Voles, Moles and Pocket Gopher training

Vole.  Image courtesy the Play-Wright Flyer Guy blog.

Stephen Vantassel, Wildlife Damage Project Coordinator at the University of Nebraska, recently held a webinar covering management of voles, moles and pocket gophers.  Fortunately, thanks to the modern technology of webinar playback, the presentation is saved online so that you can view the information at your leisure.

The thing I appreciate most about Stephen's presentation is his emphasis on wildlife IPM.  Listening to the presentation I was particularly gratified to hear that wildlife management specialists have the same frustration as entomologists when it comes to IPM. The first question that I almost always get about an insect pest is "what's the best spray to kill it?" The reason this question is frustrating is that management of any pest is much more about understanding the pest, and about habitat modification.  IPM is not just about what chemical or special trap to use, its about correcting the conditions that lead to the pest problem.

So if you have interest in voles, moles or pocket gophers, check out this presentation when you have an extra 50 minutes. You'll get a good overview of an IPM approach to these three important landscape pests.