Features and habitat of mole rat
Common mole ratIs a mammal that belongs to the order of rodents. In the course of evolutionary development, all organs of this animal have adapted to the underground lifestyle.
The eyes have completely atrophied and have lost the ability to see. This is almost the only case in the delight of rodents, when there was a complete loss of vision.
The lifestyle of these mammals is exclusively underground. Blind rats, as well as, they dig long labyrinths of passages, and they push the excess soil that hinders them to the surface.
There are 4 species in the mole rat family. Each of them has its own habitat. Animal mole ratchooses steppes, wilderness, forest-steppe and forest outskirts for his residence.
The soil suitable for their habitation should be of moderate density. Clay and sandy soil is not suitable for them. Their habitat includes forest-steppe and steppes of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia. These are mainly pastures or unplowed lands rich in herbaceous vegetation.
The blind man digs the ground with his teeth
Mole mole rat itself is small in size. Its length is 30-32 cm. Weigh from 700 gr. up to 1 kg. He leads a rather secluded lifestyle, so few people saw him live. To correct this oversight and have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe appearance of this animal, we bring to your attention a few photo of mole rats.
As you can see in the image, it has no ears, its eyes are hidden under folds of skin, and its small tail is almost invisible. The limbs of this underground inhabitant are short, and the head resembles a bayonet shovel.
By the way, digs its tunnels mole mole rat exclusively with teeth, not paws. This happens in the following way, the front incisors of the mammal bite into the soil, and then with the help of a shovel-shaped head, crushed lumps of earth are pushed out. The special structure of the jaw and muscles allows the lower incisors to move apart and move them forward and backward.
This work leads to significant tooth wear in mole rat... But do not worry, the incisors grow very quickly, so this underground inhabitant will not be left without a "tool" for digging his tunnels.
By the way, thanks to his work, he not only grinds the incisors, but also sharpens them when gnawing into the soil. Animals in captivity deserve more sympathy. They do not have the opportunity to grind their teeth and sometimes they cannot close their mouths due to the fact that the incisors have grown to enormous sizes.
The fur of these giants of their craft is very soft, dark in color. The nose is covered with a keratinized layer of skin. It is this layer that is protective. It protects against various mechanical damage during the ramming of the burrow walls.
The nature and lifestyle of a mole rat
If moles loosen the soil with their front paws, then sand mole rats wielding powerful incisors. After their activity, heaps of earth remain larger than that of moles, and reach about 0.5 m.
In the photo is a sand mole rat
The weight of one such pile can reach 10 kg. From 3 to 20 representatives of this species live on 1 ha of land. The most active period of life of these rodents falls in the spring months. In summer and winter, they become less active, but they do not hibernate.
Labyrinths of moves mole rats giants are special in their structure. Their distinctive feature is the tiered tunnel system. So, top floor "Such a building" is considered food, it is located at a depth of 25 cm.
On this tier, rodents collect food: tubers, plant rhizomes. The second floor houses tunnels, summer and winter nests and storerooms. It is located deeper - 3-4 m. In winter, the entrance to these underground galleries is clogged with earth, and the animal lives here until warm times.
The total area of \u200b\u200bsuch labyrinths is 450 m. The number of grocery storerooms in such a territory can reach 10 pieces, and winter stocks can be 10 kg. Here is such a thrifty animal.
Lifestyle giant mole ratsalone. They carefully guard the borders of their territory. At times, a clash between two males ends in skirmishes over territory with a fatal outcome. Life span mole rats is 2.5 - 9 years.
Their activities cause great harm to agriculture. Signs mole rat in the garden - these are slides of the earth. They not only spoil the aesthetic appearance of the site, but also ruin the harvest.
Corn, legumes, carrots, beets and potatoes suffer the most from these underground animals. In just a day, 1 individual is able to damage 4-6 root bushes.
Deaf settled down on your site, how to deal with it? You can get rid of such a pest by re-digging the soil. So I destroy the feeding tiers of their passages. It happens that they are frightened off by an unpleasant smell, so you can use special purchased repellents.
One of the options for the fight is to capture mole rat manually. To do this, a fresh entrance to the hole is determined and another entrance is sought. Then a segment between them is excavated.
In the photo is a giant mole rat
This animal does not tolerate drafts, so it will try to eliminate the destruction. It is at this moment that it will be possible to catch this pest. Drive out mole rat you can also use water. They find a mound of earth mixed with clay and pour water into a burrow nearby.
Mole rat food
Blind rats eat exclusively plant foods. They eat tubers, bulbs and rhizomes. To get to the stem, they pull at the root so that the whole plant is in their hole. Favorite "dishes" mole rat are legumes, Compositae and Umbelliferae.
Reproduction and life expectancy of a mole rat
Blind rats live alone, but during the breeding season they form family groups. Such a family includes 1 male and 1-2 females. As a rule, members of such families live in the neighborhood. The male is digging a tunnel to his chosen one. He moves to the sounds that the female makes.
If there are 2 females in the group, then they breed in turn. One year is the first, the second is another. Such unions break up only in case of death. 2-3 babies are born a year. This significant event falls from February to May.
The resettlement of the younger generation is taking place in a peculiar way. So the "girls" are moved to the upper tiers a year after their appearance, and the "boys" - on the 2nd year, to the lower floors. They become sexually mature at 2-3 years of age.
Many gardeners constantly complain that they were attacked by mole rats and the fight against them has become a whole problem. You need to deal with them constantly in order to save your harvest.
The blind man: who is he?
When gardeners discover earth trenches and tunnels on their land plot, the first thing they think is that there are moles. But it's not always the case. Moles leave the same traces from their activities as moles. But it is much more difficult to fight with this living creature than with a mole. What is their difference?
The mole does not feed on crops - it likes insects and worms. But the mole rat is larger than a mole and is a representative of the rodent class. The common mole rat reaches 23 cm in length. It has a good appetite and can significantly spoil the harvest. Once on the vegetable garden, he drags the vegetable he likes to his hole, and he only eats the top of the plant, and leaves the rest as a reserve for the winter. The mole rat is able to stock up on potatoes, beets and carrots (up to 13 kg). This is a significant problem. Moreover, it is not difficult to imagine what will happen when their reproduction occurs. In this case, the crop in the garden may not be collected: it simply will not be there. Naturally, summer residents and gardeners ask themselves: what methods can be used to get rid of this pest?
Solution
Today there are many ways to eliminate a mole rat from your site. However, not all so simple. There is one important nuance... There are two types of blind rats in nature:
- giant is a rare species listed in the Red Book;
- ordinary - most often it is he who lives in the garden.
Methods of dealing with them differ depending on which species settled on the site.
The first method is traps. The fight takes place by setting a variety of traps, traps and crossbows. It is imperative that before using this method, you need to find out what type of mole rat lives in a particular area. The installation itself is very simple. You need to find a mole rat's hole and dig it hard, at a distance of 30-70 cm you need to dig another hole and put a trap in it. Then put a piece of plywood, roofing material or tin on top of the trap to cover it. The capture principle is as follows. Blind rats hate drafts. When they see two holes, they will naturally prefer a "covered house". That's how easy it is to catch an animal.
You can also use mole traps as a trap or dig a hole at the entrance to the hole and place a container of water there. When a mole rat gets into the water, he cannot get out on his own. However, this method is quite troublesome and difficult.
The second method is the use of various poisons. This is a fairly effective method, but if there is a good food base for a mole rat on the bed, then he may not touch the poison. There are gardeners who put various waste into their holes, watered them with essential oils and kerosene. But even that didn't always help.
If the gardener has an electric pump and a pond or reservoir is located nearby, then you can try to fill the holes with water. However, if the soil absorbs water well (for example, sandy), then it will not work to flood the mole rat.
It should be noted that these rodents cannot stand strong noise. If you install homemade rattling and ringing devices, you can drive the enemy away.
The third method is ultrasonic waves. This method is the most effective. There are many ultrasonic repellents in stores and markets. Many summer residents speak of them more than well.
In addition, ultrasonic devices act not only on mole rats, but also on other pests, for example, a bear, voles and moles.
You can choose any method or a combination of them. Savvy and patience are the key to a good harvest.
How to get rid of moles is a very frequent question, sometimes not even a question, but a cry from the heart ... How to make these generally useful animals forget their way to our site? In my experience, it is more likely to intelligently limit the population of these underground inhabitants than to get rid of them entirely. But how to do that? There are many ways. Talk about them below.
But in this article I would like to talk about another underground pest, a mole rat. Why? But because very often these two types of animals are confused - a mole and a mole rat (blind man). But these are completely different animals. The main difference is that they eat different foods. The first feed on worms, larvae. But the latter can leave you without a crop - carrots, beets, potatoes - their favorite delicacy. They, in my opinion, do much more harm to the garden. First we find out who the moles are.
1. Moles
Moles are small mammals that live underground. They have velvety fur, tiny, almost invisible ears, eyes, shortened hind, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging holes.
The mole, in comparison with other mammals, can live where the content of carbon dioxide is high, since its blood contains twice as much hemoglobin. Therefore, it is able to survive deep underground - where the oxygen content is minimal.
Although these underground diggers are the scourge of many gardeners, gardeners, lawn owners, they make a significant positive contribution to the health of the garden soil. Their numerous tunnels and mounds improve soil aeration and drainage. They also eat garden pests - the larvae of garden centipedes, snails, slugs, which gnaw at the roots, feed on plant leaves, but do not touch the plant roots.
Moles spend almost their entire life underground. Their velvety fur can adapt to any movement of the animal - forward or backward. The wide front legs, turned outward, end in thick strong claws. They are blind, but have extremely keen hearing and a keen sense of smell.
The lawn at the cottage is all dug Most of the underground passages of this animal consist of numerous tunnels. They can use these tunnels multiple times or, conversely, only once. They prefer moist soil abounding in maggots, earthworms. If it rains, then their passages are located close to the surface of the earth, and during the dry period or in winter they go deep into the depths - following the earthworms. When the soil is wet after rain or after watering, moles dig the ground close to the surface of the earth - looking for worms, insects, they can damage the root system of plants, thereby harming them. Many gardeners do not like this much.
Mounds of earth - molehills The fact of finding these underground inhabitants confirms the presence of various mounds of freshly dug earth of different heights (5-60 cm). The number of mounds is not equal to the number of animals, this is only an illustration of their activity.
Moles do not feed on roots. Only those plants that are already inhabited by pest larvae are undermined. Unfortunately, people lack understanding of the importance of finding these animals on the site. Before you decide to deal with them, make sure that their number is really critical. It is often enough to act to scare them away from your site.
How to get rid of
How do you scare them? This can be done in various ways.
Electronic mole repeller - review
Electronic scarers are of different power - vibrating sounds spread along the ground. The vibration propagation area depends on the power. The number of deterrents to be installed depends on the size of your site, the power of these devices. Install the device in early spring, leave it there until the end of the gardening season. But there is one peculiarity. This is already from the experience of my other neighbor.
The peculiarity is this - as soon as you install the repeller, it will begin to emit vibrating sounds - this will not so much scare the animals as it will alert them. First, the number of mounds dug around the electronic scarecrow will increase. Therefore, install them where there is no cultural planting. This will last two weeks. And then you will notice that new mounds have ceased to appear next to the device. A neighbor, for example, noticed that after two weeks they (there were 2-3) were dug further - 7-10 meters to the repeller. He placed two more where he noticed fresh mounds. After a while, no more mounds were visible.
I believe that the advantage of these scarers is a humane attitude towards these animals. And the minus is that the process of intimidation sometimes stretches for several months. I'll see how the neighbor will have it next, whether electronic scarers helped him or not.
This year (2015), electronic scarers were again installed, although in the spring there were no mole-spots at the neighbor's. We installed three medium-power scarers (one Krona battery) - the distance between them is 10-12 meters. Unfortunately, new mounds have appeared. Distance - 15 meters from the repeller. But nothing was planted there, so no further action was taken.
By the way, there is one drawback to electronic scarers. When used for the first time, the battery lasted three months. And then I had to change them monthly. This is a minus.
There are also similar solar-powered devices. If someone has used such, drop a couple of lines below, how convenient and durable they are.
It can be concluded that electronic scarers are quite effective.
How to get rid of moles with folk remedies
I suggest trying the following old, time-tested methods:
- Pour balls from fresh goat or pork droppings into the mole passages, as well as pour in herring brine or a mixture of kerosene and water.
- Chop the cut gooseberry branches, bury them with manure.
- Stick the bird cherry stakes in or near the mole heaps.
- The animals do not like the smell of onions and garlic. Cut them finely, place inside the mole passages. The more such moves you fill with this mixture, the faster the animals will leave your site.
Overcome moles, what to do?
Once I received a letter-question by e-mail. The author of the letter writes: “They tortured the moles, overpowered them, what to do? They ate the roots of the roses, rocked the bush, how to strengthen it? " Here is a part of my response letter: “Moles could not eat the roots of roses, any other plants - they feed on worms, larvae - plants, vegetables, they do not eat roots. Most likely the roses are sick. The roots are damaged by pests. It is their larvae that are the subject of attention of underground inhabitants. Carefully expose part of the root, carefully examine it, if my assumption is correct, then the roots of the rose need to be processed.
The rose has a lot of pests - one of them is khrushch - the larva of the May beetle. You yourself could bring it along with the humus.
The nematode can also damage the roots of roses. If you notice a white-pinkish bloom on the roots, this is a cluster of nematodes, small worms (they can only be seen with a microscope or a strong magnifying glass).
Each pest has its own means of struggle. Heal the plants - the mole will no longer disturb your roses. Whatever the result of studying the root system of roses, pour them with Kornevin (Heteroauxin), which stimulates the growth of new roots - the rose will recover quickly enough, therefore, it will strengthen itself in the soil. "
There are other methods: physical destruction, mole traps, etc. But these are completely inhumane methods of struggle. I don't want to talk about them. Still, I think you should not completely eliminate moles. There are more benefits than harm. One should not only allow their uncontrolled reproduction.
And here's another way to protect yourself from underground inhabitants. According to the author of the video, this is a very effective method.
2. Blind rats
These underground inhabitants do much more damage to vegetable gardens and fields than moles. If moles annoy us only by leaving mounds of land, then mole rats, plus to this, can deprive us of part of the harvest of potatoes, carrots, and other root crops. Moles are insectivorous, they feed on insects, worms, larvae, and mole rats are rodents. It is very difficult to get rid of mole rats.
How does a mole rat differ from a mole
The blind man (blind man) belongs to the family of mole rats. It is a rodent adapted to an underground lifestyle. He's completely blind. Instead of eyes, he has a thick fold of skin thickly covered with coarse, bristly hair. The tail and ears are underdeveloped. The front paws of mole rats are small. They are not at all similar to digging organs - the hands of the front paws are small, all five fingers with small claws. 
The blind rat digs the ground with his teeth - wide incisors. He actually gnaws at it with his incisors. Behind the incisors, and they are as if outside, he has multi-fold lips that cover the mouth opening. Therefore, the earth does not enter the mouth. The head is wide and flattened. The body length of a mole rat is 15-35 cm. The skull is of a special, unique shape.
The main habitats are forest belts, fields, steppes from the western regions of Ukraine to the Volga, Western Ciscaucasia. Its settlements are scattered. The highest density of its settlement (Ukraine) is achieved in virgin areas, adjacent crops of perennial grasses, crops of grain crops, close to beams, forest belts, forest edges.
Illustration from The Scientist magazine June 2012. The mole rat's burrows are arranged in several tiers. A complex system of horizontal passages is laid shallowly - a depth of 10-25 cm. These are the feed passages. They lead down to the deep tier, where 1-3 nesting chambers are located. The depth of their location can be different - 80-120 or even up to 320 cm.The diameter of the passages is from 5-6 to 11-12 cm.When laying the passages through a temporarily arranged burrow, the earth is thrown to the surface, forming a pile 10-25 cm high, 20 -30 to 240 cm.
How to get rid of a mole rat
It is difficult to get rid of a mole rat. Most often, strong poisons are used, the same as for rats. This is quite effective and often really helps. But they must be used very carefully - after all, a garden, a dacha, a vegetable garden is the place where children and pets walk, play.
You can set traps, but this is a troublesome business, since all this structure must be deepened, located near the entrance / exit of the hole. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that the mole rat will use this particular move. According to gardeners, mole rats are smart. If one mole rat falls into a trap or a trap, the others will be warned of the danger - no more will be caught. Most often, they bypass traps, traps by the side.
There is another way. An ordinary cat or cat will help you get rid of mole rats. It is best if the cat has already caught rats before.
Moles or the hole of a mole rat can be easily identified by underground passages - the earth collapses under the weight of a passing person. Then you need to open a hole (half a meter along the course of the hole) - wait for the mole rat to start clogging the exit with earth. He does not tolerate temperature drops or fresh air access, immediately begins to push out portions of earth, thereby clogging the exit.
At this time, it is necessary to prepare the burrow for the next operation. Above the exit of the hole, make a deepening of 30 centimeters (bayonet of a shovel), expand to half a meter on the sides - expect the reappearance of a mole rat at the exit with a cat or a cat. With its help, you will be freed from the malicious uninvited guest.
How does a blind animal harm?
The mole rat is a discovery for many of us. But for most gardeners, this is a harmful neighbor. Just like a mole, it digs underground passages, pushing out excess soil. However, the heaps in his lands are much larger than mole ones.
Let's get to know the mole rat better
The common mole rat resembles a mole in its way of life: it lives underground, digs numerous passages, forming sediments on the surface of the earth along its route. Yet it is a completely different creature.
The animal digs large holes and throws up to 5 kg of soil outside
Lifestyle and habits
The common mole rat differs from the mole not only in appearance, but also in its habits. Much more sophisticated he constructs his grounds.
Mole rat's land
This animal is small in size, up to 30-32 cm. Its organs of vision are atrophied and hidden under the skin, a barely noticeable tail and gray short fur.
The blind rat, whose photo will help not to confuse him with other rodents, is a long-liver.
It loosens the soil with powerful incisors, unlike the mole, which does it with its front paws. The mass of the thrown away earth can reach 10 kg and at the base 50 cm.
The systems of mole rats are characterized by layering.
One of the tiers is food, located at a depth of about 20 cm. The other contains nests, compartments for storing food supplies, and connecting tunnels. This tier is located at a depth of 3-4 m.
Mole holes made by a blind man - photo.
Features in habits and preferences
These animals prefer to live apart. In the event of a collision, the males fight until one of them dies.Each male gets one or two females. On an area of \u200b\u200bone hectare, from three to twenty animals can live.
Activity in life occurs from March to May. In summer and winter, it falls, but the animal does not hibernate.
Habitat
The animal feeds exclusively on plants, undermining roots and tubers
There are 4 types of families of these animals. Each species lives in a specific zone, but mainly they can be seen in the steppes, forest-steppe, deserts, semi-deserts, and less often on the outskirts of forests.
These animals like the soil of moderate and low density. They do not go into clay and sandy soils, too wet and saline.
The scale of harmfulness
An animal mole rat can differ from a mole not only in appearance, but also in the nature of the damage to humans.
The mole and mole rat have differences in food preferences.
While the former feed on insects and worms, the latter feed on rhizomes and eat tubers and bulbs of plants.
The animal drags garden plants into the hole by the rhizomes. He prefers legumes most of all, does not ignore umbellates, as well as Compositae.
These animals, breaking through passages, can harm residential buildings.
The mounds that have arisen as a result of their construction activities spoil the aesthetics of parks, present difficulties during field and garden work, haymaking. Mole rats destroy plantings, flowers in flower beds.
Potatoes, carrots, beets, and corn are noticeably destroyed. In just one day, the animal can destroy from four to six bushes of root crops.
The giant subspecies is listed in the Red Book
The harm caused by a mole rat is calculated in the amount of 10% to 20%. In the bins of one individual, you can find 18 kg of agricultural crops.
How to expel a mole rat from land
Ogorodnikov is often worried about the question: how to deal with mole rats? The methods of dealing with this animal are similar to those that are effective against a mole. But they require a lot of persistence. There is one more nuance. More often in the nature of these animals there are two types: giant and ordinary.
The first is listed in the Red Book, it cannot be destroyed.
And the common mole rat is found in garden plots. Fighting an animal is possible in several ways:
- One way is to flood the tunnels with water. However, this method requires a very large amount of water, because its tunnels are very branched. And in the case of good moisture absorption by the soil, this option will bring little effect.
- You can smoke the animal. For this, kerosene or another fetid substance is poured into the hole. However, this method leads to soil pollution.
- You can use scarers that create vibrations that are perceived by the animal as a danger signal. Very effective electronic Tornado repeller.
- The use of traps, mole traps is not an effective method, as those in the know say. The animal somehow recognizes them and skillfully bypasses them. Perhaps this is due to their excellent prudence and flair.
- An alternative substitute for traps can be a pet such as a cat or dog. Experienced people say that this is an effective way. It consists in the following: you need to determine the location of the rodent's tunnel, where the soil falls through. Use a shovel to open a manhole up to half a meter. The blind man cannot stand drafts, so he will soon hasten to arrive at the place of his source in order to throw earth at the passage. You need to dig a hole near this passage, about 50 cm by 50 cm, up to 40 cm deep. Then wait with your pet for a rodent.
- In a similar way, you can catch the animal on a hook, which replaces the four-legged animal. The hook is pre-inserted inside the open passage. And with the other end it is attached to the hole with a loop. The animal will fall on it. Any movement will aggravate his situation.
- The use of poisons for these purposes is an effective method. But in the beds, there is often an excellent food base for the animal. Therefore, he can ignore the poison.If desired, you can use poisons used to bait rats. However, it can harm pets too.
- The most humane method is to frequently dig up the site.
The blind rat is a territorial animal leading a solitary lifestyle. Therefore, expelling him from your site, you are guaranteed a long peace of mind.
The common mole rat is completely blind, but instead has tactile hairs, a well-developed sense of smell and hearing. This animal is quite enough for a normal life, during which it almost never sees sunlight. For many land owners, the mole rat has become a real punishment, because he is able to dig up the entire landing area and even affect the stability of the buildings located there.
Few have seen common mole rats live because of their lifestyle. They rarely get out to the surface, and their activity increases with the onset of darkness. So, many have to make up some idea of \u200b\u200bthe size and lifestyle of the animal only by the traces left by it. To help those who wish to know how the common mole rat lives and looks, there are photos and stories of biologists.
Description of the common mole rat
The maximum length of these rodents reaches 32 cm, and their weight is 700 g. They have an elongated cylinder-shaped body, a short neck, paws and tail and a flattened head at the top. The ears of the animals are barely noticeable, and the eyes are hidden under the skin and are completely atrophied. The color of different individuals may have some differences.
The short, soft coat of mole rats usually looks like a mixture of brown, gray and brown shades in different proportions, sometimes light spots are found on the head and body. The rodent has a wide nose, usually black or brown. At the first meeting with an ordinary mole rat, the upper and lower incisors, which are pushed far forward, are striking.
Where do common mole rats live?
For permanent habitation, the common mole rat usually chooses a steppe or forest-steppe. He likes to settle near beams, along roads separating fields and forest roads. It can be found in Russia, Ukraine and Moldova. In the northern part of the range, the common mole rat is considered rare, although it is the most common species of its genus, which also includes the sandy, giant, Bukovinian and Podolsk mole rats.
AT this moment the conservation of the species is threatened by plowing of land, measures to improve the properties of the land and protect plants. Meanwhile, it cannot be said that given view is on the verge of extinction. The concern of the relevant organizations arises only about the preservation of populations in some northern and southern zones, where the common mole rat lives. The Red Book of the International Union for Conservation has it on its lists. In view of this, the capture of animals in certain areas is prohibited, and human activities in their indigenous habitats are limited.
How do common mole rats live
The common mole rat, in short, has spent its entire life, and this is an average of 2.5-4 years, under the ground, digging complex systems of tunnels and getting food. Most of all, the animal loves the roots, tubers and bulbs of plants, but it can also feast on the stem with leaves. About 10 kg of food must be prepared for the mole rat for the winter. At this time of the year, its vital activity is noticeably reduced, but the rodent does not hibernate.
The optimal mole rat is 3 individuals per hectare, but this number can reach up to 20. With the help of sharp incisors and paws, the animals break through a branched two-tier burrow system. The upper tier lies at a depth of 20-25 cm, and the lower one, where the mole rat forms galleries for the nest and placement of food supplies, at a depth of 3-4 m.The outer holes are not permanent, but are formed only in order to extract the dug earth to the surface ...
How the animal reproduces
The social structure of common mole rats is made up of family groups, which include one male and one or two females. If there are two females, they give birth in turns after a year. Mating takes place in the spring, and a brood of 2-3 cubs can be born from February to May. Half of the males live separately and do not produce offspring.
Settlement of young animals occurs at a distance of tens or hundreds of meters. Females do this in the first year of life, getting to the surface, which explains their high mortality. Most often they are the object of hunting birds of prey and foxes. Males separate from their mother a year later, without leaving the bowels of the earth. The main underground enemy of common mole rats is the steppe polecat.
Pest animal
The branched underground labyrinths are great for mole rats, but can be a cause for concern for humans. If the garden or personal plot becomes the habitat of this rodent, you can say goodbye to the lion's share of the crop. Most likely, the animal will like carrots, potatoes and onions. It also tastes like onion flowers, legumes, corn and saplings.
Endless heaps of dug land, subsidence of the ground, the sudden disappearance of planted crops and even small trees - this is what people observe when an ordinary mole rat settles on their land plot. Description of his sabotage can be continued for a long time, and stopping them is an impossible task for many.
How to drive out a mole rat
Only one question arises when an ordinary mole rat starts up on a personal plot - how to get rid of a pest? For many, this becomes an overwhelming task. After all, the animal constantly hides in the ground and its presence, creating new mounds and destroying planted plants, only at night.
It is best to try to create such conditions for the animal to leave the land on its own. A lot of ways have been invented for this, but none of them guarantees that the animal will escape forever. Still, it is worth making every effort to get rid of the mole rat without shedding his blood.
One of the most commonly used methods is to flood his tunnel with water. But this may require too much water, since the animal's underground passages are very branchy. And if the soil quickly absorbs moisture, this method is completely useless. Some try to smoke a four-legged neighbor with the help of smoke, pouring kerosene or fetid mixtures into the hole. Another way is to create constant noise in the area of \u200b\u200bhis residence, which the common mole rat cannot stand. Alternatively, you can use the installation of an ultrasonic repeller.
Radical ways to get rid of a mole rat
When it is not possible to drive out the mole rat, some resort to a more radical measure - murder. To do this, you can watch for the animal by opening one of its moves. He does not like drafts, so he will definitely want to close the hole with earth. As soon as he gets close, it will be possible to destroy him.
Another way is to make a hole in the hole and place a trap in it so that the mole rat gets into it on the way to the open hole. It is important that the trap does not have a human smell, for which it is worth rubbing it with potatoes or earth. Poison can be used to kill rodents. But if there is something to profit from on the site, the rodent may not covet the poisoned food.
The common mole rat is a rodent that few have seen alive. Underground life with nocturnal activity has resulted in few being aware of its existence. Many would prefer never to know about the existence of such an underground inhabitant, instead of seeing how it destroys the cultures growing on the site.
