and transformation.

In warm weather, it is active mainly at dusk and at night; in winter, activity is around the clock, but intermittent. Lives in family colonies, usually consisting of 1-5 related females and their offspring of 3-4 generations. The home ranges of adult males occupy 1200-1500 m² and cover the home ranges of several females. In their settlements, voles dig a complex system of burrows and trample a network of paths, which in winter turn into snow passages. Animals rarely leave paths, which allow them to move faster and navigate more easily. The depth of the burrows is small, only 20-30 cm. The animals protect their territory from alien individuals of their own and other species of voles (even to the point of killing). During periods of high abundance, colonies of several families often form in grain fields and other feeding areas.

The common vole is distinguished by territorial conservatism, but if necessary, during harvesting and plowing fields, it can move to other biotopes, including stacks, stacks, vegetable and granary warehouses, and sometimes to human residential buildings. In winter, it makes nests under the snow, woven from dry grass.

The vole is a typically herbivorous rodent whose diet includes a wide range of foods. Seasonal changes in diet are typical. In the warm season, it prefers the green parts of cereals, asteraceae and legumes; occasionally eats mollusks, insects and their larvae. In winter, it gnaws the bark of bushes and trees, including berries and fruits; eats seeds and underground parts of plants. Makes food reserves reaching 3 kg.

The common vole breeds throughout the warm season - from March-April to September-November. In winter there is usually a pause, but in closed places (stacks, stacks, outbuildings) can continue to reproduce if there is sufficient food. In one reproductive season, a female can bring 2-4 broods, a maximum of middle lane- 7, in the south of the range - up to 10. Pregnancy lasts 16-24 days. A litter averages 5 cubs, although their number can reach 15; the cubs weigh 1-3.1 g. Young voles become independent on the 20th day of life. They begin to reproduce at 2 months of life. Sometimes young females become pregnant already on the 13th day of life and bring the first brood at 33 days.

The average life expectancy is only 4.5 months; By October, most voles die; the young of the last litters overwinter and begin breeding in the spring. Voles are one of the main food sources for a variety of predators - owls, kestrels, weasels, stoats, ferrets, foxes and wild boars.

The common vole is a widespread and numerous species that easily adapts to human economic activity and the transformation of natural landscapes. The number, like that of many fertile animals, fluctuates greatly between seasons and years. Characteristic outbreaks of numbers followed by long-term depressions. In general, the fluctuations appear to be on a 3- or 5-year cycle. In years of greatest abundance, population density can reach 2000 individuals per hectare, while in years of depression it drops to 100 individuals per hectare.

It is one of the most serious pests of agriculture, gardening and horticulture, especially during years of mass reproduction. It damages grain and other standing crops and in stacks, and gnaws the bark of fruit trees and shrubs. It is the main natural carrier of plague pathogens in Transcaucasia, as well as pathogens of tularemia, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis and other diseases dangerous to humans.

In the steppes of the European part of the territory former USSR, Kazakhstan and Western Siberia, the common vole is very numerous, and is of great importance here as an agricultural pest, especially of grain crops. In the steppe zone southern Siberia to the east to the middle Amur the gregarious vole has the same importance. Primarily in the drier grass-wormwood steppes from southern Ukraine east to the Yenisei, the steppe moth lives everywhere. The social vole, found in southern Ukraine, the steppes of Crimea, the North Caucasus and in places in Kazakhstan, as well as the mole vole, live in similar conditions. The oak forests of Ukraine are characterized by the ground vole. In addition, in the island forests of the European part of the territory of the former USSR, bank voles are found everywhere.

The typical and most numerous inhabitants of the Altai taiga are representatives of the order of rodents, among which forest voles predominate in number. In addition to the taiga species - red (Clethrionomys rutilus) and red-gray (C. rufocanus), the European bank vole (C. glareolus) is also found here, as well as several representatives of the genus of gray voles - housekeeper (Microtus oeconomus), dusky (M. argestis ), common (M. arvalis). Along the banks of rivers and lakes, the water vole (Arvicola terrestris) is common, in the dark coniferous taiga the forest lemming (Myopus shisticolor) is quite common, and in the alpine and mountain meadow areas several species of mountain voles are found - the great-eared (Alticola argentatus) and the flat-headed (A. strelzowi) ).

Wood vole

Among several species of mice, the Asian wood mouse (Apodemus peninsulae) stands out as an active consumer of cedar seeds; in open biotopes, the field mouse (A. agrarius) is common; the little mouse (Micromys minutus) is more rare, as well as the wood mouse (Sicista betulina), quite The common group of gray voles is the housekeeper (M. oeconomus), dusky (M. argestis), common (M. arvalis) and narrow-skulled (M. gregalis). In populated areas marked gray rats(Rattus norvegicus), a single house mouse was found.

The red-backed vole is found in the forest-steppe parts of Western Siberia. Along the beds and banks of rivers there are narrow-skulled and water vole. Typical rodents for the mountain ranges of the Altai Mountains are the European and Asian wood mice, and the high-mountain voles of Streltsov and Vinogradov.

In the high mountainous regions of the Altai Mountains and adjacent ridges of Mongolia, as well as in and in the Kazakh Highlands (Karaganda region and the southern part of Pavlodar region), the flat-skulled vole (Alticola strelzowi) is common.- a small animal with a rather long, densely pubescent tail. Body length 110-125 millimeters, tail 33-62 millimeters. The fur is very fluffy, the whiskers are long, up to 4 centimeters. The ears are relatively large, wide at the base, rounded, at the end of the tail there is a narrow tuft of elongated hair.

Flat-headed vole

The skull of this species of vole is unusually wide and flattened; the height of the braincase is approximately 2 times less than its width. 3rd upper molar usually with 5 prominent angles on each side; the anterior outer triangle is small and has a wide connection with the anterior loop; molars with loops stretched longitudinally. The color of the upper body is ash-gray, with small blackish ripples and with a greater or lesser development of brownish tones. The belly is whitish-gray. The tail is white or yellowish, sometimes faintly bicolored. Hairline The flat-skulled vole is quite long and fluffy.

It is characterized by two types of habitats: in Altai it is found in high mountain areas, adhering to rocky placers and rocks; in the Kazakh Highlands it lives on low hills, in rocky places, in close proximity to characteristic steppe rodents (the little ground squirrel, the steppe pika and the steppe pied). In the mountains, the flat-skulled vole can often be observed during the daytime. Like other high-mountain voles, it collects reserves of grass between stones and in rock cracks. Before entering voles' homes, under stones, the animals often collect large piles of rubble.

About The flat-skulled vole lives mainly in damp places: on the banks of reservoirs, in hummocky swamps, in coastal thickets of willow and other shrubs, in meadows, etc. The burrows are arranged relatively simply, the nesting chamber is located at a depth of 10-15 centimeters less, usually under a pile of dug up earth; close to the nesting chamber there are 1-2 storerooms connected to the nesting chamber by short passages; Several short passages also extend from the nesting chamber leading to the surface. In autumn, the pantries of the flat-skulled vole are filled with various roots; the weight of reserves in one hole is 5-10 kilograms. In winter, voles make their moves under the snow and almost never come to the surface. Feeds on green parts of various herbaceous plants(cinquefoils, cereals) and subshrubs (wormwood). In summer and autumn, it collects significant reserves of specially dried hay, hiding it in cracks, niches and under stones. In rock crevices it builds extended partitions from small stones, holding them together with droppings and urine mixed with earth. He carries pebbles weighing up to 15 grams in his teeth.

Xie The flat-skulled vole usually feeds in colonies, leads a diurnal lifestyle, and is most active during daylight hours. Very mobile and active, sometimes running for food hundreds of meters from the hole. Jumps up to 50 centimetersin length and 40 centimetersin height. Climbs bushes and even trees. Pauses in 24-hour intermittent activity occur during hot periods of the day and rainy days. Rocks that are very cold in winter force the animals to build large nests. Reproduction begins in April, females give birth to up to three litters per season, with seven to eleven young in a brood. Subspecies: 1) A. s. strelzovi Kastschenko (1899) - fur color is relatively dark, gray, with a brownish tint; habitat - Central Altai, . 2) A. s. desertorum Kastschenko (1901) - close to the previous one, the color is somewhat paler; Habitat - Kazakh Highlands (Karaganda region). 3) A. s. depressus Ogn. (1944) - the zygomatic arches are less widely spaced than in previous forms, the interorbital space of the skull with a noticeable narrowing in its posterior section, the interorbital part of the frontal bones with a sharp depression; habitat - (Southern Altai), ridge. Small and rare species. The flat-skulled vole is a natural carrier of the plague pathogen.

In preparing the article, materials from the following articles were used: Mammals of the USSR; Guide to the geographer and traveler, V.E. Flint, Yu.D. Chugunov, V.M. Smirin. Moscow, 1965; Rodents of the fauna of the USSR, Moscow, 1952, materials from the sites: Wikipedia, as well as photographs of site users.

Voles and wood mice
Just like moles, only even closer to the surface, and in winter, voles and wood mice - ordinary residents of gardens and parks - make their roads right under the snow. After the transition from mild winter to warm summer, they sometimes multiply in huge numbers and cause irreparable damage to young trees.

Vole Mouse (vole)
Latin name: Microtus arvalis (Pallas, 1779)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrates
Class: Mammals
Infraclass: Placental
Order: Rodents
Family: Hamsters
Genus: Gray voles
Species: Common vole

Like moles, voles dig deep holes, but unlike a mole, the vole's move in the ejection of soil from the side. The earthen mound itself is flatter on one side. The burrow has many entrances and exits, several nest chambers where voles store supplies and breed offspring. The passages can reach about 25 meters in length and are located at a depth of 5-35 cm. They reproduce very quickly: the vole gives up to eight litters of five to six cubs each year. Calculations have shown that if at the beginning of May 5 pairs of voles live on one hectare of meadow or arable land, then under favorable conditions by the fall there will already be 8.5 thousand individuals.

During the day, mice spend time underground, and at night there is a period of activity. Unlike the mole, the vole is a rodent and eats plant foods. Voles' teeth grow constantly, so they need to constantly grind them down, gnawing on plant roots, bulbs, tubers and other underground parts of plants. So per day they eat an amount of food equal to their body weight. In winter, voles continue to actively feed and therefore often eat the bark at the bottom of trees.

Voles differ from the common gray mouse in their color and shorter tail. The body length without tail is 12 cm, the belly is gray, and the back is dark brown.

Strong heavy rains or winter thaws often lead to mass death of voles. The water in the holes freezes and the mice, deprived of protection and shelter, die.

The number of mice is also influenced by their natural enemies, primarily birds of prey. An owl eats 1000-1200 pieces per year. Foxes, martens, and weasels feed almost exclusively on mice. A ferret destroys 10-12 voles per day. The weasel, with its long, narrow body, is capable of burrowing into burrows and eating young.

Existing methods of controlling voles can be divided into two groups: preventive repellent and direct destruction.
The first preventative measure is to create a barrier of plants whose smell mice do not like - garlic, black root, imperial hazel grouse.

The second measure is that substances with an unbearable odor for voles are poured or placed in burrows, and they go to other places. Elderberry and thuja branches, walnut leaves, and garlic cloves are suitable for this purpose. You can make an infusion of elderberry and pour it into the holes: 1 kg of fresh elderberry leaves are infused for two weeks in 10 liters of water and used without diluting.

There is also a way to expel voles from holes: moisten a small piece of cotton wool or cloth with ammonia or kerosene, wrap it in plastic wrap with a small hole for the fumes to escape. Such “sweets” are placed in the discovered holes.

You can, of course, look for other strong-smelling substances, but do not forget about the safety of the soil, plants and people. You can also throw burdock heads into mouse holes, which, sticking to the animal’s skin, will significantly complicate its life.

According to some reports, underground inhabitants They do not like sharp sounds and shaking of the soil. The noise and shaking deprive the voles of peace, and they try to go to a quieter and calmer place. Some people bury bottles in a slightly tilted position and in windy weather the bottles make a buzzing sound. Another way is to dig small poles around the garden and hang on them, for example, aluminum cans or so-called “wind chimes” (oriental bells).

And the most progressive way of fighting is traps. Recent studies have shown that mice (rodents) are most attracted not to cheese, but to nuts, chocolate and meat.

The inhabitants of underground passages (mice and moles) do not like soil shaking and sounds penetrating into the ground. This deprives them of peace, and they try to go to a safer place. Inventive gardeners came up with the idea of digging bottles along the edges of the beds, tilting them slightly so that the neck protrudes slightly above the soil. In windy weather they make a thin whistling sound. Those who tried this method were very pleased with the result: there were no moles or mice in the beds with bottles.

For more emotional people, this method is also suggested: stick a stick into the ground, put a metal tin can on its upper end and hit it with a hammer several times a day. This way you can solve two problems: scare away the mice and at the same time express your indignation.

There are also ancient, rather barbaric methods of killing mice. Powdered quicklime was mixed with an equal amount of sugar and scattered in the habitats of mice. In the stomach, lime, reacting with gastric juice, heats up and releases a large amount of gas, which leads to the death of the animal.

Another method is to add a few drops of sunflower oil to a mixture of equal amounts of gypsum and flour and roll small balls from it. Once in the stomach, hardened gypsum causes the death of mice.

Gardeners, who know that mice have a weakness for sunflower oil, suggest constructing primitive but effective bottle traps. The neck should be wide enough for a mouse to fit through. Pour a little sunflower oil into the bottom of the bottle and dig it into the ground so that the neck is at the same level with it. A vole, attracted by the smell of oil, climbs into the bottle but cannot get out.

This is interesting

Field mice - at first glance, these are ordinary inconspicuous rodents with a tail and extremely touching beady eyes. However, recent research on voles has simply excited the minds of scientists. Over the past million years, approximately 60 subspecies and species of field mice have evolved, which is a breakneck pace on a geological scale. Moreover, no specialist can visually distinguish all voles; this can be done, but only using genetic analysis methods. The animals themselves can classify each other instantly and never mate with individuals belonging to another population.

For scientists, the genome of voles seems completely absurd - a significant amount of hereditary information is located in the sex chromosomes (this is simply nonsense!), and the genetic material is distributed haphazardly. The total number of chromosomes varies from 17 to 64; their sets in males and females can either be the same or different. With all this, the offspring of field mice is an army of clones. They have no interspecies differences, but they are endowed with a mechanism for unmistakably recognizing each other. Scientists believe that such confusion could be the result of an evolutionary leap; in addition, not a single genus on Earth can boast of such a rapid pace of development - 60 branches in a million years.

It should be noted that the genes of voles have unique property"self-transplants". Here we need to clarify: in animal cells there are energy centers, called mitochondria, ATP (adenosine triphosphoric acid) synthesis occurs there - it supports more complex intracellular processes. Mitochondria themselves are practically independent structures, having their own DNA, membrane, and they even have their own mechanism for producing proteins. Mitochondrial DNA has no contact with the main hereditary information and is “spare.” And in field mice, DNA fragments from mitochondria can penetrate the cell nucleus and integrate into the genome.
The world's leading laboratories spend quite a lot of money on gene transplant operations, and achieve precise gene matching only occasionally. Tiny field mice have learned to do this on their own. If people were endowed with such abilities, then hereditary diseases would have been ended long ago. Research in this area continues and, perhaps, these rodents will help humanity overcome many congenital diseases.

Voles, voles (Arvicolinae or Microtinae) are a subfamily of rodents in the hamster family. Includes voles, pied mole voles, lemmings and muskrats.

List of species

The subfamily consists of 7 tribes, 26 genera and 143 species:
Subfamily Arvicolinae
. Tribe Arvicolini
Water rats, water voles (Arvicola)
Long-clawed and Bedford's voles (Proedromys)
Yellow Pieds (Eolagurus)
Wormwood moth (Lemmiscus curtatus)
Gray voles (Microtus)
Snow voles (Chionomys)
Steppe Pieds (Lagurus)
Blanfordimys
Volemys
. Tribe Ondatrini
Muskrat, musk rat (Ondatra zibethicus)
Tribe Myodini
Cashmere voles (Hyperacrius)
Rock voles (Alticola)
Forest voles, red-backed voles (Myodes)
South Asian voles (Ethenomys)
Arborimus
Phenacomys
Dinaromys
. Tribe Prometheomyini
Promethean voles (Prometheomys)
. Tribe Ellobiini
Mole voles (Ellobius)
. Tribe Lemmini - lemmings
Swamp lemmings (Synaptomys)
Lemmings (Lemmus)
Forest Lemmings (Myopus)
. Tribe Neofibrini
Florida muskrats (Neofiber)
. Tribe Dicrostonychini
Hoofed lemmings (Dicrostonyx)

general description

Voles include small mouse-like rodents with a body length of 7-36 cm. The tail is always shorter than the body - 5-29.5 cm. Voles weigh from 15 g to 1.8 kg. Outwardly, they resemble mice or rats, but in most cases they are clearly distinguished from them by their blunt muzzle, short ears and tail. The color of the top is usually monochromatic - gray or brownish. The molars in most species are without roots, constantly growing, less often with roots (in most extinct ones); on their chewing surface there are alternating triangular loops. 16 teeth.
Mole voles and Kashmir voles have adapted to an underground lifestyle. Other voles (muskrats, water rats), distinguished by their larger body sizes, lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Lifestyle

They inhabit the continents and many islands of the Northern Hemisphere. The southern border of the range runs through North Africa (Libya), the Middle East, northern India, southwestern China, Taiwan, the Japanese and Commander Islands; V North America found as far as Guatemala. In the mountains they rise to the upper limit of vegetation. Greatest species diversity and reach high numbers in open landscapes of the temperate zone. They often live in large colonies. The food is dominated by aerial parts of plants; some species store food. They are active all year round and do not hibernate during the winter. They are very prolific, producing from 1 to 7 litters per year, with an average size of 3-7 cubs. In some species (muskrat, vole Microtus ochrogaster), males also take part in caring for the offspring. They reproduce throughout the warm period of the year, some species even in winter, under the snow. Pregnancy lasts 16-30 days. Young individuals become independent at 8-35 days and soon reach sexual maturity. Due to their high reproductive potential, the number of voles is subject to sharp fluctuations from year to year. Life expectancy in nature ranges from several months to 1-2 years. Also, voles are forced to flee from the northern white burrowing polecats, because they are their main food.

Conservation status

Many voles are serious pests of agricultural crops and natural carriers of pathogens of tularemia, leptospirosis and other diseases. The skins of large species (muskrat) are used as fur raw materials. Due to their high abundance and its cyclical fluctuations over the years, vole populations have a serious impact on the population size of predators, such as snowy owls and Canadian lynx.

A number of rare species of voles are listed in the International Red Book, including as “Critically Endangered”:
. Vinogradov's Lemming (Dicrostonyx vinogradovi),
. Evoron vole (Microtus evoronensis),
. Muya vole (Microtus mujanensis),

As "Endangered":
. Alai mole mole (Ellobius alaicus),
. Balukhistan vole (Microtus kermanensis),

As "vulnerable":
. Central Kashmir vole (Alticola montosa),
. Mexican vole (Microtus mexicanus),
. Taiwan vole (Volemys kikuchii),
. Japanese red-backed vole (Myodes andersoni)

As “Near Threatened”:
. Forest lemming (Myopus schisticolor).

The animal is small in size; body length is variable, 9-14 cm. Weight usually does not exceed 45 g. The tail makes up 30-40% of the body length - up to 49 mm. The color of the fur on the back can vary from light brown to dark gray-brown, sometimes mixed with brownish-rusty tones. The abdomen is usually lighter: dirty gray, sometimes with a yellowish-ochre coating. The tail is either single-colored or weakly two-colored. The lightest colored voles are from central Russia. There are 46 chromosomes in the karyotype.

Spreading

Lifestyle

The common vole is distinguished by territorial conservatism, but if necessary, during harvesting and plowing fields, it can move to other biotopes, including haystacks, stacks, vegetable and granary warehouses, and sometimes to human residential buildings. In winter, it makes nests under the snow, woven from dry grass.

The vole is a typically herbivorous rodent whose diet includes a wide range of food. Seasonal changes in diet are typical. In the warm season, it prefers the green parts of cereals, asteraceae and legumes; occasionally eats mollusks, insects and their larvae. In winter, it gnaws the bark of bushes and trees, including berries and fruits; eats seeds and underground parts of plants. Makes food reserves reaching 3 kg.

Reproduction

The common vole breeds throughout the warm season - from March-April to September-November. In winter there is usually a pause, but in closed places (stacks, stacks, outbuildings), if there is sufficient food, it can continue to reproduce. In one reproductive season, a female can bring 2-4 broods, a maximum of 7 in the middle zone, and up to 10 in the south of the range. Pregnancy lasts 16-24 days. A litter averages 5 cubs, although their number can reach 15; the cubs weigh 1-3.1 g. Young voles become independent on the 20th day of life. They begin to reproduce at 2 months of life. Sometimes young females become pregnant already on the 13th day of life and bring the first brood at 33 days.

The average life expectancy is only 4.5 months; By October, most voles die; the young of the last litters overwinter and begin breeding in the spring. Voles are a major food source for a variety of predators - owls, kestrels, weasels, stoats, ferrets, foxes and wild boars.

Conservation status

Sources

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Common vole” is in other dictionaries:

Common vole- Microtus arvalis see also 11.10.3. Genus Gray voles Microtus Common vole Microtus arvalis (except in the north): in the Caucasus and the south of Central Siberia, in fields, meadows, glades, edges, in populated areas. In winter it is often found in... ... Animals of Russia. Directory

Brandga's vole- Lasiopodomys brandti see also 11.10.5. Genus Central Asian voles Lasbpodomys Brandga's vole Lasiopodomys brandti (in gray voles it is dark above and light below). There are 6 tubercles on the feet of the hind legs, 3 of which are covered by sparse... ... Animals of Russia. Directory Agricultural dictionary-reference book

Common vole Scientific classification Kingdom: Animals Type: Chordata ... Wikipedia

Eastern European vole- Microtus rossiaemeridionalis see also 11.10.3. Genus Gray voles Microtus East European vole Microtus rossiaemeridionalis (Table 53) There are fourteen species in Russia, many of which are reliably distinguishable only by structural details... ... Animals of Russia. Directory

Social vole- Microtus socialis see also 11.10.3. Genus Gray voles Microtus Social vole Microtus socialis (body length 8-12 cm, tail length about a quarter of the body length. The color is light sandy, sometimes yellowish, the belly is whitish. The ears are very ... ... Animals of Russia. Directory

Mongolian vole- Microtus mongolicus see also 11.10.3. Genus Gray voles Microtus Mongolian vole Microtus mongolicus (Table 53) Similar to common vole, but darker, the length of the tail is half the length of the body. Distributed in Transbaikalia... Animals of Russia. Directory

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