Wildlife Damage - Initial

PSEP Author

03/28/2019 Added

12 Plays

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Pesticide safety for applicators dealing with wildlife management.

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[00:00:01.199](upbeat music)
[00:00:16.810]Hello and welcome
[00:00:17.680]to the initial pesticide applicator training
[00:00:20.110]for wildlife damage control category 14 on your license.
[00:00:24.560]Today an expert and wildlife damage management
[00:00:27.240]will provide review of the topics
[00:00:29.020]covered in the category 14 manual.
[00:00:32.650]Hopefully you have already had a chance to study the manual
[00:00:35.290]as the learning objectives that are covered today
[00:00:37.740]correspond to those found in this study manual.
[00:00:40.970]You can follow along with the learning objectives
[00:00:43.040]in your manual just know that any notes you take
[00:00:45.760]cannot be used to aid you when taking the test.
[00:00:49.660]Chapter one deals with
[00:00:50.930]the legalities of vertebrate pest management.
[00:00:53.530]Again the following learning objectives
[00:00:55.520]correspond with those in your study manual.
[00:00:57.810]Feel free to follow along as we go through the chapter.
[00:01:02.800]Hi, I'm Stephen Vantassel
[00:01:04.350]I'm the vertebra pest specialists
[00:01:05.760]for the Montana Department of Agriculture.
[00:01:08.370]My previous job was I was working here
[00:01:10.180]at the Wildlife Damage Management program coordinator
[00:01:12.790]here at the University of Nebraska Lincoln
[00:01:14.610]that the School of Natural Resources.
[00:01:16.860]We're gonna be talking or introducing to you category 14
[00:01:19.860]which is the control of vertebrates away from structures
[00:01:23.070]so why don't we get started.
[00:01:25.780]We're gonna begin with
[00:01:26.940]understanding pesticide laws and regulations.
[00:01:31.290]Well the first thing we have to understand
[00:01:32.570]about how our government works in America
[00:01:34.380]and that is we have three branches of government
[00:01:37.600]where we have the legislative branch that creates the laws,
[00:01:40.710]the executive branch which regulates
[00:01:43.310]and interprets and enforces the law
[00:01:45.720]and then of course the judicial branch
[00:01:47.700]which resolves disputes and interprets decisions
[00:01:51.410]that are made by the legislative and executive branch.
[00:01:55.890]But we also have federal, state, and local authority
[00:01:59.940]and as the rule goes the farther down
[00:02:02.170]or the closer in geographic proximity you get to a location
[00:02:06.720]the more restrictive the laws can be.
[00:02:09.440]The laws in the local area can never be less restrictive
[00:02:12.980]than the state and the state can never be less restrictive
[00:02:17.050]than the federal government but the state and local
[00:02:19.480]can be more restrictive than the federal government.
[00:02:22.810]So it can be a bit confusing that's why we have this
[00:02:25.210]sort of inverted triangle noting that the farther down
[00:02:29.220]the funnel you get the more restrictive
[00:02:31.780]the laws tend to be come
[00:02:33.740]because they can never go less restrictive.
[00:02:36.240]For example if the federal government says
[00:02:38.410]you can't control a certain species like woodpeckers
[00:02:41.680]then the state can't turn around and say yes you can
[00:02:44.870]it can only make more rules on that particular restriction.
[00:02:48.900]So we're gonna be starting with the federal law level
[00:02:51.550]and then we're gonna be working our way down here
[00:02:53.850]to the Nebraska level so you can understand
[00:02:57.120]some of these rules and how they affect
[00:02:58.990]your operations and business.
[00:03:01.070]So we have agencies and the laws in the United States.
[00:03:04.130]The Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
[00:03:07.290]often called FIFRA is managed by the agency
[00:03:10.350]known as the Environmental Protection Agency.
[00:03:12.970]That regulates the sale and use of pesticides.
[00:03:16.130]It will designate whether a pesticide
[00:03:18.050]is a restricted use pesticide which requires a license
[00:03:22.740]in order to apply and of course it's the one who says
[00:03:25.680]that the label is the law.
[00:03:27.970]Now the US Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency
[00:03:30.740]that governs the Endangered Species Act
[00:03:33.680]as well as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
[00:03:36.680]Now the Endangered Species Act
[00:03:38.040]most Americans are familiar with because it protects species
[00:03:41.620]that are in danger of going extinct
[00:03:43.730]either threatened or endangered.
[00:03:45.890]Threatened means they're in the process of going toward,
[00:03:48.690]they're in danger of going into an extinction status
[00:03:51.670]and of course endangered means they're very close
[00:03:53.920]to going into an extinct status.
[00:03:57.290]So they regulate those species
[00:03:59.020]in terms of whether they can be taken or not taken.
[00:04:03.060]Taken meaning is a legal term meaning that you can hunt
[00:04:07.070]or trap or somehow take possession
[00:04:09.560]of that particular animal and kill it.
[00:04:12.360]The Migratory Bird Treaty Act as a treaty
[00:04:14.440]between the United States, Canada, Mexico.
[00:04:17.640]It also includes I believe Japan now and Russia
[00:04:20.920]and these are birds that travel between our countries
[00:04:24.140]and so we didn't want a situation
[00:04:25.750]where one country was killing a bird down to such a degree
[00:04:30.020]and then all of a sudden it wasn't coming to United States
[00:04:32.330]or we were killing a bunch of birds
[00:04:33.940]and they weren't going to Canada
[00:04:35.080]as they're migrating across borders.
[00:04:36.970]Basically it protects all native species
[00:04:40.400]within the United States
[00:04:42.340]in terms of how they can be controlled.
[00:04:44.320]You may say well we hunt ducks in America.
[00:04:46.130]Well that's true,
[00:04:46.963]that's because there are certain carve outs
[00:04:48.830]on certain species that are huntable
[00:04:51.210]and we'll talk more about that later.
[00:04:53.600]Now in Nebraska we also have
[00:04:55.590]the Montana Department of Agriculture.
[00:04:57.620]They're the ones who govern pesticide use
[00:05:02.510]within the state of Nebraska.
[00:05:04.360]They have the authority to license pest control operators,
[00:05:07.010]it's with PCO stands for and they're the ones who institute
[00:05:09.990]paperwork requirements and the reporting rules
[00:05:13.180]that you have to follow as a pesticide applicator.
[00:05:16.310]Nebraska Game and Parks is the agency that governs wildlife
[00:05:20.640]in the state of Nebraska.
[00:05:22.780]Their job is to make sure
[00:05:24.140]that species are maintaining their population levels
[00:05:27.700]and they'll manage some damage
[00:05:29.510]in terms of how they control hunting season
[00:05:31.830]and trapping season and the like.
[00:05:33.800]They're the ones who tell whether a certain species
[00:05:36.470]is protected or not protected,
[00:05:38.260]whether it's a game animal or not a game animal
[00:05:40.570]and so we have two different agencies here.
[00:05:42.920]They're gonna be somewhat involved in your work
[00:05:44.660]as a vertebrate pest specialists.
[00:05:47.890]Now there's also the Nebraska Department of Ag,
[00:05:50.560]there a certain record keeping requirements
[00:05:52.530]that are for anyone who's involved
[00:05:53.950]in the application of pesticides
[00:05:55.580]within the state of Nebraska.
[00:05:57.880]Notice that you have to have paperwork that shows your name,
[00:06:00.570]your phone number, the location of the application,
[00:06:03.570]how much you used, what was the EPA registration number,
[00:06:08.260]when did you apply it, when did you start applying it
[00:06:10.707]and when did you end applying it, how much of a land area
[00:06:14.020]did you apply it in, and of course the total amount
[00:06:16.860]of pesticide that you applied in that particular location.
[00:06:20.940]You have to keep those records for at least three years
[00:06:24.220]and you have to record the information
[00:06:26.090]within 48 hours of application.
[00:06:28.460]So these are some of the requirements
[00:06:29.890]that you have to follow as someone who's gonna be
[00:06:32.130]a category of 14 specialists.
[00:06:34.000]Now in terms of wildlife laws, Nebraska Game and Parks
[00:06:36.850]does have some rules
[00:06:39.588]about the treatment of wildlife within the state.
[00:06:41.590]One of those is if you are capturing
[00:06:43.710]a particular vertebrate you can't relocate or translocate
[00:06:47.390]it's the right word, you can't move that beyond 100 yards
[00:06:50.450]of the site where you captured it.
[00:06:52.130]The only exception for that has fish, molluscs
[00:06:54.450]and crustaceans and I don't think you're gonna be
[00:06:56.170]doing a lot of work in those particular species.
[00:06:59.120]You need to have permits for the lethal control
[00:07:02.230]of protected species.
[00:07:04.360]That would be species such as raccoons would be considered
[00:07:08.190]a protected species, you say well why are they protected?
[00:07:11.170]Well 'cause they're hunted so there are a species
[00:07:13.310]that's hunted and trapped in Nebraska so you're gonna need
[00:07:15.440]to have a permit to control those outside of the season
[00:07:18.550]if you don't have a particular hunting or trapping license
[00:07:21.570]but producers however get broad permissions in Nebraska.
[00:07:27.180]They don't need to get a permit
[00:07:28.530]provided that they are controlling a damaging species
[00:07:32.070]that is on land that's used for production.
[00:07:34.650]This isn't for your residential area
[00:07:36.640]but if a producer is raising corn, is suffering damage
[00:07:39.480]from a particular raccoon coming on the property
[00:07:41.920]they do have the ability to kill that raccoon
[00:07:45.300]without getting a permit.
[00:07:46.540]But if you're a residential person you have to get a permit
[00:07:49.430]in order to do that or if you're gonna be doing this work
[00:07:51.510]for someone else you're gonna need
[00:07:53.070]to get that particular permit and Nebraska Game and Parks
[00:07:56.240]can give you that wildlife control permit
[00:07:58.200]that will allow you to do that.
[00:07:59.500]So it's a rule of thumb
[00:08:00.760]is to sort of gets a little complicated here
[00:08:02.730]we wanna give you some principles to be thinking about.
[00:08:04.940]Any species that's endangered or threatened
[00:08:08.340]you're gonna need to get a permit.
[00:08:10.640]And any native birds you're gonna have to get a permit.
[00:08:13.750]And of course any animal that has a harvest season
[00:08:16.430]you're gonna need to get a permit.
[00:08:18.020]Now what do we mean by the terms
[00:08:19.670]relocation and translocation?
[00:08:22.200]Well relocation means the movement of an animal
[00:08:25.010]within its home range.
[00:08:26.990]For example if you capture a squirrel
[00:08:29.120]inside someone's basement because it came down
[00:08:31.380]through the chimney and you release it in the backyard
[00:08:34.350]that is relocation.
[00:08:35.800]You're not gonna be putting a lot of stress in that squirrel
[00:08:38.220]because you're releasing the squirrel in an area
[00:08:40.270]that it's already familiar with.
[00:08:42.040]However if you take squirrel,
[00:08:44.000]put it in the back of your truck and drive at 20 miles
[00:08:46.960]and dump it somewhere that's translocation.
[00:08:49.690]You are now moving the squirrel out of its home range
[00:08:52.480]into an area that it's completely unfamiliar with.
[00:08:55.330]Not only is that illegal in the state of Nebraska
[00:08:58.270]but it's also quite cruel
[00:08:59.790]because you're basically putting that squirrel in the area
[00:09:02.780]that is not familiar with.
[00:09:03.770]So it has to find food,
[00:09:05.220]shelter while avoiding predators before nightfall
[00:09:08.950]and so that is a very high stress issue indeed
[00:09:12.340]and so that's something that you wanna be thinking about.
[00:09:14.850]But ultimately when your customers are asking you
[00:09:17.770]what are you gonna do with that animal,
[00:09:19.100]you need tell them what the Nebraska law is
[00:09:21.210]in governing the translocation of wildlife.
[00:09:23.530]There's another reason why you wanna avoid it
[00:09:25.380]and that is if the squirrel is sick
[00:09:27.270]and you move it to a new area
[00:09:29.090]you have now spread that disease to other species
[00:09:32.160]within that particular area
[00:09:33.530]and that's not good conservation practice.
[00:09:36.300]So let's talk about differences
[00:09:37.410]between humane killing and euthanasia.
[00:09:40.450]Humane killing is you wanna be killing the animal
[00:09:42.970]as quickly as possible to minimize its pain and suffering.
[00:09:46.850]Conibear-style traps, drowning sets, lethal snares, shooting
[00:09:50.340]are all forms of humane killing.
[00:09:52.920]The animal suffers because it's still conscious
[00:09:55.450]while it's dying where euthanasia the animal is unconscious
[00:09:59.780]during it's dying.
[00:10:00.840]And that is where using carbon dioxide,
[00:10:03.010]if you shoot an animal in the brain,
[00:10:04.860]if you give it cervical location for small birds
[00:10:07.910]or mammals only, or if you're giving it a drug
[00:10:10.500]known as sodium pentobarbital.
[00:10:12.800]Those situation, those techniques
[00:10:15.270]are where the animal is dying without any pain or suffering
[00:10:18.190]because it is unconscious during its death.
[00:10:20.580]So it's important to make sure we don't confuse
[00:10:22.960]those two forms of killing of wildlife
[00:10:26.140]because they are different and we wanna be focusing
[00:10:28.590]as much as we can on euthanasia
[00:10:30.550]but we do know in the field setting
[00:10:32.460]sometimes humane killing is the best that you can get.
[00:10:36.110]We wanna be careful of rabies
[00:10:37.590]when we're dealing with mammal species
[00:10:39.500]because any warm blooded animal
[00:10:41.810]which is what a mammal would be
[00:10:43.160]can carry the virus known as rabies.
[00:10:45.280]Rabies is a nerve based to disease
[00:10:48.110]that's why the bite is so important
[00:10:49.810]because it's actually injecting the virus into your body
[00:10:53.650]that it hits some of those nerve endings
[00:10:55.550]and that's where it transports along the the nervous system
[00:10:59.090]ultimately to your brain.
[00:11:00.750]So an animal that pees on you
[00:11:03.430]is probably not gonna be giving you rabies,
[00:11:05.910]it may give you some other disease
[00:11:07.850]but no real rabies in that urine
[00:11:11.699]because rabies is not a urine based infection.
[00:11:15.070]So the reason why the bite is so critical
[00:11:16.960]is because when the animals rabid
[00:11:19.910]the virus is actually in the brain and then it lactates down
[00:11:23.440]into the saliva glands and then the bite is inoculated
[00:11:26.690]into someone else.
[00:11:27.900]So here's an example of a slide that shows a positive test
[00:11:30.650]for rabies and so we wanna make sure
[00:11:33.040]that when you're working with wildlife
[00:11:34.830]you always protect yourself from bites and scratches.
[00:11:37.590]Treat all mammals as if they're carrying rabies
[00:11:40.930]and you're gonna be safe and good to go in that regard.
[00:11:43.910]We wanna be thinking about proper carcass disposal.
[00:11:46.310]One of the things we don't want people to be doing
[00:11:48.460]is just taking bodies of animals and just tossing them out
[00:11:51.250]of their truck on the side of the road
[00:11:53.490]and causing a particular eyesore
[00:11:55.340]and nuisance in that regard.
[00:11:56.750]Because we don't want be putting bodies of animals
[00:11:59.120]in places where dogs are gonna be accessing them
[00:12:01.500]or where we're gonna be collecting too many coyotes
[00:12:03.810]or predators in one particular area
[00:12:05.370]looking to feed on those.
[00:12:06.720]So you wanna make sure you're protecting public health
[00:12:08.890]by where are you disposing carcasses
[00:12:10.600]and those options can be something as simple as a landfill,
[00:12:13.600]make sure you talk to them first.
[00:12:15.200]You can incinerate them, go into deep burial or composting
[00:12:19.270]if you have sufficient lands resources to accomplish that.
[00:12:22.440]But you would wanna make sure we protect our water supply.
[00:12:24.740]Don't be bearing animals near the well or public
[00:12:27.920]or surface water areas and you wanna keep your carcasses
[00:12:31.450]away from scavengers and other animals
[00:12:33.410]that can be dragging this home to their family.
[00:12:36.530]But that's gonna be it for our law area
[00:12:38.880]we'll be talking more about some laws of course later on
[00:12:41.350]as we get to the specific species
[00:12:43.180]but we hope that that's gonna help give you an idea
[00:12:46.110]of how you're gonna understand the material in your textbook
[00:12:49.450]as we're gonna be moving forward in this course.
[00:12:52.003](upbeat music)
[00:13:02.660]Chapter two covers bird pests.
[00:13:05.340]Stephen Vantassel will continue the discussion
[00:13:07.670]and remember you can follow along in your manual
[00:13:10.020]to help with the learning objectives.
[00:13:14.560]Alright now we're gonna move into pest birds,
[00:13:16.960]not a big fan of the title.
[00:13:18.260]I'd rather call it unprotected birds
[00:13:20.470]because when we're dealing with protected birds
[00:13:22.230]we have to get a permit but there are only a few species
[00:13:25.810]in Nebraska that aren't protected which means you don't have
[00:13:28.950]to have any permits to control them
[00:13:32.230]at least as far as the state or federal level are concerned.
[00:13:35.980]Here are three of those species that are available.
[00:13:38.620]That is the pigeon or the common rock dove
[00:13:43.450]is another name for it, the European starling
[00:13:47.640]and of course the house sparrow
[00:13:49.070]and I would just wanna describe
[00:13:50.040]the house sparrow here for you.
[00:13:51.340]This is the male and I want you to notice here at the bib,
[00:13:54.600]the throat bib that's on it's neck that shows you
[00:13:58.160]that this is a male house sparrow
[00:14:00.520]and the female usually isn't too far behind
[00:14:02.940]but that's gonna be a very classic clue
[00:14:05.610]to help you identify the sparrow.
[00:14:07.210]Because sparrows can be a bit tricky
[00:14:09.260]in terms of their identification but these three species
[00:14:12.650]are not native to the United States
[00:14:14.980]therefore they are not part of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
[00:14:19.550]that I mentioned in the previous chapter.
[00:14:22.340]This is why you're able to control these particular species
[00:14:26.270]without having a permit from either
[00:14:29.160]the US Fish and Wildlife Service
[00:14:31.350]or from Nebraska Game and Parks.
[00:14:34.160]So there's also other species that are also not protected.
[00:14:38.300]The European collar dove would be another one
[00:14:40.490]that's not part of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
[00:14:43.640]but that's also another introduced species.
[00:14:45.580]But we wanna concentrate our efforts here
[00:14:48.513]on these three species because the these are longterm
[00:14:52.450]common ones that don't have any protections
[00:14:55.610]in terms of Nebraska law or in terms of federal law.
[00:14:59.610]So here's the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
[00:15:01.930]We mentioned it a little bit in chapter one
[00:15:05.213]in our previous presentation
[00:15:06.700]but here's some of the wording of it.
[00:15:08.300]And it says the federal prohibition to pursue, hunt, take,
[00:15:12.850]capture, kill, possess, offer for sale, sell
[00:15:17.210]or offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment,
[00:15:20.310]ship, cause to be shipped at any time,
[00:15:22.570]any migratory bird, nest or egg of any such bird.
[00:15:26.140]In other words you can't even have in your possession
[00:15:29.640]a bird feather like from a blue jay or from a robin
[00:15:33.150]even if it fell off the bird.
[00:15:34.630]The mere possession of that is a violation
[00:15:37.400]of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as you read it here.
[00:15:40.300]So the reason why again just to repeat it
[00:15:43.050]why those three species aren't protected
[00:15:45.430]is they're not native and considered
[00:15:48.180]part of the migratory bird species here in the United States
[00:15:51.200]'cause they weren't here to begin with.
[00:15:52.610]They were actually introduced some of them in the 1800s.
[00:15:56.780]So we have basically two legal categories of birds,
[00:16:00.810]unprotected birds, pigeons, house sparrows,
[00:16:03.760]starlings and protected birds.
[00:16:06.470]So the universe of birds always breaks down
[00:16:08.920]into two different parts
[00:16:10.820]and the ones we're gonna be focusing here on
[00:16:13.010]are the unprotected birds.
[00:16:15.630]Now you may say why am I talking about
[00:16:17.030]limited protection for black birds?
[00:16:18.760]Well there is a carve out
[00:16:20.650]within the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
[00:16:23.220]for farmers to be managing black birds
[00:16:26.920]that are depredating on their crops,
[00:16:28.610]it means damaging their crops in the process or about to
[00:16:32.460]they don't need to get a permit to control them.
[00:16:34.910]However if the farmer chooses to do this,
[00:16:38.630]chooses to use lethal control on these black birds,
[00:16:42.880]would be like the red-winged black bird,
[00:16:44.700]the yellow headed black bird, that sort of thing.
[00:16:47.470]If they're using control, lethal control
[00:16:49.530]on those particular species they automatically grant
[00:16:52.590]the federal government permission
[00:16:55.078]to come onto their property and interview them
[00:16:57.890]and evaluate their control methods any time.
[00:17:00.370]They're also supposed to submit a written report
[00:17:03.330]of their lethal activities on these birds
[00:17:05.890]every year to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
[00:17:08.020]So there is a carve out there but a lot of farmers
[00:17:10.640]I don't think are completely aware of the full ramifications
[00:17:13.490]of using that loophole within the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
[00:17:18.050]Now let's talk a little bit about pigeons.
[00:17:19.860]They're very extraordinarily common.
[00:17:21.700]They have thrived in urban conditions
[00:17:23.770]because they're a ledge dweller but they have one
[00:17:26.230]to two eggs per clutch and up to five clutches a year.
[00:17:29.030]A clutch is just the time
[00:17:30.470]when they're laying eggs at one sitting.
[00:17:34.820]They're monogamous so they mate basically for life
[00:17:37.440]until one of the pair a dies.
[00:17:39.360]And then of course the young, the eggs hatch
[00:17:41.720]in about 18 days and they are fairly long lived bird
[00:17:45.050]all things considered.
[00:17:45.960]They can live three years or more
[00:17:48.420]but they do need free water in order to survive
[00:17:51.620]and they can get that from snow
[00:17:53.460]so snow would constitute free water as well.
[00:17:55.900]This is why that's an important element,
[00:17:58.180]while trying to reduce their numbers
[00:17:59.490]is you wanna be controlling the amount of water
[00:18:01.370]that they have access to and we'll talk a little bit more
[00:18:03.910]about that when we get into some bird control.
[00:18:05.950]Notice how little they eat every day.
[00:18:07.950]They don't need a whole lot and they thrive of course
[00:18:10.960]in urban environments.
[00:18:11.810]Here's an example of them living in a ledge.
[00:18:14.720]They like to live on ledges that are certainly protected
[00:18:17.070]from surface rain but their nests are
[00:18:18.820]extraordinarily simple things.
[00:18:20.890]Here's just some straw sort of strung together, some sticks
[00:18:27.020]and that's on a pile of feces.
[00:18:29.020]Here's an example of other pigeons
[00:18:30.840]on the girders of a bridge.
[00:18:32.660]Notice we have our owl effigy
[00:18:34.320]that's really doing a great job
[00:18:35.870]and I'm being sarcastic there of course.
[00:18:37.880]Where the pigeons are then the roosting
[00:18:39.290]on top of their feces and that's where they have their nest
[00:18:41.830]so they're kind of a dirty bird in that regard
[00:18:45.240]but they are very simple nests that they create.
[00:18:48.880]Starlings breed only twice a year and I have a picture
[00:18:52.320]showing where the starling nest is
[00:18:53.930]on this particular girder.
[00:18:55.980]They mate in late May and also late July
[00:19:00.510]and they have two clutches per year,
[00:19:02.830]four to seven eggs a clutch.
[00:19:04.930]They don't migrate but they can form very large flocks
[00:19:08.950]and roost particularly in the winter time
[00:19:10.667]and this can become quite a nuisance for people
[00:19:14.358]when their starlings come and merge together
[00:19:16.130]and they come together in the winter time
[00:19:17.650]because they're trying to save heat.
[00:19:19.470]And so it allows them to sort of save food energy
[00:19:22.640]by coming together so the bird in the middle
[00:19:24.680]is really getting the best deal
[00:19:26.550]because he's gonna have the heat of all those other birds
[00:19:29.200]helping reducing his caloric intake.
[00:19:31.630]And again they don't eat a whole lot
[00:19:33.800]but they can cause tremendous damage both than the feces
[00:19:36.900]that's coming out and also the noise damage
[00:19:38.880]that people suffer when they have large flocks
[00:19:41.470]of starlings around.
[00:19:43.490]People in cattle production areas really suffer a lot
[00:19:46.650]from starlings because the amount of food
[00:19:49.410]that they can consume and contaminate is enormous
[00:19:53.150]and they are involved in the spread of some salmonella
[00:19:56.880]among cattle as well.
[00:19:59.060]Starlings are cavity dwellers,
[00:20:00.860]that means they like to go into a hole
[00:20:03.490]and then build their nest inside of a hole.
[00:20:05.220]Where pigeons are ledge dwellers so they like,
[00:20:08.490]this is an example of a starling
[00:20:09.960]where someone puts some netting up
[00:20:11.587]and the starlings were able to weasel their way in
[00:20:13.946]and filled this entire area with grass.
[00:20:17.890]Notice here's an attic.
[00:20:19.480]For some reason they like to fill the entire void
[00:20:23.230]so they just keep bringing back grass and straw
[00:20:27.490]trying to fill up this whole attic.
[00:20:29.250]That took about a 30 gallon trash bag
[00:20:31.820]to get that out of the attic.
[00:20:33.560]And then of course they have their droppings
[00:20:35.230]before a particular event that they're exploiting
[00:20:38.380]on this structure.
[00:20:39.650]It often forms a fan like look to it.
[00:20:43.520]House sparrows are also cavity dwellers.
[00:20:46.110]Notice I'm just gonna emphasize again the black bib
[00:20:48.730]that shows you that it's a male.
[00:20:50.460]They breed three times a year and they average four
[00:20:54.150]to seven eggs per clutch and they hatch in about two weeks.
[00:20:57.860]There's no migration with this bird.
[00:20:59.460]It can stay in the city area
[00:21:01.020]or wherever it's resting year round
[00:21:03.812]but they tend not to form the kinds of roost large flocks
[00:21:07.470]that the starlings do but they can sort of gather
[00:21:09.940]a little bit but nowhere near the extent that starlings can.
[00:21:14.280]This is important because again
[00:21:15.770]of that Migratory Bird Treaty Act you need to make sure
[00:21:18.910]you've identified that the birds
[00:21:21.340]and identified them properly.
[00:21:23.170]Here we have an example of a house finch on the left.
[00:21:26.380]Notice how similar it looks to the female house sparrow
[00:21:30.630]that I have pictured here on the right.
[00:21:32.840]Now the picture of the house sparrow here on the right,
[00:21:36.000]he's fluffed up a little bit because he's probably cold
[00:21:38.630]or he's trying to just get some fleas off of them
[00:21:41.100]but notice how in from this picture how similar he looks
[00:21:44.120]to the house finch.
[00:21:45.170]The house finch is a protected bird,
[00:21:47.890]the house sparrow is not a protected bird
[00:21:50.360]and that you wanna make sure
[00:21:52.040]when you're doing your control efforts
[00:21:54.060]you don't confuse the two species.
[00:21:55.890]So it's very important to be doing your pre-survey work
[00:21:59.520]monitoring and that you make sure
[00:22:01.260]that you're dealing with the right bird.
[00:22:02.620]By the way these two species can reside
[00:22:05.360]very close to one another.
[00:22:06.590]In fact that this particular structural complex
[00:22:09.530]that I was at both species were right next to each other
[00:22:14.160]so make sure you're following the rules
[00:22:17.260]when we get to controlling these particular birds.
[00:22:20.470]House sparrows like starlings are crevice dwellers.
[00:22:23.340]They will also fill a void complete with grass
[00:22:26.490]and of course you'll see the spray of droppings
[00:22:29.270]when they're coming up into this particular building.
[00:22:32.880]Canada geese are a protected species but you can get permits
[00:22:37.380]to control them and we just wanna cover them briefly
[00:22:40.030]because they are becoming more common in Nebraska.
[00:22:43.040]Officially my understanding is that the last I knew
[00:22:46.570]Nebraska Game and Parks has not given up control
[00:22:50.110]of Canada geese yet, nuisance Canada geese
[00:22:52.890]but that could change.
[00:22:54.340]And I do wanna mention this
[00:22:55.620]because the Nebraska Game and Parks may down the road
[00:22:58.670]allow vertebrate pest specialists
[00:23:00.810]to be dealing with Canada geese
[00:23:02.680]but there also is a repellent that's available
[00:23:04.730]for Canada geese that you would be allowed to spray.
[00:23:06.987]And the reason is because you are not taking the bird
[00:23:11.010]so when you're dealing with protected species
[00:23:13.010]it's not that you can't do any control you can,
[00:23:14.966]you just can't do any control that's gonna harm, injure
[00:23:19.000]or take possession of the bird
[00:23:21.670]or injure the bird that's nesting for instance.
[00:23:24.960]So you can exclude a bird from going into an area
[00:23:28.810]you don't want it to go that's fine
[00:23:30.710]but you can't do anything
[00:23:31.730]that would harm that bird physically.
[00:23:33.890]So even though this is a protected species you are allowed
[00:23:37.420]to use repellents to keep that bird off of certain surfaces
[00:23:41.400]and there are products in the market
[00:23:42.670]that you can use to do that.
[00:23:44.520]But of course defecation is a big problem with Cana,
[00:23:47.400]excuse me with Canada geese and you also have safety issues
[00:23:51.130]because ganders they are very defensive of their nests
[00:23:54.270]and ganders have attacked people who have been injured
[00:23:57.280]by Canada geese because of falling
[00:23:59.930]or slipping on droppings and some of these issues
[00:24:02.510]can be quite serious.
[00:24:05.350]So how do we control these particular species?
[00:24:07.520]Well like all species that we're dealing with
[00:24:10.110]and whether you're dealing with bugs
[00:24:11.420]or whether you're dealing with vertebrates
[00:24:12.630]the fact of the matter is the principles are all the same.
[00:24:15.810]When we get down to the abstract level
[00:24:17.970]we wanna manage the animal's habitat,
[00:24:20.490]we wanna be thinking about when is the appropriate time
[00:24:24.900]to institute control in terms of its lifecycle and behavior
[00:24:29.080]and what types of control measures
[00:24:31.520]are we going to institute.
[00:24:33.580]But we have to be thinking about all three elements
[00:24:36.630]and too often we focus on the control methods
[00:24:39.430]without thinking about the habitat modification,
[00:24:42.210]the conditions that allow those animals to be here.
[00:24:45.277]I'm gonna just repeated again.
[00:24:46.710]If you build it they will come,
[00:24:48.770]if you remove it they will go
[00:24:50.800]so the animals are there for a reason
[00:24:53.560]because we've allowed the conditions that make it favorable
[00:24:57.590]for them to be there and that's why they're there.
[00:25:00.420]We can remove the conditions that allowed them to be there
[00:25:03.230]the problem will resolve itself
[00:25:06.010]and we don't wanna simply avoid thinking about that
[00:25:08.950]and talking about that with our clients
[00:25:10.830]because it will often save a world of trouble
[00:25:13.370]in terms of pesticide use, in terms of other control methods
[00:25:16.510]and in the long term it could be a cheaper solution
[00:25:19.390]if it's applicable in your particular situation.
[00:25:22.720]We also need to be timing things.
[00:25:24.360]Sometimes we have right control method
[00:25:26.610]but use it the wrong time.
[00:25:28.550]For example frightening devices should never be used
[00:25:32.000]when animals are nesting because it's cruel
[00:25:35.230]because the bird is not gonna be leaving it's young.
[00:25:38.100]So using a frightened device when a bird is nesting
[00:25:41.220]with its young is silly and it's also cruel
[00:25:44.490]because it's not an appropriate use
[00:25:46.510]of that particular control method
[00:25:48.600]when you have young available.
[00:25:50.460]So we have to be thinking about all three areas
[00:25:53.567]and our goal is to reduce the damage to tolerable levels.
[00:25:57.720]That means what will make the client happy?
[00:26:00.850]And the client's probably gonna say
[00:26:02.120]well I want them all gone.
[00:26:03.570]That's really not gonna be practical a lot of times
[00:26:05.860]when we're dealing with birds
[00:26:06.840]unless you're dealing with a full exclusion.
[00:26:09.030]But the reality of the situation is what do they really need
[00:26:12.470]to achieve to solve the problem that they're suffering
[00:26:16.530]in this particular case.
[00:26:18.100]So let's talk about bird pressure
[00:26:19.900]and when we're dealing with control of birds.
[00:26:23.000]Bird pressure is how attached birds are
[00:26:26.150]to a particular location.
[00:26:28.120]Low pressure, they're easy to move.
[00:26:30.370]High pressure, they're very hard to move
[00:26:33.100]so generally speaking in my experience in the field
[00:26:36.340]clients never call you when there's low pressure.
[00:26:40.500]So we're gonna kind of avoid that because for now
[00:26:43.920]and we're gonna be dealing with medium and hard pressure
[00:26:46.480]but I'll let you read the the subheadings there on your own
[00:26:49.800]in terms of understanding what low pressure is.
[00:26:51.860]But with medium pressure is the birds have
[00:26:53.970]an established roosting spot where they are doing this
[00:26:57.840]on a regular basis but there are no nests.
[00:27:01.420]Often there's food or water available or both
[00:27:05.560]so this is often location where birds will sun themselves
[00:27:09.310]after they've fed in the morning,
[00:27:10.950]they will feed in the morning
[00:27:11.960]and then go to this roosting spot kind of hang out.
[00:27:14.460]Or they're roosting there in the hopes
[00:27:16.270]that someone will drop food for them
[00:27:18.090]or there'll be a feeding area that they can then exploit
[00:27:20.660]and of course high pressure is often defined
[00:27:23.090]by the fact that there's nesting.
[00:27:24.920]Whenever you see an issue of nesting with birds
[00:27:28.820]you automatically know that it's a high pressure site.
[00:27:31.260]Those birds are wedded to that location.
[00:27:33.830]They have chosen that location because in their mind
[00:27:36.160]it's the best place for them to be
[00:27:38.210]so it's gonna take a jack hammer
[00:27:40.010]to kind of get them to move along.
[00:27:41.730]So you need to make sure you understand and evaluate
[00:27:45.050]why are the birds here and how attached are they
[00:27:48.980]to this particular location
[00:27:50.690]because the more attached they are
[00:27:52.590]the stronger control methods you need to apply
[00:27:55.650]to get them to move on or to be eliminated.
[00:27:58.490]So habitat modification should always be started
[00:28:01.660]whenever year doing wildlife control
[00:28:03.507]and you have to be thinking along these lines
[00:28:06.060]and don't let your client try to poo poo this aside.
[00:28:09.660]Anything helps that you can do to reduce the amount of food
[00:28:13.170]and resources available to that particular bird.
[00:28:15.960]You wanna be stopping active feeding and passive feeding
[00:28:19.350]when you're dealing with birds.
[00:28:20.290]Passive feeding is down here
[00:28:22.070]where people have just that plastic lid of that dumpster
[00:28:25.510]was just too heavy to close again or you have active feeding
[00:28:28.850]where people at the McDonald's restaurant
[00:28:30.490]are just tossing out French fries to the animals.
[00:28:32.850]Active and passive feeding you wanna try to eliminate
[00:28:35.220]or reduce those as much as possible.
[00:28:38.380]You also need to be removing access points
[00:28:42.040]by closing off vents that are gonna be used by birds
[00:28:45.110]or potentially used by birds.
[00:28:47.050]Here's an example where you have birds using these trees.
[00:28:50.190]Starlings for instance love these tightly leafed trees
[00:28:54.940]where they can flock in abundance
[00:28:57.170]and so the way to resolve this is to open up the canopy
[00:29:00.220]by removing up to 1/3 of the branches
[00:29:03.020]so that it's less tight and less condensed
[00:29:05.440]forcing the birds to move to a different location.
[00:29:10.230]In plain English more food and shelter means more animals.
[00:29:14.920]If you want to reduce this you have to reduce the conditions
[00:29:19.470]that allow that to occur and a lot of people think
[00:29:22.980]that it's just too big of a project.
[00:29:24.740]I wanna encourage you every little bit helps
[00:29:29.070]whether you think it does or not
[00:29:30.500]because it can be a magnifier for other techniques
[00:29:33.780]that you're applying later.
[00:29:34.900]If you're looking for a one trick pony show
[00:29:38.400]to resolve bird problems
[00:29:39.710]you are thinking about it all wrong.
[00:29:41.840]You need to be thinking of a multi-pronged approach
[00:29:44.910]to managing the bird problems in a particular area
[00:29:48.060]and failure to do that will result in more cost
[00:29:50.990]to your client and more frustration for yourself.
[00:29:54.120]So here's the importance of habitat modification.
[00:29:56.720]Here's some research that was done that pointed out
[00:29:59.590]that you can reduce the number of pigeons
[00:30:01.640]in a particular area by 23% simply by removing places
[00:30:06.850]where they're living and roosting.
[00:30:09.940]Not even doing any lethal control whatsoever
[00:30:12.700]you're just simply screening off areas to prevent them
[00:30:15.720]from roosting and nesting and you can reduce the population
[00:30:18.310]by 23%, that's in a more macro area.
[00:30:21.100]So the fact of the matter is it can work
[00:30:22.637]and it can work in a substantial way.
[00:30:25.260]Why?
[00:30:26.093]It increases the stress on these birds.
[00:30:28.390]They have to find less favorable areas to live
[00:30:32.210]and so therefore when you're using lethal control
[00:30:35.020]you can imagine how that 23% will be magnified
[00:30:38.210]by lethal control or other activities
[00:30:40.190]that you're going to apply.
[00:30:41.430]So again make sure you do it even though it seems
[00:30:45.020]too small to matter trust me it does matter.
[00:30:48.790]So habitat modification now we move into exclusion.
[00:30:53.310]We wanna prevent birds from entering areas
[00:30:56.010]where they are not warranted
[00:30:57.710]and so they can be something as simple as plastic strips
[00:31:00.410]over a door where people need to move in or out
[00:31:03.040]or netting an area that are used on top of a roof
[00:31:07.040]to prevent birds from getting into
[00:31:08.570]where cooling exchanges are
[00:31:11.250]for air conditioner system.
[00:31:14.020]Those are permanent.
[00:31:15.270]This is the gold standard.
[00:31:16.570]The gold standard for bird control is exclusion and netting.
[00:31:20.450]That solves it all
[00:31:21.820]but it's also one of the more pricey options
[00:31:24.240]and it's not always applicable in every situation
[00:31:27.120]but when you can use it, you want to definitely use it.
[00:31:30.360]You can also stop them from living on ledges.
[00:31:33.060]You have nonelectric products
[00:31:34.980]which would be the spikes, coils and wires
[00:31:37.380]or you can use something that's been on,
[00:31:39.660]been really getting hot on the market recently
[00:31:41.860]and that is electrical shock tracks.
[00:31:44.390]And now the electrical shock tracks
[00:31:46.270]here's the interesting thing.
[00:31:47.870]They are more expensive as a product but they are easier
[00:31:51.530]and less time consuming to install.
[00:31:54.180]So in fact you can have a lower overall price
[00:31:59.250]using electric shock because the total cost labor
[00:32:03.680]and materials is ultimately less than the labor
[00:32:06.490]and materials used for spikes, wires or coils.
[00:32:09.910]So you can either pass it on to your client
[00:32:12.310]or you can keep the profit for yourself
[00:32:14.510]but ultimately there's a big movement afoot
[00:32:16.544]so you can start using these electric shock tracks
[00:32:20.080]because of how simple they are to install.
[00:32:22.480]It's something you definitely wanna be looking at.
[00:32:25.080]You could also ask producers to change
[00:32:27.360]how they're growing their crops
[00:32:30.860]by changing the timing of when they're planting.
[00:32:33.210]Sometimes if they plant a little earlier they can miss,
[00:32:36.530]they can avoid, they can have the plants mature faster
[00:32:40.280]before the birds start coming through or they can vice versa
[00:32:43.160]plant later so that the birds fly through at a later period
[00:32:46.830]or earlier period before the crop ripens.
[00:32:49.850]There are different types of things you can change the crop,
[00:32:52.290]change the location of the crop,
[00:32:54.120]controlling insects would often attract birds as well.
[00:32:57.060]So there's a variety of things that can help
[00:32:59.430]reduce the kind of damage to crops that birds can cause
[00:33:02.390]by changing how that crop has grown.
[00:33:04.850]Frightening devices.
[00:33:06.030]These are non chemical tools used to scare birds away
[00:33:10.010]and we categorize them into four different ways.
[00:33:12.870]Auditory, visual, audio visual and biological
[00:33:17.020]so auditory of course the sound.
[00:33:19.170]One of the benefits of sounds it can cover a wide area.
[00:33:22.257]One of the problems with sound is it bothers the neighbors
[00:33:25.290]and birds do habituate.
[00:33:27.130]You have the visual which is here the effigy,
[00:33:29.230]the owl effigy that's pernicious.
[00:33:31.800]Effigies do work but they often only work for a short period
[00:33:35.040]of time because the animals figure out they don't move.
[00:33:37.510]To make them work better you wanna move it around
[00:33:39.990]at least every three days or have something
[00:33:42.147]that's with as much motion as possible.
[00:33:44.860]Audio visual is sort of like pyrotechnics,
[00:33:47.210]things that explode and sounds so they have light
[00:33:50.720]and sound very effective but again not applicable everywhere
[00:33:54.440]and there's also a potential fire risk with those.
[00:33:57.220]And then biological is our hawk there
[00:33:59.470]or that can be used to sometimes Hayes birds
[00:34:02.760]would be a biological form of control.
[00:34:05.840]These are often short term use, their best use
[00:34:09.170]when under light pressure but of course as I said
[00:34:11.930]no one calls you when it's light pressure
[00:34:13.800]but it's something for you to use.
[00:34:15.890]If you're gonna using frightened devices
[00:34:18.090]use as many different tools as possible.
[00:34:20.810]You wanna totally explode on the animal senses
[00:34:24.300]and be persistent when you're using that.
[00:34:27.200]What's ineffective?
[00:34:28.220]Lasers except for Canada geese.
[00:34:30.600]Ultrasound of course birds can't hear in the ultrasound area
[00:34:34.140]and plus the wave dissipates
[00:34:35.830]so you wanna avoid those techniques.
[00:34:38.070]Repellents or chemicals used to deter animals
[00:34:41.620]from particular sites.
[00:34:43.160]You have tactile ones,
[00:34:44.693]these are the polybutenes that are used.
[00:34:46.730]You have to be careful of the polybutenes
[00:34:48.430]'cause sometimes animals get stuck in that
[00:34:51.050]so you're gonna make sure you follow the label carefully.
[00:34:53.100]I'm not a big fan of the tactile repellents,
[00:34:55.510]they're often only short term at best
[00:34:57.640]and they do raise some humane issues.
[00:35:00.170]There is methyl anthranilate that you can spray.
[00:35:02.960]This is how it's distributed
[00:35:04.400]it burns the nostrils of the birds.
[00:35:06.640]It's highly effective on Canada geese
[00:35:08.560]but will move other birds
[00:35:10.010]that happened to be exposed to it
[00:35:12.460]so it's a way of moving them along.
[00:35:14.017]It's a little pricey, about $100 a gallon for that.
[00:35:17.500]And then of course you have aversive conditioning
[00:35:19.640]which is anthraquinone.
[00:35:21.620]The Canada geese will eat this product
[00:35:23.770]and it makes their stomach sick
[00:35:25.230]and they know to avoid that particular treated soil.
[00:35:28.000]It actually has a UV product inside of it
[00:35:33.260]so that when the sun hits it the birds can see
[00:35:35.370]in the ultraviolet range and they realize
[00:35:36.870]not to go on that grass because it's been treated.
[00:35:39.170]They can still walk on it
[00:35:40.330]but they just won't eat it anymore
[00:35:42.110]and so that can be very effective as a way of control.
[00:35:45.110]There is fertility control for birds, the pill so to speak
[00:35:49.060]but it's only for pigeons.
[00:35:50.800]It is not a restricted use pesticide.
[00:35:53.300]It is a bit pricey but for your clients
[00:35:55.310]that wanna have pigeon control without any direct lethal
[00:35:58.640]this is the way to go.
[00:36:00.540]You can control 100 birds for basically $7 a day.
[00:36:03.743]They are automatic feeders.
[00:36:05.990]This product has been on the market for decades
[00:36:08.430]because it's been used in the chicken hatching industry
[00:36:11.660]to prevent fertilization of chicken eggs
[00:36:14.546]and so it's been in our food system forever
[00:36:17.900]and it's reversible.
[00:36:18.733]So even if a non target bird eats it
[00:36:21.770]once the bird stops eating it's back to being fertile again
[00:36:24.940]and there's no secondary poisoning with it either
[00:36:27.380]so it's something for you to consider
[00:36:29.740]in terms of your operations.
[00:36:31.530]Lethal control of course is always gonna be
[00:36:33.710]part of Wildlife Damage Management.
[00:36:35.760]You wanna be thinking about nest destruction.
[00:36:37.450]With Canada geese you can get a permit
[00:36:39.370]very easily to do this.
[00:36:41.600]Nest destruction doesn't work very quickly over the,
[00:36:44.690]if you keep doing it repeatedly over long term
[00:36:48.011]about 15 years you will start seeing results
[00:36:50.180]according to some research out of New York State.
[00:36:52.670]Trapping, you can genuinely remove up to 90% of the birds
[00:36:56.430]in an area using trapping like particularly with pigeons,
[00:36:59.380]other birds less so
[00:37:01.210]but with pigeons you wanna be telling you clients
[00:37:03.210]you can remove about 90%.
[00:37:05.120]And then of course we're shooting.
[00:37:06.460]Shooting is also a very effective, it can also be used
[00:37:09.550]to incorporate with frightening devices
[00:37:11.980]so you have some lethal action with the frightening
[00:37:14.510]and that can make it even more effective.
[00:37:16.710]But again you have safety issues and legal restrictions
[00:37:19.790]and it's never gonna eliminate your bird population
[00:37:22.250]'cause they'll get wise to you pretty quickly.
[00:37:25.220]There are some pesticides in the market
[00:37:27.170]known as avicides.
[00:37:28.240]You have Avitrol which is not truly an avicide
[00:37:31.770]'cause it's not designed to kill the birds
[00:37:33.680]it's designed to cause them to get into a fright response.
[00:37:37.030]Those birds that get a sufficient dose of it though
[00:37:39.550]will die but the goal is to actually only have
[00:37:43.770]a small percentage of the flock killed if any killed at all.
[00:37:47.890]I spoke with the manufacturer and he says
[00:37:50.000]that some people are using it at such a low dose
[00:37:52.770]they're not having any mortality at all
[00:37:55.070]but when the birds eat it they get into a fright response,
[00:37:58.090]it's spooks the flock and they never come back
[00:38:00.530]to that area again.
[00:38:01.950]Now other birds may came in down the line
[00:38:04.240]but for a short term maybe up to a year
[00:38:06.590]you can have some birds eliminated from that particular area
[00:38:09.330]using this particular product.
[00:38:10.970]It's often been abused and misused
[00:38:13.280]so be sure to follow the label.
[00:38:15.640]Starlicide Complete is a DRC-1339
[00:38:18.997]and it is a product used at feedlots.
[00:38:21.270]It is a true avicide, it's designed to kill starlings
[00:38:25.080]by shutting down the kidneys so they will feed on this
[00:38:28.070]and then they'll usually be dead within 72 hours.
[00:38:30.840]There are numerous personal protection
[00:38:33.130]equipment requirements with this particular product.
[00:38:35.860]So how do we bait birds properly?
[00:38:37.990]Well first thing you need to do is evaluate the site.
[00:38:40.730]You wanna make sure that there's no non target birds around,
[00:38:44.670]if they're around how are you gonna make sure
[00:38:46.580]that you're not feeding them these particular poisons.
[00:38:49.520]You wanna pre feed.
[00:38:50.570]You've got to get the birds accustomed
[00:38:52.110]to feeding in that particular area.
[00:38:54.320]You need to choose the right formulation
[00:38:56.400]because different birds will eat
[00:38:57.960]different types of substrates
[00:38:59.530]whether like pigeons will eat whole corn
[00:39:01.870]other birds need cracked corn.
[00:39:04.250]You wanna be able to treat the flock and then monitor
[00:39:07.550]'cause you often have to remain on site
[00:39:09.580]and remove any dead or dying birds
[00:39:11.610]and then ultimately remove any remaining bait.
[00:39:14.210]And you have to be on site to make sure
[00:39:15.870]that non target birds are not feeding
[00:39:17.930]on your toxicant as well.
[00:39:19.720]But if you follow those steps and do this appropriately
[00:39:23.920]you could have great success
[00:39:25.210]with some of these particular products.
[00:39:26.960]DRC-1339, the pure form is only used by Wildlife Services.
[00:39:31.730]You can contract Wildlife Services to do some control work
[00:39:35.440]and they have broad permission
[00:39:37.310]to use this particular product for species
[00:39:39.470]where the Starlicide Complete is only for starlings
[00:39:42.510]but they have the ability to use that product
[00:39:44.140]for other things as well.
[00:39:45.790]And again it works best on days when it is cold
[00:39:48.480]and that the USDA Wildlife Services technician
[00:39:51.630]will walk you through what they need
[00:39:54.480]and they'll do a site evaluation with you
[00:39:56.250]to determine its suitability.
[00:39:58.640]There's also a wetting agent sodium lauryl sulfate.
[00:40:01.990]It's not legal in Nebraska at this time
[00:40:04.660]but I just wanna make you aware of it
[00:40:05.940]'cause you might be Googling things
[00:40:07.440]if you're having trouble.
[00:40:09.290]This actually sprays treated water on the birds
[00:40:13.290]that are roosting in this particular tree.
[00:40:15.520]It wets them and it prevents them from being able
[00:40:17.920]to warm themselves because it removes
[00:40:20.920]the warming factor of their feathers
[00:40:23.270]and then ultimately it kills them.
[00:40:26.030]They freeze to death and drop to the ground below.
[00:40:28.750]Highly effective when and where it's legal to be used.
[00:40:33.500]I wanna just sorta caution you
[00:40:34.820]in terms of the politics of bird control.
[00:40:36.920]A lot of people get pretty upset when you're killing birds.
[00:40:40.010]You wanna make sure you think about discretion,
[00:40:43.010]the location, should you warn neighbors?
[00:40:45.780]Are you gonna keep a low enough profile?
[00:40:48.470]If you're using the avicides, people really get irritated
[00:40:52.010]when birds are dropping from the sky onto their cars
[00:40:55.400]and vehicles or into their lawns.
[00:40:57.130]Where are those birds die?
[00:40:59.150]If you're trapping, are you gonna be out of public view?
[00:41:01.830]Are people are gonna see you ringing that bird's neck?
[00:41:04.130]You never want to kill an animal in public view
[00:41:06.660]so you wanna learn how to be discrete and make sure
[00:41:10.530]you're working among the highest ethical standards available
[00:41:14.300]when you're doing this 'cause you never
[00:41:15.570]know who's videotaping you with their cell phone.
[00:41:18.600]So you wanna make sure you don't avoid
[00:41:20.570]making people angry for silly reasons.
[00:41:24.880]Don't do anything in private
[00:41:26.650]that you're ashamed to do in public.
[00:41:29.640]Always wanna be thinking about cleaning up of droppings
[00:41:32.060]or protecting yourself if you're in contaminated areas.
[00:41:35.200]Bird droppings have a variety of problems
[00:41:37.500]associated with them particularly diseases.
[00:41:39.890]If you're gonna be shoveling these things
[00:41:41.540]or going into feces contaminated areas
[00:41:44.480]make sure you protect yourself.
[00:41:45.790]I recommend a full faced PPE mask,.
[00:41:48.550]Make sure you're properly fit tested.
[00:41:50.490]It should be at NIOSH filter 100,
[00:41:52.840]don't do anything below 100
[00:41:54.697]and you wanna avoid disturbing the feces
[00:41:56.830]'cause that's just going to stir up
[00:41:58.080]all of that stuff for you to breathe in.
[00:42:00.130]You may have to be thinking about Tyvek suits
[00:42:03.240]but this is a whole nother field.
[00:42:05.190]I just don't want you to be going into buildings
[00:42:07.390]with lots of droppings around and not thinking about
[00:42:09.940]how you would need to protect yourself.
[00:42:11.950]Where can you learn more?
[00:42:13.400]Well this is the publication you wanna be reading.
[00:42:15.920]It's available for download.
[00:42:17.888]It's free not that it didn't cost us anything
[00:42:22.420]but our tax dollars paid for this
[00:42:24.710]so you don't have to pay for it again.
[00:42:26.860]So it's available for download,
[00:42:28.240]it's produced by the government with our tax money.
[00:42:30.850]I would strongly recommend that you download it.
[00:42:32.800]It's about 30 pages or so.
[00:42:34.610]Very well written, written in a way that's understandable
[00:42:38.670]to the general public and it will give you tips
[00:42:41.040]about understanding histoplasmosis
[00:42:43.040]because if you can protect yourself against histoplasmosis
[00:42:46.100]you can pretty much protect yourself against everything else
[00:42:48.480]that the birds disease wise are gonna be carrying
[00:42:51.470]and you wanna make sure you're doing that.
[00:42:53.860]Thank you for your attention.
[00:42:55.625](upbeat music)
[00:43:06.730]Chapter three we'll discuss rodent pests.
[00:43:09.630]The following learning objectives
[00:43:10.910]correspond with those found in chapter three in the manual.
[00:43:17.470]We're moving now to the largest section
[00:43:19.760]of your vertebrate pest book which is on rodent pests
[00:43:22.840]so chapter three and chapter four both deal with rodents
[00:43:25.950]and rodents will be the bulk of your work
[00:43:28.700]in the vertebrate pest category
[00:43:30.330]'cause they're also the largest group of mammals
[00:43:32.820]in the world.
[00:43:33.860]They cause the most damage of all the mammals
[00:43:36.190]because of the abundance
[00:43:37.400]and also the diversity of habitats they can live in.
[00:43:40.560]So why don't we turn and take a look here
[00:43:42.270]at some of the rodents
[00:43:43.500]that are gonna be common pests here in Nebraska.
[00:43:47.660]Pocket gophers sometimes called gophers unfortunately
[00:43:51.700]are creatures that are subterranean
[00:43:54.520]but are called fossorial so they live below the ground
[00:43:57.127]and there primarily just underground bulldozers.
[00:43:59.870]They dig these vast tunnel systems that can extend out
[00:44:03.320]to 100 to 200 feet in diameter and they can move
[00:44:06.930]about a ton of soil a year.
[00:44:09.300]They rarely come above ground
[00:44:10.720]but they do come above ground at night
[00:44:12.380]sometimes within 18 inches
[00:44:15.434]of the mounds that they push up.
[00:44:17.749]And they'll forage on grasses and plants
[00:44:20.287]and forbs on the surface, pull those down
[00:44:23.053]into the burrow system
[00:44:24.370]so most people have never seen pocket gophers.
[00:44:26.760]Now though I named one species here
[00:44:29.320]but in Nebraska we have five,
[00:44:31.190]we used to have three but one of them got split
[00:44:33.790]a few years ago but the control methods for all of them
[00:44:38.510]are gonna be essentially identical.
[00:44:40.390]There'll be no difference in terms of how you control them.
[00:44:43.130]They don't reproduce at a very rapid rate
[00:44:45.610]but they can be quite destructive
[00:44:48.130]and they can get very high concentrations
[00:44:49.870]particularly in alfalfa fields and so that is something
[00:44:53.240]you wanna keep in mind.
[00:44:54.980]They're called pocket gophers
[00:44:56.580]because if you look at the cheeks here
[00:44:59.930]you'll notice the little pouch that's there
[00:45:01.580]and it fills up like a chipmunk.
[00:45:03.740]And so they will actually store food in those
[00:45:05.950]and bring it down into a cavity well below ground
[00:45:08.800]and store that for the winter time
[00:45:10.330]because they're active year round.
[00:45:11.810]And their lips close behind their front teeth
[00:45:16.160]which allows them to gnaw what their incisors
[00:45:18.860]without getting dirt in their mouth.
[00:45:20.540]Their fur also moves both ways, it doesn't have a nap.
[00:45:24.310]If you do this with a cat backwards, if you pet a cat
[00:45:27.500]from the tail to the head there's resistance.
[00:45:29.930]Well the pocket gopher there is no fur resistance
[00:45:32.010]so can move forward in a tunnel or backward in a tunnel
[00:45:35.330]without any resistance.
[00:45:36.400]And notice the large front claws
[00:45:37.900]that allow it to claw away at the soil system.
[00:45:40.800]The reason for the mounds because they literally have
[00:45:43.000]to bring the soil to the surface
[00:45:45.610]because there's too much weight above them.
[00:45:48.339]When mole is going along in the surface of the soil,
[00:45:50.940]the pocket gopher I mean the mole can just simply
[00:45:53.200]push it up above them because there's this air.
[00:45:55.540]Pocket gophers tunnels are always always deep enough
[00:45:58.050]where they have to bring that soil up to the surface.
[00:46:00.970]And so again as I said earlier they can move about
[00:46:04.150]a ton of soil per pocket gopher per year and their mounds
[00:46:08.220]tend to be anywhere from 10 to 20 inches in diameter.
[00:46:11.960]And so I tend to tell people look a mole tends to be
[00:46:15.560]a saucer plate in size where a pocket gopher mound
[00:46:19.340]tends to be a dinner plate in size
[00:46:22.430]so there's much different and they can have of course
[00:46:25.160]over 200 mounds a year.
[00:46:27.420]They don't always bring soil to the surface.
[00:46:29.650]Sometimes the soil is pushed into an old abandoned tunnel
[00:46:33.290]and that's gonna be important when we get to control
[00:46:35.430]because you always want to focus your control attention
[00:46:39.030]on the fresh new mounds.
[00:46:41.360]Mounds that had been old, been there a while
[00:46:43.380]like the ones you see in this particular photo
[00:46:45.450]they're kind of flat, they're kind of grayed out
[00:46:47.690]those are old mounds.
[00:46:49.040]You wanna focus on mounds such as down here.
[00:46:52.070]Those are taller, fresher, much more granular
[00:46:54.740]that tells you the pocket gopher is actively working
[00:46:57.240]in that particular area
[00:46:58.467]and that's where you wanna put your control.
[00:47:01.070]Here's another way of distinguishing between a mole mound
[00:47:04.750]and a pocket gopher mound 'cause in Nebraska
[00:47:07.260]we both have moles and pocket gophers.
[00:47:09.830]So mound mount has a volcano type pitch to it.
[00:47:14.900]It looks like it's very evenly sided where on a side view
[00:47:18.040]of a pocket gopher mounds
[00:47:19.190]you'll notice it's lower on this side and then as you move
[00:47:22.837]to the other side it tends to be higher.
[00:47:24.910]Because a pocket gopher comes out of the burrow
[00:47:27.970]at a diagonal manner and then pushes the soil away from it
[00:47:33.340]so which it gives it that fan shaped look
[00:47:36.010]and that's what you're seeing down here.
[00:47:38.824]Where a mole brings the soil vertically to the surface
[00:47:42.507]and that's what gives it it's pure roundness
[00:47:45.060]on that volcano type look
[00:47:46.720]because a pocket gopher's throwing it
[00:47:49.170]in different directions where a mole is pushing it
[00:47:51.450]directly above him.
[00:47:52.800]That's why the shape of the mound is different
[00:47:55.990]for a pocket gopher and a mole and as I said earlier
[00:47:59.640]the size of these mounds will be substantially different.
[00:48:04.410]Notice here we have a much more closer sketch.
[00:48:06.560]Now this is a fresh mound on the left hand photo
[00:48:09.150]that you're looking at.
[00:48:10.050]I have a pen and an arrow pointing to the plug.
[00:48:13.710]Now you're not always gonna see that plug
[00:48:16.380]but you'll notice that the plug is on the flat side
[00:48:20.210]of the mound and so if you look at the arrow
[00:48:22.680]the tunnel that comes out to the surface
[00:48:26.090]is actually following the line
[00:48:27.770]of that particular arrow that you see there to the surface.
[00:48:30.880]Because the pocket gopher has a horizontal tunnel
[00:48:35.180]we call the main tunnel and a lateral tunnel
[00:48:38.070]which brings the soil to the surface.
[00:48:40.070]And so when you see the mound you can see which direction
[00:48:43.110]the pocket gopher pushed the soil and that's always gonna be
[00:48:46.310]away from the direction of the tunnel
[00:48:48.520]leading in the subterranean side.
[00:48:50.270]Now compare that with the mole run here.
[00:48:55.140]You notice where the soil has died because mole has dug
[00:48:57.920]just below the surface of the soil here
[00:49:00.420]and separated the roots of the grass
[00:49:02.320]from the surrounding soil that's why the grass died.
[00:49:06.030]Moles have, I mean moles have no interest in the grass.
[00:49:10.030]They're not vegetarians.
[00:49:11.350]Moles are meat eaters where pocket gophers are vegetarian
[00:49:15.160]so pocket gophers don't create
[00:49:17.850]these types of runs near the surface.
[00:49:19.630]All their tunnels are too deep for that
[00:49:21.077]and so it doesn't kill the grass
[00:49:22.700]like it does with the mole run.
[00:49:25.020]So in terms of and we have a side view
[00:49:27.730]of our pocket gopher system.
[00:49:30.010]Notice we have the main tunnel at the left
[00:49:32.910]and then our lateral tunnel bringing up from the surface
[00:49:35.750]and notice how the lateral tunnel
[00:49:37.430]is on the flat side of the mound
[00:49:39.290]opposite the side that's rounded where all the soil is.
[00:49:42.617]And those main tunnels tend to be four to 12 inches
[00:49:47.080]below the surface of soil.
[00:49:48.370]In terms of my experience here in Nebraska
[00:49:51.320]you're looking at more of a probably a six
[00:49:53.380]to eight inch depth for those pocket gopher main tunnels
[00:49:59.490]that you'll have to dig down to.
[00:50:00.670]And it's so it can be a lot of work
[00:50:01.830]digging down to the main tunnel
[00:50:03.540]when you're applying your bait or setting traps.
[00:50:06.760]How do we control pocket gophers?
[00:50:08.870]Well there's some habitat modification that you can do.
[00:50:12.330]Pocket gophers like all digging animals don't like wet.
[00:50:17.110]Talk to any miner if you have any miners in your family
[00:50:19.660]or extended family you notice
[00:50:20.913]that water is a significant threat to miners,
[00:50:25.810]it's also a significant threat to pocket gophers as well.
[00:50:29.000]So one of the solutions is simply flood the field
[00:50:32.350]or to make it so wet that they can't have integrity
[00:50:35.730]within their tunneling systems.
[00:50:38.100]Not practical for most places in Nebraska
[00:50:40.900]because we're kind of a water stress state
[00:50:43.200]but if that is a possibility for you, if there's a way
[00:50:45.610]to increase the water presence in your soil
[00:50:48.650]that can do a lot to cause pocket gophers to move on.
[00:50:51.960]There's also cultural aspects that you can do,
[00:50:54.970]tactics you can do and that is change your landscape
[00:50:57.800]from alfalfa to an annual crops such as corn.
[00:51:02.050]Pocket gophers cannot live in an annual crop.
[00:51:06.130]So when I was doing some research on pocket gophers
[00:51:08.730]I had to find areas with alfalfa.
[00:51:11.350]It was extraordinarily difficult for me
[00:51:13.290]to find locations like that because that was in the midst
[00:51:15.810]of the corn boom and everyone was converting their alfalfa
[00:51:18.990]over to corn and pocket gopher numbers
[00:51:21.540]here in the eastern portion of the state dropped
[00:51:23.460]precipitously because of the changes in land practice
[00:51:26.370]so it will work.
[00:51:27.490]What some places do is they'll actually spray
[00:51:30.400]and use an herbicide and literally kill all the vegetation
[00:51:35.530]on the landscape for two years in a row and that of course
[00:51:38.110]will eliminate your pocket gophers.
[00:51:39.410]No food, no pocket gophers.
[00:51:41.877]And then one more thing I wanna just talk about
[00:51:43.450]in terms of exclusion.
[00:51:44.670]This isn't so much to stop pocket gophers
[00:51:46.960]from being present in the area but it is the protect
[00:51:50.320]subterranean utilities that you may be putting in.
[00:51:53.800]You wanna be sure that the utilities
[00:51:55.490]are placed inside pipes
[00:51:56.890]that are at least almost three inches in diameter.
[00:51:59.950]And the reason for that is because
[00:52:01.410]a three inch diameter pipe is too wide
[00:52:04.050]for a pocket gopher to get their pincers, their teeth
[00:52:07.300]to bite into that.
[00:52:08.760]So if you wanna avoid having gnawed pipes
[00:52:12.820]or gnawed electrical lines or fiber optic lines
[00:52:16.560]you wanna be sure that you insert them into pipes
[00:52:18.610]that are at least three inches in diameter
[00:52:20.710]to prevent pocket gophers from gnawing through.
[00:52:23.800]Otherwise you're gonna have a real challenge in your hand
[00:52:25.720]like what happened in Iowa
[00:52:27.030]when pocket gophers cut through their fiber optic line
[00:52:29.990]over there and caused significant stoppage of services
[00:52:33.750]of the Internet.
[00:52:35.570]Now trapping is an important way to control pocket gophers.
[00:52:39.990]It is a little time intensive but it's certainly useful
[00:52:42.590]for areas where you're under five acres maybe 10 acres
[00:52:46.320]depending on how much energy and how much damage
[00:52:48.550]you're suffering from pocket gophers.
[00:52:50.900]You always wanna place the traps below ground.
[00:52:53.950]So here you have two different ways of doing it.
[00:52:56.280]The lateral way which is labeled as B
[00:52:58.590]up in the left hand corner
[00:53:00.200]is where you find those fresh mounds.
[00:53:02.540]You find the plug, you dig out the tunnel
[00:53:05.270]down to the main tunnel and then you insert your trap
[00:53:08.090]attaching a wire to the trap and then stake it
[00:53:11.360]to like a surveyor's flag.
[00:53:13.700]That's called the lateral tunnel method
[00:53:15.720]of trapping pocket gophers.
[00:53:17.750]You also have the option of digging down to the main tunnel
[00:53:21.300]and putting one trap one in each direction
[00:53:24.780]because you don't know which direction
[00:53:26.310]the pocket gopher's gonna come from.
[00:53:28.037]And so that way again you'd use a metal wire not string,
[00:53:31.380]not twine you wanna use something that's metal
[00:53:33.490]and attach that to surveyor's flag.
[00:53:36.470]In terms of effectiveness the two trap system is better
[00:53:39.910]but it's also significantly more work
[00:53:41.907]and do you have a large hole
[00:53:43.740]that you're gonna have to dig out.
[00:53:45.030]And so you have to be careful
[00:53:46.630]of people twisting their ankles if they fall into it
[00:53:48.407]so you may wanna cover that with some sort of a board.
[00:53:51.530]Now there's a big debate
[00:53:52.780]about whether you should cover the tunnels,
[00:53:55.040]cover the holes after you set the trap.
[00:53:57.190]My research demonstrated that it doesn't matter
[00:53:59.780]statistically speaking, it doesn't matter
[00:54:02.130]to have it covered or closed
[00:54:03.530]you can catch pocket gophers either way.
[00:54:05.860]You will have a significant number of misfires either way
[00:54:10.260]that's just sort of part for the course
[00:54:12.000]but you should be able to catch at least one pocket gopher
[00:54:14.590]at every three set traps
[00:54:16.610]so you do need to have some patience
[00:54:18.610]and some determination in that regard.
[00:54:20.970]There are several toxicants available
[00:54:23.110]for the control of pocket gophers.
[00:54:24.860]Strychnine baits are available.
[00:54:29.130]This is the only time you're really able to use strychnine
[00:54:32.070]'cause strychnine above ground use is illegal
[00:54:34.520]now in the United States
[00:54:35.900]but strychnine baits are gonna to be placed below ground.
[00:54:39.220]They're slightly more effective than zinc phosphide baits.
[00:54:42.430]You'd have to find the main tunnel,
[00:54:44.220]you would insert the bait and then you would cover over
[00:54:47.450]that hole that you've penetrated the main tunnel with
[00:54:50.040]with your foot by just simply covering over that hole
[00:54:52.460]and we'll talk about that a little bit more later.
[00:54:55.910]Strychnine is highly toxic to wildlife
[00:54:58.280]so you wanna make sure that you never have your toxicant
[00:55:01.450]above ground at all because it's not only a violation
[00:55:03.930]of the label, it's also gonna kill a lot of things
[00:55:06.010]that you didn't wanna be killing.
[00:55:07.650]Zinc phosphide baits are significantly cheaper.
[00:55:10.560]They also kill on a single feeding
[00:55:12.160]just like strychnine does
[00:55:13.710]but there's a possible taste aversion
[00:55:15.440]because zinc phosphide treated bait is very bitter.
[00:55:19.440]And so the belief is is that pocket gophers are afraid
[00:55:23.060]that when they taste it
[00:55:24.550]they sometimes don't completely consume it
[00:55:27.070]or consume enough of it to get a lethal dose
[00:55:29.250]so there is some times some concern
[00:55:30.820]about some taste aversion.
[00:55:32.820]But the reality is the research shows that it does work
[00:55:36.750]just not as effective as strychnine
[00:55:39.160]but again it's not just about effectiveness
[00:55:41.762]when we're dealing with toxicant use
[00:55:43.330]we're looking also at cost effectiveness.
[00:55:45.880]So the question is is whether the use of strychnine
[00:55:49.190]is cost effective enough in comparison to zinc phosphide
[00:55:54.020]and that might be a little more debated.
[00:55:56.260]But again this also must be used below ground
[00:55:59.460]because there is no above ground poisoning
[00:56:01.560]of pocket gophers whatsoever.
[00:56:03.800]And there is thankfully with zinc phosphide
[00:56:06.410]no risk of secondary poisoning
[00:56:08.460]because it's metabolized in the animal's system
[00:56:10.980]and so when another animal happens to eat a pocket gopher
[00:56:14.140]it shouldn't be getting poisoned at all
[00:56:15.710]'cause the secondary poisoning is extraordinary low
[00:56:18.480]because it's metabolized.
[00:56:20.320]There are anticoagulants available for pocket gophers.
[00:56:25.110]Typically we wanna be using these
[00:56:27.330]'cause at sometimes they have a waxy shell to them.
[00:56:30.370]They can be used more tolerant of moist conditions
[00:56:33.360]where zinc phosphide is not tolerant of wet conditions
[00:56:37.170]so you're gonna be careful
[00:56:38.003]when you're applying zinc phosphide.
[00:56:40.550]If it's gonna rain for instance
[00:56:42.110]or if your soil is particularly wet
[00:56:44.460]you don't wanna be applying a zinc phosphide baited product
[00:56:47.430]but if you're in an area that's a little bit more
[00:56:48.870]wet meadowish and you're still having
[00:56:50.820]some pocket gopher issues you might wanna try
[00:56:53.090]a more anticoagulant product here
[00:56:55.640]'cause it'd be a little bit more durable
[00:56:57.650]to that type of environmental conditions.
[00:57:00.070]You do have to use more bait than the zinc phosphide
[00:57:03.390]or strychnine because again those are multi-feed toxicants,
[00:57:07.524]chlorophacinone and diphacinone are first generation
[00:57:10.300]anticoagulants and the pocket gopher has to feed
[00:57:12.630]on them multiple times in order to get a toxic dose.
[00:57:15.310]So you do have to use a lot more
[00:57:17.540]plus these products are more expensive
[00:57:20.470]than your acute toxicant so you have to keep
[00:57:22.660]that financial side of things in mind as well.
[00:57:26.130]Calculating that labor for both is gonna be about the same.
[00:57:30.240]So there are three ways of how do we get this toxicant down
[00:57:33.310]to that main tunnel where the pocket gophers
[00:57:35.510]is gonna be able to eat it.
[00:57:36.780]Well there are three ways of doing it.
[00:57:38.560]The first simple way is simply dig out that lateral tunnel
[00:57:41.640]down to the main tunnel.
[00:57:42.473]You use a long handled spoon and put the ply,
[00:57:45.280]the bait below ground and then recover it back up.
[00:57:48.070]There's also a probing method where you take a metal rod,
[00:57:51.140]you probe for the main tunnel and you find it by simply
[00:57:54.490]when you're pushing down through the soil
[00:57:58.244]you feel where there's less resistance it drops
[00:58:00.740]'cause that shows you you're in the main tunnel.
[00:58:02.900]Then you'd use a funnel, pour the toxicant down into that
[00:58:06.020]and then use your foot to scrape over that opening
[00:58:08.530]that you created with your probe.
[00:58:10.190]Or you can use a bait applicator
[00:58:12.120]which kind of does the whole process at once
[00:58:14.490]'cause the bait is inside.
[00:58:15.620]You push the probe through, you find the main tunnel.
[00:58:18.800]You then press a button or turn a crank,
[00:58:21.280]a measured amount of toxic can comes out the tip
[00:58:24.220]then you use your foot again to close off the hole.
[00:58:26.930]You never leave a hole opening that's exposed
[00:58:30.460]to where the bait is being applied.
[00:58:32.170]You always wanna make sure it's a completely enclosed system
[00:58:35.170]but you don't wanna have any soil falling on top of the bait
[00:58:38.790]so you wanna be careful
[00:58:39.630]on how you're closing those holes off
[00:58:41.180]'cause you don't wanna smoother the bait with soil.
[00:58:43.920]There's also a mechanical way of doing large acreages
[00:58:47.180]and just as a side note you can use hand baiting
[00:58:50.750]and you can cover five to 10 acres in two to four hours
[00:58:56.370]depending on how fast you wanna work.
[00:58:58.360]We do recommend after you apply the toxicant
[00:59:00.990]that you do knock down the mounds
[00:59:03.680]that way you're able to tell
[00:59:04.770]if there's any new damage coming up.
[00:59:06.830]Now there is an item one is a burrow builder.
[00:59:10.060]This is a mechanical device that applies the toxicant
[00:59:13.500]below ground by creating a tunnel
[00:59:16.690]that mimics a pocket gopher main tunnel
[00:59:19.730]and then drops poison inside and then reclosers
[00:59:22.400]that tunnel up above it.
[00:59:24.470]So it uses a large torpedo underneath you can see that here.
[00:59:29.720]Actually excuse me, here's your torpedo little silver item
[00:59:33.700]and so that's gonna be pulled through the soil,
[00:59:36.910]poison's gonna be dropped into that tunnel that you create
[00:59:38.860]'cause intersecting the main tunnels
[00:59:41.900]that the pocket gopher creates.
[00:59:44.170]For the pocket gophers exploring their own tunnel system
[00:59:46.910]they find this new tunnel, they explore it,
[00:59:49.240]they find the bait, they feed on the bait
[00:59:50.867]and then die that way.
[00:59:52.790]It can be used to treat tens to hundreds of acres
[00:59:58.540]in terms of these devices
[00:59:59.440]so if you have a large acreage area
[01:00:01.340]that needs to be controlled this is the way to do it.
[01:00:04.420]You do have to be very careful to ensure
[01:00:07.890]that the tunnel system that you're creating,
[01:00:10.130]that the soil conditions are such that the main tunnel
[01:00:12.400]that you're creating will remain intact.
[01:00:14.510]You don't wanna have it buried behind you
[01:00:16.580]otherwise you're just burying the bait
[01:00:17.483]that you put into the soil.
[01:00:19.080]You also need to make sure that the probe,
[01:00:21.400]the torpedo excuse me is deep enough
[01:00:24.476]so that it intersects the main tunnels
[01:00:26.580]of the pocket gophers in your area.
[01:00:28.260]So you do have to dig out a main tunnel and find out
[01:00:32.070]how far below ground it is so that way when you're creating
[01:00:35.830]your main tunnels with the poison
[01:00:37.630]you're gonna intersect the main tunnel of the pocket gopher.
[01:00:40.530]And then of course watching moisture levels in the soil
[01:00:44.080]and weather conditions 'cause you don't want it to rain
[01:00:46.590]right after you've applied to your product.
[01:00:49.190]And then you also have to make sure
[01:00:50.430]that the product you're buying
[01:00:52.680]is designed for burrow builders because they're labeled.
[01:00:55.580]It can be the same active ingredient
[01:00:57.240]but the labeled for two different things.
[01:00:58.560]Sometimes the baits are labeled for hand baiting
[01:01:01.830]and sometimes the baits are labeled for burrow builders
[01:01:04.240]so make sure you purchase the right kind.
[01:01:06.749]Propane oxygen exploders these are kind of cool.
[01:01:09.989]They use a mixture of propane and oxygen.
[01:01:12.069]They inject it into the burrow system and then detonate it.
[01:01:16.739]I'm a guy so you like exploding stuff, it can be exciting
[01:01:19.999]but it is illegal to take wildlife
[01:01:22.209]in the state of Nebraska with explosive devices
[01:01:25.449]and this is considered the explosive device.
[01:01:28.139]So if you wanna play with it go to a different state
[01:01:31.319]and use it over there 'cause it's illegal here in Nebraska.
[01:01:34.499]You can own one, just not allowed to use it.
[01:01:37.759]So let's go to woodchucks.
[01:01:39.239]Woodchucks sometimes called whistle pigs, gophers,
[01:01:42.439]groundhogs they're all the same in this regard
[01:01:44.949]but these are species that are moving
[01:01:47.029]a little bit farther west in our state.
[01:01:49.059]They tend to be along riparian areas where rivers are
[01:01:52.439]and also in places a little bit more urbanized
[01:01:54.919]but there are five to 10 pound critters.
[01:01:56.739]They can climb trees believe it or not.
[01:01:59.669]They're not like a squirrel in that sense
[01:02:01.639]but they can climb some small trees.
[01:02:04.019]They'll have two to six young
[01:02:05.169]and those young typically disperse in July
[01:02:07.339]so you may have clients complaining about the new appearance
[01:02:10.429]of a woodchuck in their yard in the July and August area
[01:02:13.779]because the young have dispersed.
[01:02:16.129]Interesting burrow structure.
[01:02:19.362]Young woodchucks may only have one hole
[01:02:21.489]but a mature woodchuck can have two or up to three holes
[01:02:24.859]and they tend to be within oh 20 feet of each other.
[01:02:28.379]And so if you find one hole make sure you kind of do
[01:02:30.899]a little walk circle around looking for that second hole
[01:02:33.789]to see if there is one.
[01:02:34.709]One hole will be clean, one hole will have
[01:02:37.529]what's called the soil porch which is where
[01:02:39.589]all the excavated soil's have been push out in front.
[01:02:42.359]Do keep in mind that woodchucks like to have sandy soil.
[01:02:45.819]Sandy soil is also a big friend of poison ivy
[01:02:49.989]so do watch where you walk and here's an example
[01:02:52.829]in lower left hand corner of a woodchuck
[01:02:54.599]that has taken up residence underneath this fence area.
[01:02:58.769]So how do we take care of woodchucks?
[01:03:00.239]Well exclusion is certainly an option.
[01:03:02.029]It's very valuable for gardens.
[01:03:04.069]You want it because woodchucks can climb you wanna be sure
[01:03:06.759]that you have an overhang over your fence
[01:03:09.189]or if it's legal in your area you have the electric wire
[01:03:12.439]running along the top so that way
[01:03:13.919]when they're climbing the fence they hit that
[01:03:15.439]and then they'll get off of it.
[01:03:17.729]It needs to be below the ground as well
[01:03:20.149]so that they prevented dig under
[01:03:21.749]and so you can have this on top of the soil
[01:03:25.229]or go only a few inches below
[01:03:27.429]and then make sure it's elbowed out.
[01:03:28.919]The key is to have that elbow out away from the fence
[01:03:33.499]because the woodchucks gonna come to the fence
[01:03:35.689]and then he's immediately gonna dig down
[01:03:37.749]and you want him on top of that mash.
[01:03:40.029]And so I would recommend at least something is a half inch
[01:03:43.569]hardware cloth galvanize would be preferable
[01:03:46.109]and if you make it wobbly it's gonna make it harder
[01:03:48.599]for him to climb 'cause it's gonna spook him
[01:03:50.269]as he was beginning to wobble on it.
[01:03:52.819]Cage trapping's highly effective for woodchucks.
[01:03:55.339]I'm a big fan of two door traps, placing trap
[01:03:58.499]directly over the burrow,doing this at dark
[01:04:01.629]so that way when he comes out he's gonna walk right through
[01:04:05.379]barricaded so he has to walk through your two door trap.
[01:04:09.099]If you're trying to bait woodchucks
[01:04:12.619]you can use some fresh cabbage, some types of fruit
[01:04:16.939]like cantaloupe that sort of thing.
[01:04:19.259]Make sure your food is fresh and be patient.
[01:04:21.479]Woodchucks can take a few days
[01:04:22.809]before they get comfortable walking in.
[01:04:24.539]Put some soil on the bottom of the cage so he doesn't feel
[01:04:27.009]the cage on his feet and then make sure
[01:04:29.189]you check your traps accordingly at least every 24 hours.
[01:04:33.227]Black-tailed prairie dogs, this is gonna be
[01:04:35.027]another significant animal you will likely be controlling
[01:04:37.637]or asked to control under this particular category.
[01:04:40.497]They're are common species in Nebraska
[01:04:43.147]particularly the western end.
[01:04:45.907]They had a larger span in the midwest I mean excuse me
[01:04:51.377]in the great plains than they do now
[01:04:53.287]but of course if you talk to ranchers they still think
[01:04:55.457]there are too many of them.
[01:04:57.097]The reality is that what they do compete
[01:04:59.357]with cattle for forage.
[01:05:02.437]The rule of thumb is when you start getting 10 to 15
[01:05:06.057]prairie dogs an acre it's probably gonna be
[01:05:08.687]economically feasible to start controlling them
[01:05:10.917]to get your animal units back from the landscape
[01:05:16.317]so that's certainly a good principal.
[01:05:18.687]They're pretty cute animal, very easy to identify
[01:05:22.097]when you're out in the field.
[01:05:23.477]They are active year round
[01:05:25.297]except sometimes in the coldest part of the winter.
[01:05:27.387]They will den up for a period of time,
[01:05:29.937]breed in early spring and they'll average five or six young.
[01:05:32.927]As a rule a colony will expand at a rate of about 20%
[01:05:36.480]a year so it will take about five years to double the size
[01:05:42.589]of a prairie dog community.
[01:05:44.317]So if you're looking for long term control
[01:05:47.367]with prairie dogs you really need to control 90%
[01:05:50.847]or more of the town in order to have a control
[01:05:53.017]that would last you five years or more.
[01:05:56.007]There is a dispersal period in May and June
[01:05:58.787]where the prairie dogs will go off and find new territories
[01:06:01.487]and that's why sometimes landowners will say
[01:06:03.607]why do I have prairie dogs there's nothing around here.
[01:06:05.857]They'll travel a few miles to find new territories
[01:06:09.127]as they're beginning to set up shop somewhere else.
[01:06:12.057]Their burrow systems can be quite extensive,
[01:06:15.157]a depth three to 15 feet.
[01:06:16.917]This is why fumigation sometimes fails with prairie dogs
[01:06:20.347]because their tunnel system is maybe a little bit bigger
[01:06:22.287]than what you anticipated and so the gas got diluted out
[01:06:25.997]plus you can have a length of up to 109 feet.
[01:06:29.417]There's one to two entrances rarely four
[01:06:31.727]but depending on the size of that particular system
[01:06:35.177]it can be quite large but often there's only one entrance
[01:06:38.607]maybe two entrances depending on the maturity
[01:06:40.857]of that particular prairie dog.
[01:06:43.597]Black-footed ferrets are something
[01:06:44.977]you have to be concerned about.
[01:06:47.377]There are no known black-footed ferrets in Nebraska
[01:06:50.137]that I'm aware of that this time but that can change.
[01:06:53.527]So you'd still have to follow the label
[01:06:55.777]and follow the guidelines to ensure and reduce your risk
[01:06:59.137]of actually accidentally poisoning a black-footed ferret
[01:07:03.697]which is the most endangered mammal
[01:07:05.107]that we have in North America.
[01:07:07.207]This is an example of a sign of a presence
[01:07:09.387]of a black-footed ferret.
[01:07:10.267]If you see a trench dugout I mean a trench dig out like that
[01:07:13.457]where they will go into a prairie dog burrow
[01:07:16.247]that a prairie dog is back-filled
[01:07:17.877]and trying to protect itself from the black-footed ferret
[01:07:20.157]the black-footed ferret of course has to dig it out
[01:07:21.854]and this is the kind of trench that it creates
[01:07:24.127]trying to dig out that blacked prairie dog hole
[01:07:26.437]going out to the prairie dog.
[01:07:28.207]How do we control prairie dogs?
[01:07:29.677]Well one of the first things we wanna tell people to do
[01:07:32.057]is watch their range land practices.
[01:07:34.157]The reality is that sometimes prairie dog populations
[01:07:37.517]expand because we've been overgrazing an area too hard.
[01:07:41.747]Prairie dogs like low grass areas.
[01:07:45.037]The reason is they like to have that clean look
[01:07:47.517]off into the distance 'cause they like to see
[01:07:49.417]the predators coming and so tall grass is something
[01:07:52.367]that prairie dogs like to avoid and if they get into it
[01:07:55.107]they will try to clip it as rapidly as possible
[01:07:57.797]to get that grass down.
[01:07:59.627]So yes they eat grass but they will actually try
[01:08:02.087]to mow it down because they like to have that clean look.
[01:08:04.487]They don't want predators being able to sneak up on them.
[01:08:07.267]Alternating your watering areas for cattle
[01:08:09.787]so that the cattle are then moving
[01:08:11.247]to graze down other areas.
[01:08:13.527]Moving your mineral blocks as well.
[01:08:16.087]Fencing, there has been a lot of research
[01:08:18.917]on visual barrier fencing.
[01:08:20.407]The idea is that if a prairie dog can't see
[01:08:22.887]beyond the fence it will avoid going over there.
[01:08:26.237]It may be helpful to some degree but the reality is
[01:08:29.237]the research shows the prairie dog
[01:08:31.077]penetrate that pretty quickly.
[01:08:33.607]If you're gonna install a true exclusion type fence,
[01:08:36.987]or something that's buried into the soil
[01:08:38.797]preventing prairie dogs from passing through
[01:08:40.917]that will be effective.
[01:08:42.677]Unfortunately in most range lands situations
[01:08:45.477]it is just simply cost prohibitive to do that
[01:08:47.757]and so I'm not gonna spend a lot of time
[01:08:50.957]talking about that particular method.
[01:08:53.667]Shooting.
[01:08:54.500]Shooting can be effective
[01:08:55.587]in managing prairie dog populations but the research shows
[01:08:58.747]that generally speaking you're only gonna be able to control
[01:09:00.947]about 65% of the prairie dogs then you start getting into
[01:09:04.137]what's called the law of diminishing returns
[01:09:06.177]and the prairie dogs that remain
[01:09:07.727]are gonna get pretty wise to you quickly.
[01:09:10.087]If you wanna use prairie dogs hunting
[01:09:12.957]as a way of actually try to eliminate
[01:09:15.377]or substantially reduced the population
[01:09:17.917]you wanna try to prepare your prairie dogs
[01:09:20.007]by using a propane cannon that blasts out
[01:09:23.237]a periodic loud noise to get them preconditioned
[01:09:25.927]to the shooting noise and then get people out there shooting
[01:09:29.067]who really are a good shot and so having them
[01:09:33.997]shoot the prairie dogs effectively
[01:09:36.467]rather than educating them.
[01:09:37.954]And so finding that combination will improve your chances
[01:09:41.327]probably beyond the 65% but otherwise if you don't need
[01:09:44.537]eradication as a solution shooting can certainly be a method
[01:09:47.727]of managing the growth of that population and stabilizing it
[01:09:51.287]so it doesn't get any larger.
[01:09:53.877]Pesticides.
[01:09:54.710]Pesticides are the go to way
[01:09:57.687]of managing prairie dog populations
[01:09:59.667]especially if you're looking to really reach
[01:10:01.317]that 90% level of control that you want
[01:10:06.887]but you have to get a EPA bulletins live first
[01:10:10.167]before you apply your pesticides.
[01:10:12.167]This again you would put in this particular section here,
[01:10:15.657]you would type in your address whether it be a zip code
[01:10:18.397]or an actual street address.
[01:10:20.197]The map will take you to your area and then tell you
[01:10:22.517]if there's any exclusions on the pesticides
[01:10:24.977]that you're using.
[01:10:25.887]If there are it'll be in pink if it,
[01:10:28.207]if there aren't it'll be clear like this.
[01:10:30.267]You would then print it off and it would give you a PDF
[01:10:32.877]that you would then attach to your pesticide label
[01:10:36.417]and keep all that material together
[01:10:38.117]and you have six months within the printing out of that.
[01:10:42.377]If you wait longer than six months
[01:10:43.837]you have to reprint it again.
[01:10:46.627]You have to make sure that you treat the right burrows
[01:10:50.027]when you're using pesticides.
[01:10:51.927]All the pesticide labels require you to be treating
[01:10:54.857]active burrows of prairie dogs not of other species.
[01:10:59.377]We mentioned this particular photo earlier.
[01:11:01.827]You'll notice all the white specks here
[01:11:03.877]those are the specks of a bird
[01:11:05.657]in this case it's the burrowing owl and you'll even see
[01:11:08.187]a feather here and that is a burrowing owl feather.
[01:11:11.737]This is a burrow you would not be treating with pesticides
[01:11:15.177]because it's a protected species and it's a species
[01:11:18.007]that's not causing your landowner
[01:11:20.557]any property damage at all.
[01:11:21.977]It's simply readopting a prairie dog burrow
[01:11:24.417]that was there before he arrived.
[01:11:26.687]So we have active burrows are designated by their cleanness,
[01:11:31.737]their in well repair.
[01:11:32.867]You can actually see footprints
[01:11:34.167]on the upper left hand picture or you actually see
[01:11:37.927]a prairie dog sticking his head out of a particular burrow.
[01:11:40.247]Here he is an alert posture or in the lower left
[01:11:44.207]you can see what an inactive burrow looks like,
[01:11:46.417]it's not clean, it's not smooth,
[01:11:48.267]and there's grass growing around it.
[01:11:50.297]Clearly that's an inactive hole.
[01:11:51.997]You don't treat inactive holes in and nor do you treat holes
[01:11:54.867]occupied by creatures other than your prairie dog.
[01:11:58.487]So with zinc phosphide when you're applying it
[01:12:01.577]you have to be sure you pre-bait
[01:12:03.184]and the reason for the pre-bait
[01:12:04.887]is that you have to condition the prairie dog
[01:12:07.617]to feed on the grain, to see if they're feeding
[01:12:10.167]that's rule number one.
[01:12:11.277]And then if they are gonna feed it
[01:12:12.860]then you want them to consume that grain
[01:12:14.687]without thinking about it
[01:12:15.987]so that way when you apply the toxic grain
[01:12:18.747]they're gonna eat that down without tasting it.
[01:12:20.807]But when an animal is given a new food item
[01:12:23.577]their first reaction is to nibble.
[01:12:25.997]You don't want them nibbling your zinc phosphide
[01:12:28.647]'cause they're gonna realize it's bitter
[01:12:30.397]that's why you have to pre-bait required by the label
[01:12:33.857]when you're trying to treat for prairie dogs.
[01:12:36.347]So you have three steps.
[01:12:37.527]The first step is to ensure that the prairie dogs will feed
[01:12:40.537]on the grain to begin with
[01:12:41.917]so you would pick about 20 burrows
[01:12:44.317]and you would then apply the untreated grain
[01:12:47.027]to those particular burrows.
[01:12:49.047]Then you would go back in a day or so
[01:12:50.867]and check to see if the grain is gone.
[01:12:52.487]If the grain is gone then you know they're feeding
[01:12:54.247]on the pre-bait then you would pre-bait everything
[01:12:58.277]and then you would go back the next day
[01:13:01.507]after they've fed on that pre-bait
[01:13:03.087]and then give them the toxic grain and that will be that.
[01:13:05.957]So you have a few visits that you need to make
[01:13:07.907]in order to use zinc phosphide effectively.
[01:13:10.017]People that fail with zinc phosphide fail because
[01:13:12.907]they don't watch the pre-baiting properly
[01:13:15.817]and they don't watch the weather.
[01:13:17.657]If it's gonna to rain the next day
[01:13:19.517]your zinc phosphide's useless
[01:13:21.337]because water and zinc phosphide don't mix.
[01:13:23.827]The water will actually deactivate
[01:13:25.477]your zinc phosphide product
[01:13:27.087]and therefore you've wasted your time
[01:13:28.867]and basically fed your prairie dogs untreated grain.
[01:13:33.647]There are other products in the market, some anticoagulants.
[01:13:36.717]The two are Kaput and Rozol.
[01:13:39.347]Those are again first generation anticoagulants.
[01:13:42.237]A lot of restrictions on these particular products.
[01:13:44.827]One of them is no grazing for 14 days after application
[01:13:48.537]but with both of these products
[01:13:49.757]there is no pre-bait required
[01:13:52.197]because these are palatable products to begin with.
[01:13:55.177]There is no requirement to pre-bait with these foods
[01:13:58.337]but there's a lot of post application rules
[01:14:01.827]with these particular products.
[01:14:03.537]Again you can't apply them
[01:14:05.077]when there's competing food sources
[01:14:07.037]and that also occurs with the zinc phosphide product.
[01:14:10.717]So you don't wanna be applying a bait
[01:14:12.727]when the prairie dog has other food opportunities around.
[01:14:16.077]You want them targeting your toxic grain
[01:14:19.187]so that way you'll have a better kill rate.
[01:14:21.797]So you have to apply these anticoagulants into the burrow
[01:14:25.127]at least six inches below the surface
[01:14:28.207]where the zinc phosphide is applied
[01:14:30.177]on the surface of the ground near the burrow opening.
[01:14:33.897]These products applied down into the burrow system
[01:14:37.127]at least six inches down below the surface
[01:14:39.267]because you don't want non-target animals
[01:14:41.137]getting access to it.
[01:14:42.507]So here's an example of what not to do.
[01:14:44.537]Notice how the green product is near the surface
[01:14:47.457]of this burrow system, that is an illegal application
[01:14:50.647]of this particular product.
[01:14:52.497]Now comes the hard work.
[01:14:53.967]You now have to check, do a survey for dead
[01:14:57.607]and dying prairie dogs for the following days.
[01:15:00.487]So on day four you have to do your grid search
[01:15:03.527]then day six, day eight, day 10, day 12, day 14.
[01:15:08.727]So if anyone tells you that Rozol or Kaput are less work
[01:15:12.567]than zinc phosphide they're telling you
[01:15:15.207]that they're not following the label because it's not
[01:15:17.707]'cause you have to go back to that location
[01:15:19.377]at least seven times to check to see
[01:15:22.617]if there's dead and dying prairie dogs
[01:15:24.147]that need to be removed from the surface.
[01:15:25.064]And the reason for that is, is because that prairie dog
[01:15:28.037]has that anticoagulant toxicant inside of them
[01:15:31.137]you wanna remove that prairie dogs from the surface
[01:15:34.985]so a carnivore or a scavenger is not gonna eat
[01:15:38.167]that prairie dog and ingest that poison inside of them.
[01:15:40.617]Because the secondary hazard with chlorophacinone
[01:15:42.934]and diphacinone can be severe
[01:15:45.747]and that's how you do your transects searches.
[01:15:48.017]You basically mark off an area
[01:15:49.907]of no greater than 200 feet wide.
[01:15:52.027]You drive one direction facing right, turn around,
[01:15:55.637]drive the other direction facing right and then you do that
[01:15:58.477]all the way through your field looking for dead
[01:16:01.437]and dying prairie dogs.
[01:16:03.107]Any prairie dogs that are dying you need to finish them off
[01:16:06.167]and you always bury the carcasses well below the surface
[01:16:09.087]so that non target animals can consume on them.
[01:16:11.607]If you have a non target exposure
[01:16:13.597]you are to notify officials and report that incident.
[01:16:17.017]You shouldn't get in trouble if you followed the label.
[01:16:19.237]That's called an incidental take
[01:16:21.077]but the government wants to know
[01:16:22.207]if there's non target animals being harmed
[01:16:24.527]by these two anticoagulants.
[01:16:26.857]13-lined ground squirrels.
[01:16:28.227]Think of them as mini prairie dogs
[01:16:29.957]except that not as many rules
[01:16:31.707]governing their control of course.
[01:16:33.867]But they're remarkably cute and they like to have
[01:16:39.767]again those open grassland areas you know golf courses
[01:16:43.047]and that sort of thing are very popular for them.
[01:16:45.657]They are true hibernators so unlike prairie dogs
[01:16:48.217]they will be hibernating during the winter time
[01:16:50.597]and they don't have a huge reproductive rate
[01:16:52.797]but they can have up to 14 young per year.
[01:16:56.347]Their burrows tend to be about just a little bit bigger
[01:16:58.617]than a golf ball size
[01:17:00.267]and there'll often be a second hole within 20 feet.
[01:17:03.397]Often they'll have escape poles they position
[01:17:06.017]around the area in case they meet a predator
[01:17:08.467]and need to get underground in a hurry.
[01:17:11.787]Habitat modification.
[01:17:13.227]They don't like tall grass so one of the simplest ways
[01:17:15.887]of handling 13-lined ground squirrels is let the grass grow
[01:17:19.247]but let me point something out to you.
[01:17:20.987]If you let the grass grow
[01:17:22.267]to get rid of your 13-lined ground squirrels understand
[01:17:24.687]that tall grass is favorable to voles so you have to pick
[01:17:27.777]what pests do you want to deal with.
[01:17:29.277]There's no free lunch when we're dealing with
[01:17:30.757]vertebrate wildlife control.
[01:17:32.627]When you remove the conditions for one animal
[01:17:34.787]you might create conditions for another animal.
[01:17:37.577]So you always got to be thinking of monitoring
[01:17:39.727]and balancing the situation but tall grass is not liked
[01:17:44.107]by 13-lined ground squirrels
[01:17:44.940]and that is a way to control them.
[01:17:47.067]Another way is doing deep soil cultivation
[01:17:49.317]so you're actually destroying the burrows.
[01:17:51.317]When we move to no till you have to understand
[01:17:53.677]that one of the consequences of no till
[01:17:55.627]is that you actually create conditions
[01:17:57.347]that are more favorable for 13-lined ground squirrels
[01:18:00.127]and other little burrowing rodents
[01:18:01.287]because we're not destroying their den systems.
[01:18:03.537]Understand the digging a den as a high energy expenditure
[01:18:06.727]for these animals so when you're able to destroy it
[01:18:09.927]you are putting a big hurt on them in a substantial way
[01:18:15.187]sometimes you'll actually kill them in the burrow
[01:18:16.650]when you're doing your deep soil cultivation.
[01:18:19.147]So there's always a consequence
[01:18:21.027]for every decision that we make.
[01:18:23.317]You do wanna check for underground pipes and power lines
[01:18:26.097]'cause they are rodents and they can gnaw
[01:18:28.047]and then when you dig your trench
[01:18:31.837]always dial your 811 or your a dig safe
[01:18:35.327]because you don't wanna be digging through something
[01:18:37.857]that you're gonna cause a problem with.
[01:18:39.607]So if you're gonna be doing exclusion in this regard
[01:18:41.937]this is how it's some dimensions and how you wanna use it.
[01:18:44.427]I would only suggest it maybe for something that's a garden
[01:18:47.137]or a high value product that you're wanting to protect
[01:18:50.977]otherwise for most producers this is just not gonna be
[01:18:53.537]a practical solution for them in that particular way.
[01:18:56.517]Use half inch galvanized wire to do this and make sure
[01:18:59.690]that you get something that's extending
[01:19:01.987]at least three feet above the ground if you can.
[01:19:05.657]Trapping.
[01:19:06.597]Trapping is highly effective on ground squirrels
[01:19:09.927]particularly in areas where you're not dealing with dozens
[01:19:12.387]and dozens of acres but you can simply use your rat traps,
[01:19:15.527]place them inside of a container.
[01:19:17.057]A rat station such as this is a great way
[01:19:20.487]because you're able to protect against a non target species.
[01:19:23.727]You're not gonna be attracting birds to it
[01:19:25.727]and in you can also keep it out of the hands of children
[01:19:28.137]and there's also another device on the market
[01:19:30.247]that uses a one way door.
[01:19:32.517]You can see the one way door here.
[01:19:36.547]You basically find the ground squirrel
[01:19:38.647]running into a burrow, you basically plant that
[01:19:40.897]right over the hole and the few minutes later
[01:19:43.617]the ground squirrel just comes up.
[01:19:44.837]It has nowhere else to go but through that one way door
[01:19:47.717]and it's trapped there.
[01:19:48.997]and if you have a couple dozen of those traps
[01:19:51.087]you can clean out an area of 13-lined ground squirrels
[01:19:53.757]very, very quickly.
[01:19:55.227]Always wear gloves when you're trapping
[01:19:57.087]and it's not so much for the odor
[01:19:58.787]the odor is not really an issue.
[01:20:00.387]It's an issue of that animals have to defecate
[01:20:02.467]in these traps, these traps have cut corners,
[01:20:05.297]you can get injured and so the gloves to protect you
[01:20:07.957]from things that that animals carrying as well as any cuts
[01:20:10.877]and scratches so always be wearing gloves
[01:20:12.827]when you're handling your equipment.
[01:20:15.557]Zinc phosphide toxicant is available.
[01:20:17.667]It's a restricted use pesticide.
[01:20:19.537]You would just use a teaspoon of untreated bait
[01:20:22.357]around each act of burrow two to three days
[01:20:25.257]before applying the treated bait
[01:20:27.877]and then you would apply it.
[01:20:30.487]Best time to do it
[01:20:31.727]is right when they come out of hibernation
[01:20:33.337]when they're gonna be hungry
[01:20:35.147]or you can use a tamper resistant bait station
[01:20:37.817]to prevent children from getting in.
[01:20:39.337]But you always need to have that pre-bait process
[01:20:42.057]because again zinc phosphide is a bitter tasting item
[01:20:45.557]and you don't want the animals nibbling that bait,
[01:20:47.977]you want them gobbling it down.
[01:20:49.607]So you're preparing them with the pre-bait,
[01:20:52.267]they realize oh this grain is gonna be high energy food
[01:20:54.467]let me just eat it then when you would give them
[01:20:56.337]the toxic grain they're just gobbling it down
[01:20:58.654]and they're gonna get a toxic dose
[01:21:00.297]that will be enough to kill them.
[01:21:02.210]And that's it for the major rodents
[01:21:04.933]and so we'll be talking more about the other rodents
[01:21:06.830]in our next presentation.
[01:21:08.811](upbeat music)
[01:21:19.750]In the second part of chapter three
[01:21:21.980]Stephen will continue the discussion with other rodents
[01:21:24.770]and finish reviewing those learning objectives
[01:21:26.690]found in chapter three of the manual.
[01:21:31.900]Alright now we're ready to move on to other rodents
[01:21:34.260]which is really covering some of the smaller species
[01:21:36.670]of rodents and some rodents that you may not be handling
[01:21:39.660]very often in your work
[01:21:41.580]as a category 14 certified specialist.
[01:21:46.650]Chipmunks, very similar to 13-lined ground squirrels
[01:21:50.460]except they select wooded habitats
[01:21:52.230]where 13-lined grounds squirrels like to have
[01:21:53.950]more grassland habitats.
[01:21:55.720]Traps are extraordinarily effective on chipmunks.
[01:21:58.890]My rule of thumb is is you ask the land owner
[01:22:01.610]how many chipmunks they see at any given moment
[01:22:04.790]and multiply that number by three
[01:22:06.930]and that's how many chipmunks
[01:22:08.260]you wanna be anticipating having to trap.
[01:22:10.490]Reinvasion's a real problem with chipmunks
[01:22:12.820]because when you create a void in an area
[01:22:15.130]where they're common it's very common for them to reinvade
[01:22:18.120]from the surrounding area so you can make sure
[01:22:20.410]you need to prepare for that particular issue.
[01:22:23.350]There are no rodenticides allowed for chipmunks
[01:22:25.960]but there is a fumigant aluminum phosphide that can be used
[01:22:29.720]on them if the situation allows you to be far enough away
[01:22:32.840]from a structure to use that particular device.
[01:22:36.690]Nebraska has three vole species.
[01:22:39.660]This is vole, vole with a V not a mole a vole with the V.
[01:22:43.450]These are vegetarian animals.
[01:22:46.450]They're often confused with mice but they are similar
[01:22:49.070]to mice in terms of their size.
[01:22:51.010]We have two that are prairie mole and a meadow vole.
[01:22:54.470]They tend to be out in more grassland areas
[01:22:56.680]and we also had the pine vole which is in just a small area
[01:23:00.720]in the south eastern end of the state.
[01:23:03.100]Pine voles as their names suggest
[01:23:05.080]typically go into pine tree areas.
[01:23:07.270]They also more burrowing, they're into the ground deeper
[01:23:10.130]where prairie and meadow voles
[01:23:12.310]tend to be more on the surface.
[01:23:14.220]And so you probably won't be dealing in much in the area
[01:23:16.690]with pine voles but we do have three species.
[01:23:19.120]Majority of your work is gonna be with meadow
[01:23:21.500]and prairie voles.
[01:23:22.690]I want you to focus on the way they can reproduce however.
[01:23:25.740]Clients will often ask you what happened?
[01:23:28.720]Why are we having this vole problem?
[01:23:30.820]Well voles enter what's called an eruptive phase.
[01:23:33.530]That they can be at a regular low population level
[01:23:37.030]where people don't even know they're around
[01:23:39.160]and then for some reason we believe
[01:23:41.150]it's environmental conditions are favorable
[01:23:44.060]and their population spikes
[01:23:45.600]and they go into an eruptive phase
[01:23:47.340]and it can be quite dramatic.
[01:23:49.180]And where I'm from in Montana, Montana and Idaho
[01:23:52.000]have had eruptive phases of voles
[01:23:53.610]for the last couple of years
[01:23:55.177]and the damage can be quite severe.
[01:23:57.750]We believe it's result of early rains
[01:23:59.980]that allow the grass to green up quicker,
[01:24:02.040]that allowed the females to become healthier
[01:24:04.660]and fatter sooner and then the mating process begins sooner
[01:24:08.960]which allows them to reproduce even faster
[01:24:11.220]than they already do because they're able to get
[01:24:13.260]a couple more matings in before the season ends.
[01:24:16.550]But you can see here in the list five
[01:24:18.620]to 10 litters a year, three to five young a litter
[01:24:21.920]and how quickly they can mature.
[01:24:24.100]So in three months your young
[01:24:27.560]are reproducing on their own
[01:24:28.980]so eruptions can be quite dramatic.
[01:24:33.090]The kind of vole damage that people will suffer
[01:24:35.070]is voles are again they like to chew the grass
[01:24:38.290]down to the soil level and they liked the grass
[01:24:40.430]to sort of create a little canopy over them
[01:24:42.290]because everything eats a vole.
[01:24:44.760]So voles liked to be undercover
[01:24:46.960]and they need that desperately but there seeing some signs
[01:24:50.080]of some of their activity here.
[01:24:51.600]The middle picture shows an example how they're active
[01:24:53.890]even year round, they don't hibernate
[01:24:55.880]so they'll be active even under the snow.
[01:24:58.180]And then finally when they're under food stress
[01:25:00.500]they will attack smooth bark trees
[01:25:02.610]to get the cambium layer underneath that
[01:25:04.610]and so they will often gnaw trees up to the snow line
[01:25:08.060]so a deeper snow the damage will be even higher.
[01:25:11.240]You wanna make sure you distinguish that from rabbit damage
[01:25:14.240]by looking for the droppings.
[01:25:16.600]Rabbits will leave their large round droppings at the site,
[01:25:20.160]voles will as well
[01:25:21.730]but again vole droppings are significantly smaller
[01:25:25.120]and it'll be much harder for you to see.
[01:25:26.550]So if you're seeing large round droppings
[01:25:28.640]that damage is gonna be caused by rabbits
[01:25:30.810]and rabbit damage will often occur above the snow line
[01:25:35.280]as high as they can reach.
[01:25:37.010]How do you control voles?
[01:25:38.260]Well just like with all the other species we spoke about
[01:25:40.640]we wanna be focusing on habitat modification.
[01:25:43.340]If you build it they will come,
[01:25:44.750]if you remove it they will go.
[01:25:46.140]And so voles need cover so the answer to that
[01:25:48.550]is remove their cover.
[01:25:49.710]Here's an example of where voles were living
[01:25:52.060]underneath this pile of wood and they were using it
[01:25:54.870]as a place of shelter where they are then going out
[01:25:57.120]and feeding on the grass areas.
[01:25:58.850]So you wanna create weed-free barriers
[01:26:00.810]if at all possible.
[01:26:02.803]Vole don't like to traverse
[01:26:04.330]areas where they don't have cover obvious reasons.
[01:26:06.860]It makes them more vulnerable for predators
[01:26:08.960]and so that can be a very simple way of reducing pressure
[01:26:12.160]in areas where people don't want vole to exist.
[01:26:14.970]Exclusion can be used often in more garden type areas
[01:26:19.760]where pesticides often aren't allowed to be used
[01:26:22.610]but it can be extraordinarily expensive
[01:26:25.070]and is often not practical for most people
[01:26:27.520]in most situations.
[01:26:28.820]It would probably be wiser just to create
[01:26:30.700]that weed free zone of maybe five to seven feet wide.
[01:26:34.180]Just have the farmer a till up an area
[01:26:36.910]where they're having pressure maybe from vole
[01:26:38.740]from an area that's not gonna be mowed on a regular basis
[01:26:41.580]as a way of trying to reduce the pressure of voles
[01:26:44.430]coming across to his property.
[01:26:46.100]You can also protect trees
[01:26:47.580]by wrapping them with the plastic.
[01:26:49.110]Just make sure that the gap at the top is not very wide
[01:26:52.900]so that otherwise you'll be entrapping
[01:26:54.670]cavity nesting birds there and you wanna make sure
[01:26:57.140]the cylinders are tall enough to compensate
[01:26:59.330]for snow fall as well.
[01:27:01.440]So you kind of have to do a guesstimate of what you think
[01:27:03.520]the annual snowfall is in your particular area.
[01:27:06.410]But exclusion's not gonna be practical for most people
[01:27:09.480]in most situations other than gardening areas
[01:27:12.300]and I would recommend it for people
[01:27:13.660]wanting to protect their gardens.
[01:27:16.200]Trapping can be highly effective
[01:27:17.890]particularly if you're only dealing with a few acres
[01:27:20.337]and you're willing to put in enough traps.
[01:27:23.330]I tell people all the time there's never enough traps
[01:27:27.260]always be thinking in terms of dozens or scores of traps
[01:27:31.220]rather than just one or two.
[01:27:32.420]I talk to people when they're talking about
[01:27:34.290]some sort of rodent control and I'll say
[01:27:36.220]how many dozen traps did you set?
[01:27:38.170]And they'll tell me they set two traps, not two dozen
[01:27:41.420]two traps and I say that's like going into the woods
[01:27:43.580]with two bullets.
[01:27:45.150]Maybe you're that good but chances are
[01:27:46.780]you're gonna need more than that.
[01:27:48.660]You can have two different styles of traps for voles.
[01:27:51.330]You can use the multiple catch traps just simply line up
[01:27:55.010]the opening of the multiple catch trap
[01:27:56.740]right in line with their trails.
[01:27:58.130]They'll run right in, you don't need to have bait with it
[01:28:00.337]and the traps actually become more effective
[01:28:02.790]as they become used by voles
[01:28:04.600]because they have that vole odor inside of them
[01:28:07.470]and you will need to check those of course
[01:28:09.760]on a regular basis.
[01:28:11.080]You can also use snap traps.
[01:28:12.630]I recommend you put them under some sort of cover
[01:28:15.010]'cause you don't wanna be trapping small birds
[01:28:17.470]or non targets with it.
[01:28:18.830]You just simply, here's an example of this gentleman
[01:28:20.820]what he does is he takes this piece of plywood
[01:28:23.820]and creates a little triangle system here
[01:28:26.250]and then also stakes it down
[01:28:27.910]because he doesn't want clients children
[01:28:30.460]and pets getting involved in the trap
[01:28:32.090]and then the voles would just simply crawl underneath that
[01:28:34.570]and get trapped by the snap traps.
[01:28:36.010]He baits him with peanut butter, you can also use seeds
[01:28:39.220]but you wanna always make sure if using snap traps
[01:28:41.500]it's protected with cover to prevent birds
[01:28:44.790]from being attracted to it if you're baiting it.
[01:28:46.760]You can also use snap traps in a blind set
[01:28:49.170]where there's no bait whatsoever to simply place the trap
[01:28:52.570]perpendicular to the trail so that the trigger is inside
[01:28:55.370]the trail then the voles will just simply walk
[01:28:57.710]right on top of that and get trapped there as well.
[01:29:02.060]Toxicants, there are several toxicants available
[01:29:03.970]for the control of vole.
[01:29:05.080]Of course you have other baits that can be used
[01:29:07.260]within 100 feet of a structure but you also have
[01:29:10.200]more agriculturally based toxicants like zinc phosphide
[01:29:13.200]that can be broadcast over larger areas
[01:29:15.900]in more agricultural situation.
[01:29:18.020]There are lots of exclusions on these products
[01:29:20.380]and so you have to make sure
[01:29:21.213]you read the label very, very carefully.
[01:29:23.150]Zinc phosphide is a bitter tasting product
[01:29:26.310]but voles are used to eating bitter things
[01:29:28.630]because of their diet so you don't have to have
[01:29:31.340]the pre-baiting that's required
[01:29:32.690]with zinc phosphide as you would for other species.
[01:29:35.380]You wanna be sure that bait gets down into the burrowing run
[01:29:37.600]so if you're hand baiting that's where you want
[01:29:39.330]the bait to be placed but there's also broadcast to use
[01:29:42.190]as of zinc phosphide as well.
[01:29:44.060]And you wanna make sure that that bait
[01:29:45.920]is not gonna be in piles where birds can be attracted to it
[01:29:49.055]and you wanna be sure the bait gets down into the grass
[01:29:51.180]where the voles are able to find it.
[01:29:54.170]Anticoagulants are available for the control of vole
[01:29:56.827]but you can't let the bait stations run out
[01:29:59.000]because they're first generation anticoagulants
[01:30:01.077]and you don't want the voles to become sick
[01:30:04.600]and then avoid the bait in the future.
[01:30:06.030]So do not let the anticoagulants run out
[01:30:08.480]because the voles need to feed multiple times
[01:30:10.900]to get a toxic dose and you need to be patient.
[01:30:13.370]So the fastest a vole will die using the anticoagulants
[01:30:17.560]with is four to five days or the zinc phosphide
[01:30:20.380]they may be dead in 12 hours.
[01:30:21.980]So it's a much different situation
[01:30:24.020]when you use a hot product like zinc phosphide
[01:30:26.940]versus a cool product like an anticoagulant.
[01:30:30.010]But you do have secondary hazards with the anticoagulants
[01:30:32.760]that you don't have zinc phosphide
[01:30:34.560]so definitely make sure you watch out for that.
[01:30:37.580]Finally make sure that your bait stations
[01:30:39.520]don't allow food, the toxic to be spilling out
[01:30:43.130]onto the ground, that would be a violation of the label.
[01:30:46.550]So you wanna make sure they don't run out
[01:30:47.867]but you also wanna make sure none of that bait
[01:30:51.080]is spilling out onto the ground and you need to make sure
[01:30:54.370]that you want, I would recommend here
[01:30:55.900]using a smaller based PVC pipe,
[01:30:59.840]don't be using the three inch wide ones.
[01:31:01.590]You probably wanna get one that's only one inch wide
[01:31:03.950]so that way you're automatically excluding
[01:31:05.880]many non-targeted animals from getting to that vole bait.
[01:31:10.864]Fumigants and repellents are not recommended for use
[01:31:14.020]on vole even though they may be labeled for voles.
[01:31:17.280]It seems that vole tunnels tend to be too porous
[01:31:20.710]to allow fumigants to be effective.
[01:31:23.830]The tunnels are too close to the surface
[01:31:25.990]and there's too many openings in the ground
[01:31:27.467]and the gas is just gonna be pouring out of the soil
[01:31:29.910]and not doing anyone much good
[01:31:31.470]other than perhaps exposing you to the poison smoke.
[01:31:34.960]Repellents again voles are eating bitter products
[01:31:38.320]all the time so vole repellents have not been found
[01:31:41.560]to be effective of any meaningful use
[01:31:43.967]and so their use is not recommended.
[01:31:46.580]Kangaroo rats.
[01:31:47.720]Kangaroo rats can be quite numerous
[01:31:50.320]in the western part of the state of Nebraska
[01:31:51.807]and they can cause significant damage
[01:31:53.900]especially during the planting period for farmers.
[01:31:58.700]I think they are beautiful animal look at,
[01:32:00.740]they're pretty unique and they like a kangaroo
[01:32:02.860]and have these large oversized rear legs
[01:32:04.940]and they hop along just like a kangaroo
[01:32:07.200]and they are quite a thing to watch.
[01:32:09.240]They're seed eaters, nocturnal and they're not very social
[01:32:13.120]but they will live in large groups
[01:32:15.130]so they'll tolerate each other enough to be living close by
[01:32:18.900]but they're kind of little territorial in that regard
[01:32:21.200]and they're not gonna be communal
[01:32:22.430]in the sense of having multiple k-rats
[01:32:24.300]inside of a single of den.
[01:32:26.980]So the controller k-rats can be cultural.
[01:32:29.200]You wanna to do early planting
[01:32:30.610]so that the plant is growing up tall enough
[01:32:32.410]before the k-rats are out and about and you wanna make sure
[01:32:35.800]you're maintaining a healthy range land
[01:32:37.650]so that the k-rats aren't exploiting the dryness area.
[01:32:42.267]And so you wanna have good healthy range lands
[01:32:44.330]so they're not gonna be as comfortable
[01:32:46.559]digging their tunnels.
[01:32:47.910]Terms of exclusion.
[01:32:49.560]Exclusion could be useful maybe for garden areas
[01:32:52.020]it's not gonna be practical for most producers
[01:32:54.410]but those are the dimensions that you'd wanna use
[01:32:56.520]to keep the k-rats out of an area or to reduce their access
[01:32:59.510]to a particular area
[01:33:01.040]and then of course you can also have traps.
[01:33:03.150]The Sherman trap is highly effective
[01:33:04.577]and that's what this one is.
[01:33:05.453]It's a box strap, highly effective and the beauty of these
[01:33:08.610]is they can collapse and so you can store a lot of them
[01:33:10.593]in a particular box and then just put them out and bait them
[01:33:14.010]with seeds or peanut butter and then you can also put
[01:33:17.720]some cotton balls in side
[01:33:19.130]so that the k-rat has something to stand on
[01:33:20.437]and so it doesn't freeze to death overnight
[01:33:23.060]until you check them the next morning.
[01:33:25.120]Again the more traps are better.
[01:33:28.620]In terms of Norway rats we wanna make sure
[01:33:31.520]we're focusing on the fact that these Norway's
[01:33:34.210]tend to be around structures.
[01:33:36.200]They like to live near people although you can have some
[01:33:39.040]that are out into the more rural land parts
[01:33:41.450]of the landscape.
[01:33:42.460]Here's an example of a Norway den, Norway rat den.
[01:33:45.260]They typically like to come up to an edge
[01:33:47.760]and when they hit it with their head
[01:33:49.070]that's when they start digging.
[01:33:50.110]So they'll often be on embankments
[01:33:52.440]or against some sort of a structure like a rock
[01:33:55.380]and then they dig down and build a den underneath that.
[01:33:59.470]They tend to be neophobic
[01:34:01.150]so when you are poisoning Norway's
[01:34:03.600]remember with bait stations remember it may take a while
[01:34:05.900]for them to get accustomed to it
[01:34:07.550]before they begin to explore and feed on
[01:34:09.840]the particular bait that's available.
[01:34:11.910]We do have cotton rats in Nebraska.
[01:34:15.060]They are in the lower probably quarter
[01:34:18.930]of our particular state.
[01:34:20.450]They're not that common of a problem
[01:34:22.290]but they are around.
[01:34:24.020]You can use zinc phosphide in their burrow systems
[01:34:26.540]and there are a variety of baits have now been registered
[01:34:29.470]with some new changes with rodenticides
[01:34:31.120]that allow them to be controlled
[01:34:32.350]within 100 feet of structures.
[01:34:33.830]Fumigants again are gonna be practical for your cotton rats
[01:34:37.540]but they can be a problem for certain farmers
[01:34:39.960]who are struggling with some cotton rats
[01:34:43.489]damaging their crops.
[01:34:45.360]Droppings of the Norway rat are gonna be sort of,
[01:34:49.989]I call like sort of like a piece of rice
[01:34:52.060]is one of the analogies I use for it.
[01:34:54.020]They can be grouped but not like true toilets
[01:34:57.210]like a bat droppings would be but they can be clustered
[01:35:01.470]in areas where rats are commonly defecating.
[01:35:04.000]House mice in contrast just simply poop
[01:35:06.310]wherever they're going, they're much more free willing
[01:35:10.180]in that regard where rats will tend to defecate
[01:35:12.530]in a particular area.
[01:35:14.100]But notice that there are 40 to 50 a day
[01:35:16.340]so if you see those in outbuildings perhaps
[01:35:18.410]you'll be able to get an example of what they look like
[01:35:20.390]much larger than the smaller house mouse dropping
[01:35:24.795]for obvious reasons.
[01:35:25.970]How would you control these?
[01:35:27.150]Again you wanna remove the habitat
[01:35:28.950]that allow them to thrive.
[01:35:30.400]Rodents need cover.
[01:35:31.940]Always think in terms of cover, cover, cover
[01:35:34.290]when you're dealing with these commensal rodents
[01:35:36.280]which would be your house mouse and your Norway rat.
[01:35:40.300]These species like to have cover
[01:35:42.260]just like a vole needs to have cover to protect themselves
[01:35:44.920]from predators and also to feed on the resources
[01:35:47.010]that are available.
[01:35:48.060]So you wanna remove that tall grass, you wanna make sure
[01:35:50.460]things are mowed, you wanna make sure
[01:35:51.750]that all this debris is cleaned up
[01:35:53.530]and then you wanna prevent their access
[01:35:55.280]from getting into a building.
[01:35:56.730]Not a big fan of foam, foam is very helpful
[01:35:59.260]if you're wanting to stop heat,
[01:36:00.560]heat movement from a structure so if you're gonna use foam
[01:36:04.430]make sure it's covered with something more permanent
[01:36:06.510]like flashing or wood because foam can be gnawed through.
[01:36:09.890]It also degrades under UV radiation and you wanna also use
[01:36:13.790]something permanent like some of these Xcluder fabrics
[01:36:16.140]'cause this is stainless steel.
[01:36:17.410]Has stainless steel shards placed into a nylon weave
[01:36:21.400]or you could have the copper Stuf-Fit
[01:36:23.170]which is basically copper threads woven
[01:36:26.070]into a sort of a sock like mixture.
[01:36:27.840]And these allow flexibility so that you can wedge them
[01:36:30.270]into small cracks and crevices like around pipes
[01:36:33.370]and that sort of thing.
[01:36:34.470]So both of those professional products you notice
[01:36:37.150]I didn't mention stainless steel wool excuse me steel wool.
[01:36:40.260]Why?
[01:36:41.294]Because steel wool rusts so why would you wanna use
[01:36:42.990]a product that's ultimately gonna be going away
[01:36:45.360]with the amount of labor involved
[01:36:46.620]in doing this particular activity properly?
[01:36:49.080]Trapping.
[01:36:50.060]Trapping is often under utilized in my opinion
[01:36:52.500]for many situations with trapping can be highly effective
[01:36:55.060]particularly when we're dealing with rats
[01:36:57.490]because there's not gonna be as many of them
[01:36:59.000]as you're dealing with mice but mice of course
[01:37:01.110]can be trapped as well.
[01:37:02.740]You can put traps inside of bait stations.
[01:37:04.940]They also can be used as a way of monitoring an area
[01:37:08.030]to see how much activity that you're having
[01:37:09.520]if you're keeping good records.
[01:37:10.960]And then of course with your snap traps you wanna make sure
[01:37:13.550]that you're modifying them so that there's more power
[01:37:15.600]in that striking bar
[01:37:16.433]particularly when we're dealing with rats
[01:37:18.110]not necessarily when you're dealing with mouse traps.
[01:37:20.350]With the rat traps you definitely wanna take the few minutes
[01:37:22.730]to modify your wooden based traps to make sure
[01:37:25.550]they have a good strike
[01:37:27.200]'cause you don't wanna give that rat a second chance.
[01:37:30.440]It's always a good idea to pre-bait your traps
[01:37:32.915]and not set them and get the animals accustomed
[01:37:36.650]to come in to the location.
[01:37:38.140]This is particularly important
[01:37:39.750]when we're dealing with Norway's
[01:37:40.850]because Norway's are neophobic.
[01:37:42.460]They're afraid of new things in their environment
[01:37:44.210]and may take two weeks for them to acclimate
[01:37:47.120]and become comfortable to approach that particular trap.
[01:37:49.840]So you wanna pre-bait it without setting it
[01:37:51.850]and then monitoring every couple of days, go back,
[01:37:54.090]refreshing the bait up.
[01:37:55.510]You can use things as simple as pepperoni, or bacon,
[01:37:59.400]cheese maybe but you probably want baby chocolate.
[01:38:02.020]You can also use something as simple as cotton
[01:38:05.200]for your rodents as well but you wanna make sure
[01:38:07.710]they're accustomed to coming to those locations
[01:38:10.270]and then of course set them all at once
[01:38:12.110]and you'll have much better success and make sure
[01:38:14.520]you're setting enough traps to get the job done.
[01:38:17.290]Toxicants, there's a wide range of toxicants available
[01:38:20.710]particularly if you're within 100 feet of a structure.
[01:38:23.560]You can often use your second generation single feed.
[01:38:27.050]I would recommend those to be used when you're in areas
[01:38:30.440]where there's a lot of competing food sources available
[01:38:33.750]because you may only have one crack
[01:38:35.620]at that particular rodent.
[01:38:36.960]If he doesn't like the bait he's gonna move on.
[01:38:39.020]Where if the first generation he has to eat multiple times
[01:38:41.840]in order to die otherwise if at all possible
[01:38:45.120]always wanna use the first generation toxicants first
[01:38:47.670]because there's less secondary hazard risk.
[01:38:50.950]But if you're in a high food area and you just can't seem
[01:38:53.460]to control that in that area then you need to go down
[01:38:57.080]with the second generation toxicants and use that instead.
[01:39:01.210]Muskrats are primarily trapped.
[01:39:04.110]There is a toxic into available for the control of muskrats
[01:39:08.350]zinc phosphide it's the concentrate version
[01:39:11.520]but it's gonna be requiring a Nebraska Game and Parks permit
[01:39:16.065]in order to use that particular product.
[01:39:17.650]So this would be you would get
[01:39:18.640]the actual pure active ingredient and you'd have to mix up
[01:39:22.980]your own bait and then apply that.
[01:39:25.930]Typically it'd be done with carrots or parsnips
[01:39:28.500]and placed out for the muskrats but again you would need
[01:39:31.870]a Nebraska Game and Parks control commission permit
[01:39:35.370]to do this and it would require
[01:39:37.220]some sort of apocalyptic level of muskrats
[01:39:41.230]in order to get a permit to use this.
[01:39:43.160]So the likelihood of you ever using zinc phosphide
[01:39:45.850]to control muskrats would be amazing
[01:39:50.840]because typically they are trapped using colony traps
[01:39:54.010]or footholds or conibear is to control muskrats.
[01:39:57.880]But if there's some sort of epidemic of muskrats
[01:40:02.292]which should be hard to imagine a scenario
[01:40:04.420]where that would occur here in Nebraska
[01:40:06.380]then you do have the ability to use
[01:40:09.620]zinc phosphide concentrate to create your own pesticide
[01:40:12.900]but I doubt that's gonna happen for you.
[01:40:15.440]So there's an example of a colony trap that's used.
[01:40:18.980]The colony trap is placed directly into the runs
[01:40:22.060]that the muskrat's using
[01:40:23.170]are often right in front of their den opening
[01:40:25.910]when they can swim out of the bank
[01:40:28.030]and they will just pile up inside of that particular trap
[01:40:31.750]and then you can remove them that way.
[01:40:33.690]It's a very rapid and efficient way of controlling muskrats.
[01:40:36.930]Footholds and conibrears are also very effective on muskrats
[01:40:42.650]depending on the type of set and situation
[01:40:45.030]that you're encountering so.
[01:40:46.620]And my wife there is showing you an example of a muskrat,
[01:40:50.210]that's muskrat damage.
[01:40:51.060]We're at an embankment where they've come up
[01:40:53.310]through the bank.
[01:40:54.180]So the likelihood of you handling muskrats
[01:40:56.850]is gonna be small in terms of Nebraska but there are people
[01:41:01.480]that have trouble particularly around dykes and dams
[01:41:03.640]and you'd wanna be learning how to do some trapping
[01:41:05.870]in that situation.
[01:41:08.070]Thanks for listening.
[01:41:09.408](upbeat music)
[01:41:20.370]Our final chapter covers other vertebrate pests.
[01:41:23.500]The learning objectives for this chapter can be found
[01:41:25.860]in chapter four of your manual.
[01:41:29.730]Well thanks for staying with us
[01:41:31.080]and hope you are still awake
[01:41:32.470]but we are coming near the end of it.
[01:41:34.260]I promise you it will be done here in a few more minutes
[01:41:36.800]and you will have finished our introduction
[01:41:38.830]to category 14.
[01:41:41.390]So we're gonna finish off with some lesser known,
[01:41:45.140]probably less common species but maybe not
[01:41:47.410]depending on where you're doing some of your control work.
[01:41:50.450]Certainly if you're in the eastern end of Nebraska
[01:41:52.780]you will be dealing with the eastern mole.
[01:41:55.340]I used to when I was doing wildlife control out in the field
[01:41:58.100]in Massachusetts, loved taking care of moles
[01:42:00.680]because it was one of my consistent revenue streams
[01:42:03.420]from year to year.
[01:42:04.550]So in Nebraska we have what's called the eastern mole.
[01:42:08.540]There's the scientific name scalopus aquaticus
[01:42:11.290]and it's fossorial, lives below ground
[01:42:13.007]not it's nothing surprising about there
[01:42:15.260]but they're primarily a woodland creature.
[01:42:17.760]They like to have moist, rich soil that loose enough
[01:42:20.720]for them to be able to dig through
[01:42:23.000]and they're not very highly reproductive.
[01:42:25.040]They reproduce once a year, two to five young
[01:42:27.500]and then of course moles are very territorial.
[01:42:29.780]They don't like to be near each other
[01:42:31.490]and so they will scatter off relatively quickly.
[01:42:34.460]So the rule of thumb is you're getting two
[01:42:36.240]to three per acre
[01:42:37.850]perhaps under maybe exceptional circumstances
[01:42:40.550]you may get up to six but there are insectivores.
[01:42:43.340]So a lot of people think if they just get rid of the grubs
[01:42:46.430]on their lawn they're gonna get rid of their moles
[01:42:48.397]and that may be true if there's not enough worms
[01:42:51.350]but you can have a grub free yard and still have moles
[01:42:53.880]because moles are eating other things other than grubs.
[01:42:56.540]So there's a lot of mythology about moles.
[01:42:59.390]One of the things is to be sure that people understand
[01:43:01.720]how moles look in comparison with other creatures
[01:43:04.630]so here we have an example of a shrew.
[01:43:06.460]You'll notice that has a pointed nose and mouth like feet
[01:43:10.380]where a vole has a blunt nose and mouse like feet
[01:43:14.360]but a mole has a pointed nose and look at the front feet,
[01:43:18.510]look like large catcher's mitts with these huge front hands
[01:43:22.950]that come out that allow them to literally swim
[01:43:25.220]through the soil so to speak.
[01:43:26.990]So there are significantly different
[01:43:29.120]than the other two creatures
[01:43:30.620]'cause they don't have mouse like feet.
[01:43:32.220]Their back hind legs will be mouse like but their front legs
[01:43:35.350]are significantly oversized and they're also positioned
[01:43:39.310]kind of almost in a vertical way
[01:43:42.370]rather than a horizontal way.
[01:43:45.180]Mole damage, we've covered this a little bit briefly
[01:43:47.320]when we were talking about pocket gophers
[01:43:48.810]but just to reiterate it again
[01:43:50.610]moles push the soil directly vertically above them
[01:43:55.000]where a pocket gopher pushes the soil out at an angle,
[01:43:58.110]moles bringing up vertically just like you see in the photo
[01:44:00.720]in the image here.
[01:44:02.120]And the these mounds are caused
[01:44:04.560]by when the mole is digging deep tunnels,
[01:44:06.670]these are tunnels that are so deep
[01:44:08.370]they can't simply push the dirt right above them.
[01:44:10.543]They actually literally have to carry the soil
[01:44:13.250]to the surface like they're digging out of prison
[01:44:15.410]where the mole who's digging a surface run
[01:44:18.330]doesn't have that problem
[01:44:19.580]he's just can just simply push the soil up above him
[01:44:22.330]because there's just air above him.
[01:44:24.180]Where pocket gophers never create these types of runs,
[01:44:28.340]that's always classic mole.
[01:44:30.140]So if you're walking on a yard
[01:44:31.580]and it's starting to feel squishy that's mole,
[01:44:34.030]that is not pocket gopher
[01:44:35.440]so that's something to keep in mind.
[01:44:37.120]Now there's an important difference here with moles
[01:44:39.550]in terms of the types of tunnels that they create.
[01:44:42.170]They create basically two types of tunnels.
[01:44:44.550]They create feeding areas which tend to be short and bent
[01:44:49.870]and they create travel areas
[01:44:52.400]which tend to be long and straight.
[01:44:54.690]Now the reason why this is important
[01:44:56.160]is that when you're trying to control moles
[01:44:58.440]you wanna focus your intention
[01:45:00.020]on the long straight travel tunnels
[01:45:02.720]not on the broken short crooked feeding tunnels
[01:45:06.350]because the feeding areas may be only visited once
[01:45:09.490]by the mole but the travel tunnels will be used constantly.
[01:45:12.550]Think of it as the difference between the highway
[01:45:14.610]and a side street and that's where you wanna focus
[01:45:17.140]your control attention.
[01:45:19.350]So when we're dealing with mole management
[01:45:20.890]one of the things to solve about moles
[01:45:23.860]is that you can flooding as we mentioned that before
[01:45:26.320]with other burrowing animals.
[01:45:28.120]Moles can't handle wet soil where it's flooded out,
[01:45:32.100]they'll simply drowned.
[01:45:33.440]The other thing is you can actually avoid
[01:45:35.280]the visual disturbance 'cause one of the things
[01:45:37.270]that people have trouble with moles
[01:45:38.940]is they don't like the way it makes their ground look
[01:45:41.300]especially if they're care a lot about their grass
[01:45:44.400]and how the grass lawn looks they want to avoid that.
[01:45:47.163]Well one of the ways is simply put in some ground cover
[01:45:50.790]so it doesn't matter if the mole is in there or not
[01:45:54.210]because it will just simply collapse back down
[01:45:57.906]and it no one cares.
[01:45:58.739]And so that's one of the easiest ways
[01:46:00.230]of resolving mole damage is simply eliminate the possibility
[01:46:03.790]of there being damaged there to begin with.
[01:46:06.060]The other thing you can do is of limited use
[01:46:07.630]and that is put in some barriers
[01:46:09.570]such as installing fences
[01:46:11.470]or metal barriers below the soil
[01:46:13.350]and then it needs to be coming above the surface
[01:46:15.430]at least six inches.
[01:46:16.650]So you probably wanna go down a foot
[01:46:18.100]maybe a foot and a half below ground and then come up
[01:46:20.370]about at least six inches above the soil.
[01:46:22.680]But again it's probably only gonna be useful
[01:46:24.720]in the limited circumstances
[01:46:26.570]and it's not very commonly used.
[01:46:28.750]Now I talk here about controlling grubs.
[01:46:31.200]Controlling grubs can work to manage mole problems
[01:46:35.130]provided there aren't sufficient alternative food sources
[01:46:39.380]for the mole.
[01:46:40.350]As I said before you can have a yard completely grub free
[01:46:44.620]but if there's sufficient worms
[01:46:46.570]the mole will simply feed on the word.
[01:46:48.240]And in fact worms are a higher portion of their diet
[01:46:51.280]than grubs are anyways so when grub control works
[01:46:56.040]it works because there isn't sufficient amount of food
[01:46:59.390]for the mole to survive in an alternative to the grubs.
[01:47:02.900]So that is why sometimes people think
[01:47:05.450]that grub control works
[01:47:07.180]but also more frequently why it fails.
[01:47:10.730]Mole management, there's all kinds of products out there
[01:47:13.980]that are marketed to repel moles.
[01:47:16.700]These thumpers and vibrators there's no evidence whatsoever
[01:47:19.940]that they work.
[01:47:21.010]There is limited evidence for the use
[01:47:23.870]of the castor oil has a repellent for moles.
[01:47:26.860]I'm not convinced personally that is that effective
[01:47:30.980]but it certainly labeled and available
[01:47:32.167]and you just have to make sure you use enough water
[01:47:35.190]to get that into the soil but it is available
[01:47:38.067]and it's a castor oil based product.
[01:47:40.040]But I don't know of any evidence to suggest
[01:47:41.900]that these frightening devices or thumpers
[01:47:43.700]or ultrasound equipment works on moles.
[01:47:46.190]In fact some of my colleagues have photos
[01:47:48.360]of them trapping moles next to these things
[01:47:50.410]as they're going off and that sort of thing
[01:47:52.490]so you have to keep that in mind.
[01:47:54.660]Trapping, all the traps work.
[01:47:56.600]People ask me what is the best trap?
[01:47:58.830]The best trap is the one you're comfortable using
[01:48:01.307]and the one that you will use and the rule of thumb is
[01:48:03.950]for an average size urban size yard
[01:48:06.620]you wanna be using at least three traps.
[01:48:08.327]And if you're out in larger acreages
[01:48:10.700]you obviously wanna be using more traps
[01:48:12.460]but you don't wanna just go out there with one trap.
[01:48:14.920]All the traps work but you need to the select tunnels
[01:48:17.730]that are long and straight.
[01:48:19.510]I tell people to focus on tunnels
[01:48:21.600]that are at least three feet long and straight
[01:48:24.690]those are where you wanna put your traps
[01:48:27.220]and if you not successful within three days at that site
[01:48:30.320]move it to an area where the moles are active.
[01:48:33.980]Now how do we set these traps?
[01:48:35.620]Now there's gonna be different for different styles traps
[01:48:38.160]but because the harpoon trap is a common one
[01:48:40.710]we're gonna just talk briefly about
[01:48:42.150]how this one's to be set properly.
[01:48:44.400]The biggest mistake people make first off
[01:48:46.750]is they don't find the right run
[01:48:47.960]so we've already mentioned that.
[01:48:49.310]The second is you're gonna need to make sure
[01:48:50.940]that the stabilizer bars do not impinge on the main tunnel.
[01:48:55.170]Now people tell me oh I set a trap and then you know
[01:48:57.920]the mole came up to it, realized it was there
[01:49:01.140]and then moved around it.
[01:49:02.530]Well the reason why the mole moved around it
[01:49:04.300]is because your stabilizer bars
[01:49:06.150]were impinging on the tunnel and so the mole saw a root
[01:49:09.690]and it wasn't gonna dig through a root
[01:49:11.340]it just dug around the bar.
[01:49:13.680]It's not like it smelled something
[01:49:15.320]or was fearful of the odor it's all nonsense.
[01:49:18.040]So the reality is as you made a mistake
[01:49:19.970]in terms of how you stabilized your trap.
[01:49:22.250]The next problem that people have is they use their foot
[01:49:25.450]to depress the soil where they're putting the trigger.
[01:49:28.320]Now what you wanna use is your thumbs.
[01:49:30.770]You only want it to depress the tunnel
[01:49:32.670]the width of the trigger itself nothing else.
[01:49:35.760]I know it makes people feel good to stump the tunnels
[01:49:38.210]all down so make them feel like they're getting even
[01:49:40.880]with the mole, all you're doing is you're wasting your time
[01:49:43.100]and slowing the speed with which
[01:49:45.790]the mole is gonna get to your trap.
[01:49:47.410]You only wanna depress the tunnel where the trigger is
[01:49:51.350]then you would simply set the trap, pre-fire it
[01:49:54.580]so that you pre make the holes for your tines
[01:49:57.990]and then you would set it again.
[01:49:59.200]So now there's no resistance for those tines
[01:50:02.350]and you would wanna make sure that the tines
[01:50:06.710]are not above the surface of the soil.
[01:50:08.520]You don't want anyone getting impaled with it
[01:50:10.140]and if you wanna be extra careful
[01:50:11.590]you can simply put a five gallon bucket over it
[01:50:13.837]and then put a brick on top of it
[01:50:15.560]to keep it from blowing away.
[01:50:16.910]Check that trap every day.
[01:50:18.410]When the trap fires off you simply don't pull it
[01:50:21.380]out of the ground, you take a shovel and check each side
[01:50:24.300]looking to see if it's impaled the mole.
[01:50:26.950]Sometimes the mole is not completely dead
[01:50:29.300]and you don't wanna just yank it out of the soil
[01:50:30.920]'cause then you're gonna leave the mole in there
[01:50:32.350]and he might be able to scurry away.
[01:50:34.420]So those are common mistakes that people make
[01:50:36.710]with the harpoon trap.
[01:50:38.220]There are toxicants available for the control of moles.
[01:50:41.450]This is a you know Talpirid,
[01:50:43.690]Tomcat is another retail version of this.
[01:50:47.060]It is a gummy worm type situation
[01:50:49.830]and so you're supposed to find those active tunnels.
[01:50:52.470]I've already mentioned how you would do that.
[01:50:54.750]Follow the label.
[01:50:55.670]Of course you would insert the worm into the tunnel,
[01:50:58.870]cover it over then monitor it to make sure
[01:51:01.852]that the mole consumes it.
[01:51:04.450]There's also Mole Patrol and there's some gel.
[01:51:07.460]Mole Patrol I believe is a zinc phosphide based product
[01:51:11.070]and then there's the Mole Gel Bait
[01:51:12.850]I think that is a warfarin product
[01:51:16.160]and Talpirid I think is bromadiolone.
[01:51:18.880]So don't think you're getting smart on the manufacturer
[01:51:23.220]and rip that worm in half
[01:51:24.530]because the poison's only in one half of the worm
[01:51:27.150]so you need to insert the entire worm
[01:51:29.230]down into the burrow system.
[01:51:30.650]There's been some good reports about the worm.
[01:51:34.890]You have to be careful in moist soil
[01:51:37.070]so may wanna tell your client not to be watering the grass
[01:51:39.610]quite as much but my colleague seem to think
[01:51:42.770]that it works pretty well
[01:51:44.980]if you wanna be using a toxicant in this regard.
[01:51:48.130]Skunks, love skunks.
[01:51:49.800]Skunks were a big part of my business
[01:51:51.560]when I was back in Massachusetts.
[01:51:53.220]People don't wanna deal with them
[01:51:54.330]and they definitely motivate clients to resolve the problem.
[01:51:58.050]They tend to mate in January and March
[01:52:00.850]and this is one of the reasons why people who didn't think
[01:52:03.100]they had skunk problems had them now
[01:52:05.160]because a female who will spray an unwanted suitor
[01:52:09.730]and that's why there are people think
[01:52:11.130]they didn't have skunks before and all of a sudden
[01:52:12.760]they start smelling skunks
[01:52:13.940]because the female is spraying a male to keep the male away.
[01:52:17.120]They do den up in harsh weather.
[01:52:19.420]The rule is if it's so cold they can't dig into the ground
[01:52:24.550]skunks aren't gonna be moving and they also tend
[01:52:27.190]to get underneath structures
[01:52:28.760]because it's a great place for them to live.
[01:52:32.280]They damage turf by creating little divots.
[01:52:36.151]A skunk will literally pick a yard clean of grubs,
[01:52:39.280]we call it grubing, it is amazing.
[01:52:41.640]They create these little divots, very precise.
[01:52:44.150]It's differentiated from raccoons.
[01:52:45.740]Raccoons tend to shred the soil
[01:52:47.940]as they're looking for grubs and worms
[01:52:49.640]where skunks are very specific.
[01:52:52.670]They hit a spot move, hit a spot move, hit a spot
[01:52:56.570]much more precise and if you see their front claws
[01:52:58.930]you can see why they're able to be so precise.
[01:53:02.240]They are famous for their skunk essence.
[01:53:04.250]They have the ability to mist it like a mist spray
[01:53:08.120]or they can stream it and they can directionalize it
[01:53:11.650]'cause they have two glands on the both sides of their anus
[01:53:14.580]and they can actually target it in different ways.
[01:53:16.880]So they don't have to be completely facing you
[01:53:19.340]they can hit you from the side as they're arching there butt
[01:53:23.300]over in your particular direction.
[01:53:25.040]Skunks do not like the smell of skunk
[01:53:28.090]so the idea of the Pepe Le Pew you know
[01:53:31.010]I knew a skunk went by because I smelled them,
[01:53:33.970]that is simply a lie it's not true.
[01:53:36.240]Skunks don't like the odor.
[01:53:37.330]You can smell that skunk odor about a mile away
[01:53:41.270]so it's not something that proves
[01:53:43.180]that they're directly nearby because you smell a skunk.
[01:53:46.580]They are predators.
[01:53:47.500]They do eat on the eggs are various creatures,
[01:53:49.840]they will eat chickens as well but they also are preyed upon
[01:53:53.640]by great horned owls as well so they are a victim as well.
[01:53:58.610]So in terms of the deodorant, how do we take care
[01:54:01.000]of the odor of the skunk?
[01:54:02.100]Well if you're able to find these specific spot
[01:54:05.180]that the skunk has sprayed like if it sprayed
[01:54:07.110]the face of your dog or it's sprayed a wall or something
[01:54:10.330]you can actually treat that and neutralize it
[01:54:12.860]with this particular combination of ingredients.
[01:54:14.920]1 1/4 of hydrogen peroxide, one cup of baking soda,
[01:54:18.180]one tablespoon of dish detergent.
[01:54:20.590]Dawn is particularly recommended
[01:54:23.060]because of its grease cutting properties.
[01:54:25.510]Always mix the items in an open container, never store it
[01:54:29.720]because it will explode and you mix,
[01:54:32.470]you wash the effected area.
[01:54:33.860]I understand that the peroxide may bleach some things.
[01:54:37.190]If you wanna use it on clothing
[01:54:38.910]you always wanna add this product during the wash cycle
[01:54:43.460]when the tub is full so you dilute it a little bit
[01:54:45.857]and it will actually deactivate the odor.
[01:54:48.560]Don't bother with tomato juice
[01:54:50.210]and some of these other silly things.
[01:54:51.660]The reason is because tomato juice people think it works
[01:54:55.470]because of something called all factory fatigue.
[01:54:58.890]In other words you nose gets so overwhelmed
[01:55:00.930]with the skunk essence as soon as it smells
[01:55:02.990]the tomato juice that's all it begins to smell
[01:55:05.350]even though the odor of the skunk has not been eliminated.
[01:55:08.280]This particular product actually denatures the chemical
[01:55:12.710]of the skunk essence and actually neutralizes
[01:55:15.910]in that direction so it's much more effective.
[01:55:19.080]Keep it out of the dog's eyes and ears
[01:55:20.970]if you using the dogs.
[01:55:22.170]There are other products available to control odor
[01:55:24.700]that's sort of dissipated into a room
[01:55:26.840]and you can do a Google search using my name
[01:55:29.310]on skunk deodorizing.
[01:55:31.240]Just say Vantassel skunk deodorizing
[01:55:34.040]and a publication will pop up if you do a Google search
[01:55:37.590]and it'll give you a variety of other techniques
[01:55:39.410]to control skunk odor.
[01:55:40.990]But how do we prevent skunks?
[01:55:42.460]Relatively easily in fact.
[01:55:44.720]You just need to have a fence struck down
[01:55:49.140]probably half inch.
[01:55:50.190]I used to use 1/4 inch mesh.
[01:55:52.750]You only need to go down a couple inches but make sure
[01:55:54.750]you come out away from that vertical portion
[01:55:56.820]at least 12 inches.
[01:55:58.570]And if you're trying to keep out spotted skunks
[01:56:01.200]we do have some spotted skunks in the state
[01:56:03.290]who have some climbing ability
[01:56:04.490]so you wanna make sure it's tall enough
[01:56:05.650]so they can't simply climb over.
[01:56:07.550]But for preventing them from getting under sheds and things
[01:56:10.090]you're just simply attaching it to the wall,
[01:56:12.760]going down two inches below the surface of the soil
[01:56:15.140]and then coming out 12 inches
[01:56:16.627]and that will stop your skunks cold from prevention.
[01:56:20.240]Prevention's worth a pound of cure.
[01:56:22.920]I certainly wanna recommend doing that.
[01:56:25.030]In terms of trapping you want to plasti-catch, cage traps.
[01:56:28.970]Box straps are very effective of course.
[01:56:31.060]They already encapsulate the skunk to make it more calm,
[01:56:34.520]less likely to spray you.
[01:56:35.580]Skunks can still spray if they can't see you
[01:56:38.130]it's just they're less likely to spray.
[01:56:40.257]The other alternative is you can use cage traps
[01:56:42.167]and just cover them with cloth
[01:56:43.680]which you should always be doing with your cage traps
[01:56:45.730]at least 50% of the length regardless.
[01:56:48.270]Double door traps work great.
[01:56:50.190]And so here you have a system where the trap is set
[01:56:52.480]underneath the slab where the skunk is and then another trap
[01:56:56.520]is set facing out so in case the skunks were out
[01:56:59.940]when this was originally set.
[01:57:01.170]So you're gonna catch whatever comes out of the hole
[01:57:03.220]or whatever's coming towards the hole
[01:57:05.250]and you're baiting it in both directions.
[01:57:07.622]Rabbits.
[01:57:08.902]Rabbits particularly the cotton tail rabbit is a big problem
[01:57:11.782]in Nebraska for many people.
[01:57:14.602]The jackrabbits or the two on the right
[01:57:18.522]are becoming less common because of habitat changes
[01:57:21.262]within the state.
[01:57:22.095]Some of them are even becoming protected
[01:57:23.782]in certain portions in terms of far as hunting is concerned
[01:57:27.362]but they can be a problem for some people as well
[01:57:30.292]so let's talk briefly about some rabbit issues.
[01:57:32.932]Rabbits even though they're not rodents do a lot of gnawing
[01:57:36.312]and so here's some examples of some of the type of gnawing
[01:57:38.425]to that they'll gnaw on bark
[01:57:39.942]particularly smooth bark in the winter time
[01:57:42.292]when they're letting a little food stressed.
[01:57:44.092]And of course they leave these round pellets
[01:57:46.002]around where they'd been gnawing.
[01:57:47.492]Now notice the bottom left hand photo.
[01:57:49.662]The picture on the stick on the left shows you
[01:57:52.732]what damage looks like when it's caused by a deer.
[01:57:55.782]A deer 'cause they only have one set of teeth
[01:57:58.672]they only have lower teeth when they bite
[01:58:03.122]they have to twist in order to break it.
[01:58:05.832]Where a rabbit has two sets of teeth when they cut
[01:58:09.472]they create a 45 degree angle, very clean
[01:58:12.452]so you had some quick way of determining
[01:58:14.992]whether the damages caused by deer
[01:58:17.122]or whether it's caused by rabbits.
[01:58:18.372]Rabbits will clip where deer will tear.
[01:58:21.832]Also the height of the damage will also give you
[01:58:24.162]another sign in that particular direction.
[01:58:26.812]So the easiest solution for rabbits
[01:58:29.332]but people hate it is exclusion.
[01:58:31.982]Simply an 18 inch fence.
[01:58:34.132]I used to use chicken wire.
[01:58:36.012]It's very easy to install, very cheap.
[01:58:38.462]Simply post it on and rabbits will leave stuff alone
[01:58:41.272]but unfortunately people say it looks ugly
[01:58:43.322]and that sort of thing.
[01:58:44.212]If you're trying to deal with jackrabbits you need to go up
[01:58:46.372]at least 36 inches and burry the mesh
[01:58:49.132]'cause they can do a little bit more digging
[01:58:50.822]than your cotton tails will.
[01:58:52.992]But the point is that simple wraps can go along way
[01:58:55.312]of protecting your valued plants from damage from rabbits.
[01:59:00.702]Repellents, there are some repellents on the market.
[01:59:03.502]Several deer repellents include rabbits.
[01:59:07.082]I'm not a big fan of repellents as you probably could tell
[01:59:10.982]but they do have a place.
[01:59:12.072]The rule of thumb is repellents work best
[01:59:14.802]when there's low pressure and you wanna make sure
[01:59:17.612]your neighbors don't use it.
[01:59:19.252]So you want to be sure if you're using repellents
[01:59:21.352]you wanna make sure there's plenty of food available
[01:59:22.909]and that your neighbors aren't using it
[01:59:24.372]so that the animals will go to a better place to tastes.
[01:59:27.862]Generally speaking taste repellents work better than area
[01:59:31.412]or proximity repellents
[01:59:33.042]so something makes something tastes bitter
[01:59:35.492]is gonna work better than something just sprayed on the soil
[01:59:37.682]that's supposed to magically keep the animals away.
[01:59:39.815]Have to be careful whether the plant you're spraying
[01:59:42.512]is destined for human consumption
[01:59:44.392]because a lot of them you can't use them
[01:59:45.742]if they're gonna be eaten by humans.
[01:59:47.652]Trapping is not a very effective way of controlling rabbits
[01:59:51.772]but if you are determined to use trapping
[01:59:53.972]you wanna be sure that you trap in ways
[01:59:56.102]that help encourage them to go into the cage.
[01:59:58.372]Trapping in the winter time is gonna to be easier
[02:00:00.532]because they're more food stressed but you wanna try to use
[02:00:03.232]the landscape or wings on your traps
[02:00:05.362]to help direct them into the cage.
[02:00:06.952]A two door trap can be helpful
[02:00:08.562]'cause you can put wings out in both directions.
[02:00:11.162]Enclosed trapped seem to work better and using rabbit urine
[02:00:16.022]can also be an effective lure if you're able
[02:00:18.732]to get ahold of that from a trapping supply house.
[02:00:21.902]Shooting of course we call lead poisoning
[02:00:24.312]is a highly effective for rabbits but again you have to be
[02:00:28.342]in the location where it's legal
[02:00:30.652]and safe to discharge a firearm.
[02:00:33.282]Some of your higher end pellet rifles
[02:00:36.202]can be very effective as well and certainly quieter
[02:00:38.962]and your local community may not restrict air rifles
[02:00:42.242]the way they restrict gunpowder discharged weapons.
[02:00:46.162]But be sure you're always following law
[02:00:48.932]and safety requirements.
[02:00:50.592]Remember just because it's legal doesn't mean it's wise.
[02:00:54.892]Wanna think about diseases.
[02:00:56.012]We haven't talked a lot about diseases
[02:00:57.732]in this particular course.
[02:01:00.232]I talked about rabies earlier
[02:01:01.652]but tularemia it's known as rabbit fever
[02:01:04.082]is a bacterial infection that may get you.
[02:01:06.792]You can also contract it from black flies
[02:01:09.362]that may bite you but it is rare but it does occur.
[02:01:12.482]We just want you to be aware of it.
[02:01:14.532]That if you're starting to get a fever
[02:01:16.032]or you be handling rabbits that acting sick or to tame
[02:01:20.232]it's often sign that the rabbits may be infected
[02:01:22.842]with tularemia and that you can contract this
[02:01:25.542]so definitely watch your health
[02:01:27.882]and learn more about this particular disease.
[02:01:31.542]That's how you contact me.
[02:01:32.742]If you have any other questions
[02:01:34.082]I'd be happy to help you with.
[02:01:35.242]Let me give you a quick summary
[02:01:37.322]of what we've talked about so far.
[02:01:38.912]Just to sort of reiterate some strategies and tools
[02:01:41.372]that you always wanna keep in mind regardless of the animals
[02:01:43.922]that you're gonna be dealing with.
[02:01:45.392]Always remember that animals you need to be thinking about
[02:01:47.495]with the animals is where are they living?
[02:01:49.842]What are they eating?
[02:01:50.832]How are they moving?
[02:01:52.592]Be sure that you are identifying the specific problem
[02:01:55.792]that your client is suffering.
[02:01:57.532]Don't always think that lethal control is the primary answer
[02:02:00.822]because it's not always the primary answer.
[02:02:03.892]When a farmer says too many animals are eating his crops
[02:02:07.392]you don't have to necessarily stop those animals
[02:02:09.892]from existing you just need to stop them
[02:02:12.082]from eating his crops.
[02:02:13.642]So sometimes you have habitat modification or exclusion
[02:02:17.832]as also methods to use to stop the damage or reduce it
[02:02:21.672]again the goal is to a tolerable level.
[02:02:24.392]You wanna be sure you're always following the label
[02:02:27.362]as it's written.
[02:02:28.195]If you have any questions about the label,
[02:02:30.132]sometimes labels can be a bit confusing always makes sure
[02:02:33.172]you're calling the Nebraska Department of Agriculture
[02:02:36.502]and asking for their opinion.
[02:02:38.142]They have law enforcement personnel
[02:02:39.822]that can help interpret the label for you to be sure
[02:02:42.272]that you're always within the law.
[02:02:44.312]You can also call your extension agent
[02:02:46.472]to help you understand some of these label issues.
[02:02:49.992]Be sure you're always thinking safety.
[02:02:52.512]Am I making sure I'm avoiding harming on target animals?
[02:02:55.552]Am I protecting the public?
[02:02:57.152]Am I protecting public health?
[02:02:59.212]And so if you're always acting in those ways
[02:03:02.672]you're gonna make sure that you're gonna be
[02:03:04.022]a responsible wildlife control agent
[02:03:07.292]using your category 14 license.
[02:03:10.982]Always act as if you're on video camera
[02:03:13.352]so that way you're never gonna be ashamed
[02:03:15.352]or embarrassed by what you're doing
[02:03:18.141]and never kill animals in public view.
[02:03:20.702]Always try to show respect to the animals
[02:03:22.882]you're gonna be treating because someone cares
[02:03:25.272]about that animal even if you don't.
[02:03:27.462]So you wanna be sure that you're respectful
[02:03:29.072]for our natural heritage and acting in a responsible manner
[02:03:32.442]and you're gonna be a successful category 14 person.
[02:03:35.782]Thank you for your time.
[02:03:37.483](upbeat music)
[02:03:48.012]This concludes our initial applicator training
[02:03:50.162]for category 14 wildlife damage control.
[02:03:53.222]We hope this presentation has increased your knowledge
[02:03:55.472]of wildlife control techniques and that it will help aid you
[02:03:58.552]in becoming a safe and effective pesticide applicator.
[02:04:02.433](upbeat music)

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Wildlife Damage - Initial

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