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Article: VOLES GORGE ON VALLEY CROPS WITH VENGEANCE.(Agriculture)
- Article from:
- The Register Guard (Eugene, OR)
- Article date:
- October 14, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Register Guard. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard
Hordes of tiny rodents have chewed up prodigious volumes of Oregon's valuable grass seed crop this year, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses. Now they're moving into vineyards and orchards.
Gray-tailed voles are a perennial problem for Oregon farmers, but every few years their population explodes, and these pesky rodents, also known as field mice or meadow mice, turn from nuisance pests to voracious destroyers.
The vole invasion, combined with an unseasonably wet spring that caused major damage to the grass seed crop, have made 2005 a year growers won't soon forget.
"It seems like a ...