White water rat. Water rat in the garden: how to deal with a pest
The third paley of the hands and feet is larger than the fourth, the first fingers are not shortened, the claws are not too long.
The soles are bare, the calluses are well developed. On the sides of the sole there is a comb-shaped fringe of hair.
The color of the top is monochromatic, ranging from dark brown to black. In northern populations, the tip of the tail is often colored white. The hairline is distinctly differentiated into a dense underfur and a rough axis. Differences in fur by seasons are weakly expressed.
The skull is distinguished by comparatively widely spaced zygomatic arches, strongly developed fronto-parietal crests, and postorbital projections of the squamosal bones. The incisal openings are shortened because their posterior sections are narrowed and overgrown. Auditory drums are small and thin-walled. The angular process of the mandibular bone is small.
Biology
Lifestyle. The species inhabits river floodplains, shores of lakes, canals for irrigation and other water bodies, upland and floodplain wetlands. Settles in meadows, among shrubs, in swampy undergrowth, in fields and gardens, rarely found in buildings. Avoids the shores of polluted or clogged water bodies. Settlements of linear or mosaic type. In the mountains it is found up to a height of 3.2 thousand meters above sea level.
The animal is mobile, the seasonal change of habitats is pronounced. This is especially true for the forest zone. Here, the animals migrate from water bodies to floodplain meadows, thickets of shrubs, agricultural land, but no further than 2 km. Usually chooses snowy areas. At the same time, the flood regime affects the change of habitat.
Animals live in burrows in winter and in ground and above-ground nests in the warm season. Permanent burrows are shallow: 10 - 15 cm. Feeding passages up to 1 m, rarely deeper. Emissions of earth from holes on the surface and snow-covered earthen sausages are similar to molehills. Burrowing activity reaches its maximum intensity in autumn and winter, when the animals live in burrows, as well as during the period of active settlement of juveniles. In the forest-steppe zone, one individual can build passages with a total length of about 100 m. A nest made of grass stems is located in the nesting chamber. In addition, there are 1 - 2 storage chambers.
The daily activity of the species is polyphasic, and in summer it is mainly nocturnal.
reproduction takes place in the warm season, and in mild winters it begins as early as February. Individuals become sexually mature before reaching full growth. Females weighing 60 - 65 g, with an adult weight of 120 - 280 g, can be ready for breeding. Pregnancy lasts 20 days.
The fertility of the species is great. When breeding for 6 - 7 months (the central part of the range), overwintered (adult) females bring from 4 to 6 litters. Profits of the first litters - up to three., the second 1 - 2. The number of offspring from one pair alone is 70 individuals.
The number of cubs in one offspring is from 6 to 14. At the age of 10 - 11, the babies open their eyes and eat the green grass that the female brings them. Having reached half the mass of an adult, the animals leave the hole.
Outbreaks of mass reproduction are typical for biotopes of swamps and floodplains, forest-steppe lakes. But in most of the taiga zone, they are rarely observed.
Nutrition. In the diet of the species, the main part is made up of plant foods. At the same time, animal food is constantly present: larvae and adults of insects, mollusks, small fish, crayfish.
The warm season is characterized by feeding on aquatic and partially underwater parts of plants and meadow grasses. In winter, it feeds on underground parts, bark, shoots of poplars, willows, bird cherry. The storage instinct is poorly developed, but in animals living in the north and east of the range, it is much stronger. In these regions, the weight of supplies stored in cells can reach 5 kg, sometimes 10 kg. In the valley of the Lena River - 30 kg.
Morphologically related species
In morphology (appearance), the described pest is close to the Southwestern water vole ( Arvicola sapidus). Main differences: wider nasal bones, larger auditory drums.
The geographical variability of the species is distinctly mosaic in nature, which is especially characteristic of mountainous regions. But the regularities are not clear enough. Since variability is superimposed on it depending on the inhabited biotope, which is especially clearly manifested in signs of adaptation to a burrowing or floating lifestyle. More than 30 subspecies have been described.
Geographic distribution
water vole lives in floodplains and wetlands of the watersheds of the northern part of Eurasia and is distributed from the forest-tundra and southern tundra to the desert steppes. In the mountains, settlements of the species are found up to subalpine meadows. In the south, the range borders on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Asia Minor and Asia Minor, northern and southeastern parts of Kazakhstan, Northwestern China, Altai - the Sayan mountainous country and northern Mongolia. To the east, the range of the species stretches to the Irkut River, the Baikal region and the Verkhoyansk Range.
Maliciousness
water vole- not a synanthropic species and on the banks of reservoirs the harm from this species is insignificant. Basically, it comes down to damage to trees and shrubs growing along the banks. In particular, this applies to plantings of willows.
Field and garden crops located in areas close to water bodies are damaged by animals.
Water voles gnaw on the bark and roots of seedlings and cause significant damage to forest nurseries, plantings and orchards.
In the forest-steppe and steppe zone, significant damage is caused to grain crops, in particular, spring crops, during the period of preparation for winter.
Animals during the construction of holes destroy hydraulic structures: they destroy the slopes of canals, dams and irrigation ditches.
The species is one of the main carriers of tularemia. At the same time, it participates in the circulation of carriers of plague, tick-borne encephalitis, leptospirosis, Omsk hemorrhagic fever and many other zoonoses.
Pesticides
Chemical pesticides
Mixing with the bait product (wheat, cut potatoes, carrots, sugar beets or apples), introducing the bait into burrows, other shelters, tubes, bait boxes, boxes with special applicators:
In private farms:
Layout of ready-made baits at food enterprises and at home:
Control measures: deratization measures
Sanitary and epidemiological well-being is due to the successful implementation of the entire range of deratization measures, including organizational, preventive, extermination and sanitary and educational measures to combat rodents.
Organizational events include a set of the following measures:
- administrative;
- financial and economic;
- scientific and methodological;
- material.
Preventive actions designed to eliminate favorable living conditions for rodents and exterminate them through the following measures:
- engineering and technical, including the use of various devices that automatically prevent rodents from accessing premises and communications;
- sanitary and hygienic, including the observance of cleanliness in rooms, basements, on the territories of objects;
- agro- and forestry, including measures to cultivate the forests of recreational areas to the state of forest parks and maintain these territories in a state free from weeds, fallen leaves, dead and drying trees; the same group of activities includes deep plowing of land in the fields;
- preventive deratization, including measures to prevent the restoration of the number of rodents with the help of chemical and mechanical means.
The task of carrying out this group of activities lies with legal entities and individual entrepreneurs operating specific facilities and the adjacent territory.
These activities are carried out by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs with special training.
In the article I will make a description of the water rat. It is often called the water vole. I'll tell you where this animal lives, what it looks like and where it came from. I will describe the lifestyle of the water rodent and the conditions of reproduction. I will note what harm it brings to a person and whether it is necessary to fight it.
Description
The water rat is a rodent from the hamster family. This animal is the largest of the voles: weight 130-350 g, size 120-250 mm. The tail is long, round in section and is half the length of the body or even 2/3 of its length.
Outwardly, this rodent looks like a gray rat. The muzzle is shortened, the ears are small, the incisors are reddish brown. The eyes are smaller than those of a rat. The coat is thick with abundant undercoat; dark brown color. The tail is covered with short hair, which gathers into a small tassel at the tip.
Habitat
- Asia Minor and Western Asia;
- Northwestern regions of China;
- Northern Eurasia (from the Atlantic coast to Yakutia);
- Northern coast of the Mediterranean;
- Territory of the Russian Federation (except for chernozem);
- Belarus;
- Western Ukraine;
Life expectancy is 2-3 years.
Origin
The water vole has existed in vast areas for hundreds of years and spreads by migration and transport (with cargo).
Lifestyle
This species prefers to settle along the shores of lakes, on river floodplains, near irrigation canals, and in wetlands. The aquatic individual also inhabits meadows, swampy low forests, is found in fields, vegetable gardens, bushes, sometimes in buildings.
In winter, the animal migrates from reservoirs to meadows and bushes. The water vole lives in nests that it builds on or above the ground. Moves into a burrow for the winter. In autumn and winter, she is met under haystacks, in barns and gardens. Sometimes rats settle in colonies.
Water rats are good swimmers. Therefore, they like to settle near water bodies. The rodent swims well. It is most active at dusk and at night, but it can also be found during the day (in the warm season).
One animal is able to make a hole with a length of 100 m.
Nutrition
The diet consists of plant foods and animal protein:
- Surface and underwater parts of plants (during the warm season);
- Underground parts of plants, bark, shoots (in winter);
- Insect larvae, mollusks, crayfish, small fish;
- Vegetables and root crops;
Animals living in the north and east make abundant stocks, the weight of which can be up to 30 kg.
reproduction
The breeding cycle begins in late February (if the winter is warm enough) or at warmer temperatures. The female is ready for reproduction already with a body weight of 60 grams. Pregnancy lasts about 20 days.
The degree of fertility of the water rat is high - in 7 months the female brings up to 6 litters. The total number of offspring from one pair of animals is up to 70 cubs.
In one brood there are from 6 to 15 babies. The cub opens its eyes and starts feeding after 10 days. The independent life of the animal begins at 1 month, when it leaves the hole.
The water vole becomes the prey of most land and feathered predators (including snakes).
Harm and benefit to humans
- This species of voles damages the bark and root system of trees and shrubs. In areas close to water bodies, animals damage cultivated plant species. The rat severely damages plant seedlings, threatening the well-being of gardens and nurseries.
- Significant damage is done to cereal plants, especially during their preparation for winter.
- The process of building burrows by rats destroys the slopes of dams and canals, irrigation ditches.
- Damages stocks of vegetables and grains;
- The species is a carrier of diseases:
- Tularemia;
- Plague;
- Leptospirosis;
- Tick-borne encephalitis;
- Other zoonoses
The benefit to humans is the use of water rat skins for the manufacture of fur products.
Fighting a water rat in the area
The animal has many food sources in the garden and vegetable garden and many shelters. In this case, reproduction occurs intensively. To get rid of the settling of rats in the area, try various methods, humane or not.
You can not delay the beginning of the struggle, otherwise the animals will breed and the amount of work will double.
Repeller
A device that creates vibrations or ultrasonic waves that rodents cannot tolerate and try to leave the area of discomfort. Hardware stores offer such devices in a wide range.
Ultrasound is the most acceptable option against these rodents I
For baiting, drugs based on zinc phosphide or arsenic are chosen. In this case, you need to carefully study the instructions and all possible risks.
They work with poisons in protective devices and warn loved ones in advance.
The poison is placed inside the vegetable, after cutting the tuber in half and taking out the middle. The halves are folded back and the vegetable is placed in the hole.
Another way is to soak pieces of the underwater part of the sedge in a solution of poison (5 g of poison per 100 g of sedge).
folk method
As a repeller, a metal rod is used, which is installed in the ground, leaving a part above the ground. A tin can is hung on the pin, which will create vibrations.
Another common way is to purchase rat-catchers. You need to take a kitten from rat-catcher parents and in every possible way encourage the manifestation of the hunting instinct.
The water rat, like other rodents, has been living next to humans for hundreds of years. Its benefits are small, but the damage is significant. However, like other animals, it has the right to exist. On the part of man, the damage to nature is also significant, but this is treated with loyalty and justified in various ways.
How wonderful it is when there is a reservoir near the house or summer cottage. On hot summer days, this is a definite advantage. But even such a harmless good can cause certain problems. For example, a water rat may appear in the garden, let's figure out how to deal with it.
Description and photo of the pest
The water rat is the largest representative of voles, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with its photo and consider its description. Belongs to the hamster family.
The rodent has a small muzzle and a massive body, its length reaches 25 cm, and the tail - 15 cm. The body is covered with thick hair, and the tail is bristled. Color - gray, red or almost black. 
Features of the life cycle and habitat
The rat destroys the bark of trees, feeds on vegetable crops, destroys the fertile soil layer with its underground passages. The rodent comes to the surface only in secluded, cluttered places.
Important! Water rats breed very quickly, during the summer they can produce offspring (4-7 pieces) several times.
What is the harm?
The worst thing about the appearance of these rodents is that they are incredibly omnivorous. They destroy both the harvested crop and the rhizomes and tubers that grow on the site.
In the autumn, they get closer to people and gardens in order to easily obtain food. The rodent breaks through shallow underground passages, damaging the soil and plants that are found in its path.
Voles are very often confused with moles, but moles do not eat vegetables such as carrots, beets and potatoes, and a voracious water rat is capable of destroying an entire crop.
At the same time, well-thought-out animals do not eat everything at once, but make preparations from small vegetables for the winter, but those that cannot be dragged through their underground passages are destroyed on the spot. 
They can harm plants not only by eating them, but also by plowing the soil and disrupting the growth of the root system of flowers, shrubs and trees.
It is not so easy to find a place from which a water rat goes out to hunt for a crop, since most often the animal makes exits in secluded places, these can be heaps of garbage, compost pits, areas where heaps of branches or stones are located.
How to fight?
A rat that has settled on your site can cause great harm, and we will try to figure out how to deal with it. The main thing is not to delay, otherwise you can lose the crop.
Did you know? The water rat has many enemies, such as stoats, large birds of prey, and even pikes.
Humane Methods
One of these methods is considered to be scaring away rats with special devices emitting ultrasound. An unpleasant sound irritates the hearing organs of the pest, he leaves his home. 
It is believed that rats are able to get used to this sound and return to their homes, so when choosing such a device, you should pay attention to repellers that automatically change the range and frequency of the sound.
There are also folk methods of dealing with these dangerous rodents. Due to the fact that the animal has a very well developed sense of smell, exposure to rats with the help of odors is considered quite effective.
In order to use this option, you need a rabbit (or other) skin, it must be rolled up, placed in a hole and set on fire. Because of the strong stench, the rats will either suffocate or leave their homes forever.
You can prepare a mixture of water and ash, pour it into underground passages. On the one hand, this will block the movement of the pest, and on the other hand, an unpleasant smell will also play a role.
Radical ways
The water vole is a rather cunning animal, so the methods of dealing with it must be carefully thought out. Radical methods include all kinds of poisons.
Chemicals are best applied in autumn or spring, during the rodent breeding season. It is not enough just to spread the poisonous substance over the garden plot, but it is necessary to carefully disguise it.
In autumn, it is best to add poison to the grain and spread it in front of the entrances to the holes. In the spring, baits are best made from grated potatoes, carrots, and pumpkins. Also suitable for masking oatmeal and peas.
Important! Poison baits are very toxic, don't use this method if you have pets that roam freely around the property.
You can make baits with your own hands, for this you need to take alibaster or gypsum, sunflower oil and flour, mix with a wooden stick until a thick mass is formed and place a container with it at the exit of the hole. If minks are found in your garden, and vegetables are in a deplorable state. Their tops are broken, the roots are gnawed, which means that a water rat has settled nearby. But this definition is based on the fact that there is a reservoir next to your garden.
The water rat settles along the banks of streams, lakes, ponds. She has an excellent hairline, lives in the water, builds huts on the shore, but sometimes she does not mind eating vegetables in a garden or summer cottage. If you notice signs of the presence of such rodents, then immediately start fighting them, otherwise your crop will be lost by the fall, and you will even lose potatoes.
The biological name of the rat is the water vole. It differs from the usual gray house rat in size, also large, but has a thicker constitution and a shortened tail.
The length of the body sometimes reaches 22 cm, and the tail outgrowth is up to 12 cm, which is half of the entire rat (in an ordinary rat, the tail is several times longer than the length of the body). The cover of the water inhabitant is thicker and has a dark gray color.
Its muzzle is flattened, while that of an ordinary land rat is more elongated. The eyes are set very close to the nose, chubby cheeks are located on the sides. In appearance, the water rat is more like a hamster.
Where does he live
In the summer, it settles on the shores of shallow reservoirs, but closer to autumn it moves closer to the gardens, where there is a lot of food.
Many summer residents confuse the stay of rats with moles, but there are differences here too: the mole digs a tunnel, and piles the earth on the surface of the soil in the form of a hill, the water pest digs minks, and at the location of the depression there are mutilated plants, with roots turned out to the surface.
What does it eat
The female water vole is able to bring litter twice during the summer period. And at once on 6-10 cubs. Therefore, think about what kind of harvest you can wait for in the fall. The water rat family feeds on meadow plants, but in the spring, while they are succulent.
In hot weather, the rat climbs into the garden and eats roots and young shoots of cultivated plants. Makes stocks for the winter, it can be potatoes, carrots, beets. If the tubers are large, then the rodents eat them in the garden, and the smaller ones are dragged into holes.
Water rat control methods
All measures to eliminate the water vole can be divided into two types:
- destruction;
- repulsion.
The first type is more effective, since the more rats you exterminate, thereby protecting yourself from the re-invasion of rodents. But the second species is more humane in relation to nature, but having scared away the vole once, it is not a fact that it will not return to you for potatoes.
Biological
These are perhaps the most effective methods. This includes the capture of animals by large pets, this is a cat or dog. If not such a rat trap, then the presence of a cat's smell in the garden is enough to frighten away an uninvited guest.
They do this: sawdust soaked in cat urine is poured into the rat holes that have appeared and they are added dropwise. Smelling the smell of excrement, the rat turns into a run. Dogs are also able to frighten off a small rodent, although they will not eat it, but they can bite it. At night, hedgehogs and ferrets fight rats.
Mechanical
These methods have been tested for centuries. Since ancient times, mousetraps and traps have been used to capture rats and mice. Here, these adaptations can also be useful, but if the populations are small.
- Set a trap or mousetrap next to the hole;
- Wear gloves to prevent human odor from entering the device;
- You can put a piece of potato or other bait;
- Smelling the smell of the bait, the rat will not stand aside and will definitely visit the metal trap.
Chemical
Here we should mention rat poisons, which can be found in any veterinary shop. Poison should be used as a last resort, in case of a large invasion of rodents. But since pets can live on the site, it must be used very carefully.
As a poison, you will need powders containing zinc, phosphorus or arsenic. To prepare a bait with a poisoned agent, you can make the following design:
- Cut any vegetable in half;
- Take out the pulp from it;
- Stuff the insides with poison;
- Fasten the vegetable halves and lay near the hole.
You can pour poison into small boxes, bury it in the ground at some distance from the hole, put bait in it. Works with a bang.
An alternative to purchased poisons can be simple bleach. Once on the mucous membranes of the rat, a reaction begins, after a while the animal will die.
Ultrasound
Everyone knows the modern method of repelling rodents - this is ultrasound. The more placed on the site, the better. The emitted sound waves negatively affect the nervous system of voles. When installing the device, it is necessary to set the maximum amount of radiation so that the effect is enhanced.
As repellers, you can use combined devices that emit sound and vibration waves, such are intended, but they are also suitable for such rodents.
Folk ways
Since the rodent lives in the ground and moves like moles, the methods applicable in the fight against moles are also suitable for the extermination of water rats.
- Stick metal rods or pieces of reinforcement into the ground. Put on tin cans on them, which, when the wind blows, will create noise, rumble;
- As a homemade repeller, designs from plastic bottles are suitable. They can be made in the form of windmills, you can simply put them on cola and place them around the perimeter of the site. By creating rotational movements from the wind, vibration and noise will enter the ground and scare away pests.
Of course, the listed actions with banks and one and a half will not bring the maximum effect, but you can still frighten off a few individuals. It is better to use such designs in conjunction with ultrasound, poison and traps.
Conclusion
It is known that any rat will not start from scratch. If your site is adjacent to a small body of water, try to keep the shoreline clean, do not throw away food waste nearby.
Then the rat will have nothing to react to, and it will go to another garden, where there are sewage, overgrown with grass beds. But if individuals have appeared, then you must immediately engage in a duel with them.