The overwhelming majority of summer residents and gardeners, in the end, is acutely the question of how to protect the apple tree from rodents in winter. In the coldest time of the year, hares, water rats and mice cause significant harm to fruiting and young apple trees. This is due to the lack of food in rodents in winter, so they often look into gardens and orchards in search of food. Rodents eat the nutritious bark at the base of the tree, and it subsequently dies very quickly. Fortunately, there are some fairly simple ways to deal with these pests.
How to protect apple trees from rodents in winter
You need to take a piece of glass wool and wrap it around the base of the tree trunk, press down with a layer of roofing material on top, and tie it with wire to hold it well. Instead of roofing felt, you can also use a metal mesh with small cells. It is necessary to tie the wire very tightly so that there are no gaps, and sprinkle the lower part with soil so that small rodents cannot get under the roofing material. In general, with regard to small rodents, the situation is more complicated, since they are quite small and nimble. It is better to safe and lay out pieces of poison at the base of the tree, carefully disguising them with branches so that the birds do not cover.
How to protect apple trees from rodents in winter
But it will be much easier to protect trees from hares, since these large pests are quite shy. You need to tie large black plastic bags to the tree branches. Under the influence of wind, they will not only swing, but also create a noise that will scare away hares. This simple device will be a kind of scarecrow, only from oblique pests. But if there are daredevils that will approach the trees, then you need to enclose apple trees with a net-wrap.
Very often, strongly smelling mixtures are used against rodents. For the preparation of this, you need to mix in one container of 2 liters of vegetable oil, 3 kg of laundry soap and 300 grams of naphthalene. Then add 10 liters of water, and after mixing, a mixture is obtained, which is coated with the base of the trees. Such a caustic smell makes rodents bypass these trees and look for food in another place.
How to protect apple trees from rodents in winter
Another very good way to protect trees from pests is ice. Когда выпадет снег и наступят морозы нужно полить основание дерева водой и образуется защитная ледяная корка.
There are many ways to solve this problem and each method is effective in its own way. But the most important thing is not to forget and take care of apple trees before the arrival of cold weather, so that later these trees can thank us with a good harvest.