Moles, Voles and Pasture Holes

The calls are beginning to pour in to every Cooperative Extension Office in the state wanting to know how to eradicate moles and voles in their pastures and yards.  Each year, as the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, these calls become almost a daily occurrence.  It’s important to first identify which critter is responsible for the damage to your grass before deciding on the best control option for you.

DESCRIPTION

Moles are 4-6 inches in length.  They have very short tails and pointed noses.  Moles posses short front legs that are paddle-shaped which allows them to “swim” through soil.  Their eyes and ears are not visible.  Moles are not rodents, they are classified as an insectivore, meaning their diet consists of insects only.  Eighty-Ninety percent of their diet is composed of earthworms, the remaining portion is from other insects such as ants and grubs.  They do NOT eat plant material but do tend to damage root structures while moving around under the soil.  In the Southeastern US, moles breed in February and March and give birth approximately 42 days later (April/May) to 2-5 “pups”.  These pups are ready to leave the nest and become solitary individuals, finding their own area 30-45 days later. 

  

Voles, on the other hand, are true rodents and are very closely related to the house mouse.  Depending on species, voles are 3-5 inches in length with visible ears and eyes.  Their legs are mouse-like and their tails are longer, resembling those of their rodent cousins.  They eat a variety of green vegetation, roots and bulbs and even the bark on trees, causing damage and death to most of the plants they encounter.  Voles mate several times a year and after a gestation period of 3-4 weeks, give birth to 5-10 young.  These young reach sexual maturity in as little as one month and begin having litters of their own.  Because of this, populations of voles can seem to explode over night.

SIGNS 

Moles:

·      Tunnels in pastures or lawns that are pushed up, dome-shaped.

·      Small mounds may be visible – usually 1 - 2 inches high

·       No teeth marks or gnawing on plants

Voles:

·      Small holes without a mound

·      Plants that die unexpectedly without cause

·      Trees/Shrubs that show teeth marks and gnawing from the ground, up

CONTROL

Moles and voles have the same natural predators including: snakes, foxes, coyotes, weasels, birds of prey, domestic cats and dogs.  Creating beneficial habitats for these predatory animals can dramatically tip the scales against moles and voles.  You can work with your local Wildlife Office on habitat creation.  All mole species are protected by law in the state of North Carolina and can not be hunted/trapped without a permit from the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission.  Voles like lots of vegetation in which to build their burrows.  By maintaining proper heights of grass species, mowing when you should and keeping your barns, fence-lines and out buildings free of brush piles and high organic matter voles will tend to move on.  Most rodenticides are not available for homeowner use and are normally not recommended since other species of wildlife or domesticated animals may be harmed.  Traps are labor intensive and not very effective against either species.  For more information on control techniques, or situations unique to you and your operation, it is strongly advised that you contact your local Cooperative Extension Agent or Wildlife Officer.

Foal Nutrition

Nutrition plays an important role in the health of any animal but it is of particular in young, growing animals. Proper growth and bone development are only ensured by meeting the foal's nutritional needs.

It starts while the foal is still in utero. Broodmares should maintain adequate body condition (5.5-6.5 on the 9-point Henneke Body Condition Scale), more calories are required to maintain a good weight, protein is key to maintain BCS and muscle of the mare, and proper mineral intake is critical for mare's bone and liver stores.

It is essential that the foal receive colostrum within the first 24 hours of life. It will provide the foal with protein and antibodies needed to fight off infections! Breeders should be prepared for any suckling issues by having a supply of frozen colostrum on hand; it is better to be prepared for situations like this rather than wait until something goes wrong.

In the first 30 days to 3 months of life the foal depends on the mare for nutrition; milk is the foal's sole food source. They should consume milk 7-10 times per hour because drinking frequently helps prevent digestive upsets. Make sure the mare is maintaining weight and body condition, lactation takes a lot of her.

At 3-4 months of age the foal can begin having forage and concentrated feed added to the diet. Soft hay is preferable to coarse hay for these young animals and a hay test is recommended before offering to your foals.

Make sure you provide your foal (and mare) with proper nutrition! Starting early and maintaining this nutrition will make it more likely that your animals will live a long and healthy life. Contact a trusted equine professional, veterinarian, or extension agent for further tips and advice, or if you have any questions.

Ticks and Horses

In addition to making sure that your horse is given all the vaccines needed for a locality, horse owners should practice an effective external parasite control program.  I recently read an article where the question was asked “Why do ticks infest my dark bay horse worse than my chestnut?” The response went into the immune response of individual horses and how ticks select their meal options.  I won’t try to recreate that here, but did think about tick control as part of the health management plan we use in keeping horses healthy.  We vaccinate horses to reduce the risk of them contracting certain diseases, but an important component of the health care plan is keeping biting insects (including ticks) from being a problem.  There was an article written about controlling ticks in this blog back in 2014 (Tick Control in Horses) that has some great information, so please review that.

Ticks can transmit diseases very easily since they do take several blood meals through their life cycle.  The deer tick is one of the primary vectors for Lyme Disease, which affects many horses each year.  I’ll just use this example of diseases that can be spread via an insect that takes multiple blood meals from different animals during its growth and development.  While Lyme disease may not cause horses to die, it certainly affects joint health and increases veterinary costs and horse care expenses.

Most Lyme disease is spread during May and June by adult ticks.  Adults take longer to attach and take longer to fill up and drop off than the nymph stages.  Anything we can do to prevent ticks from attaching in the first place significantly reduces the chance of transmitting a disease. 

Most products recommended for use in horses contain pyrethrum or permethrin, and are spray and wipe materials.  Coumaphos is a spray mixture that can be used on horses (Read the label!), and permethrin can be a spray, used in a back-rubber, or as a pour-on or spot-on.  Cypermethrin can be used as a dust or powder.  Pyrethrum is mainly a spray and wipe material. 

The North Carolina Ag Chem Manual has a section for insect control for horses, but does not mention controlling ticks on horses specifically.  There is a reference to using products recommended for cattle and other livestock regarding fly control, and many fly control products also provide some degree of control for ticks.    All I will say to that is for horse owners to be sure to check the product label to make sure it is registered for use on horses to control the target insect before purchasing.

Horse owners should work with their veterinarian to discuss controlling insects/external parasites as part of the overall herd health program.   Tick are certainly out in force now, so plans and action for minimizing their effect on horses need to be done now!

HYPP in Performance Horses

Written By: Lindsay Riddell, Alamance County Livestock Advisory Committee Member

Pictured above left is the famous halter stallion Impressive, pictured right is a cute paint doing dressage.  My cute paint!  As someone who specialized in English riding disciplines at an early age, I never thought I would need to know much about a World Champion halter stallion, but then an APHA registered yearling called Peppy came into my life.  I am still learning about Impressive to this day.  Although they look nothing alike they are related through Peppy’s sire, Ima Classy Solis, who is a grandson to Impressive.  Why does this lineage matter?  Impressive carried a gene for a disease known as HYPP that he passed to all his many descendants, including my horse. 

      

Sounds like devastating news on a performance horse doesn’t it?  It’s been a journey that I would like to share with you in case you also have a horse of this lineage or know someone who does.

1.   THE DISEASE:

What exactly are we talking about?  When I bought my horse the breeders said he was tested for HYPP and the results were heterozygous (h/n).  They assured me he had never had an attack in the 18 months he’d been alive and that he probably never would.  At that time I had no idea what that meant or how it could effect his life as a performance horse.  I don’t think the breeders did either.  

This disease is an inherited defect of the muscles in affected offspring.  While it may seem unlikely that a horse suffering muscular disorders could ever be a high performance equine, it can be done.  Peppy does it every day!  

1. THE 

A.     Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP) – hyper means high or in excess, kalemic refers to the amount of potassium present in the bloodstream.  Periodic paralysis is self explanatory.
                     i.            Impressive (#0767246) – AQHA Appendix stud born in 1968.  Impressive was a proven champion in the early 1970’s winning all 31 of his classes. He achieved World Champion Open Aged Halter status with 48 halter points in 1974.  With Championship status came many breeding contracts, unfortunately it wasn’t until the 1990’s that the disease and genetic link to Impressive came to light and even longer before research study results and testing were in place.  Testing was not required by AQHA until  Jan. 1^st of 2007 at which time they also enacted a rule refusing registration to homozygous horses testing h/h. The Appaloosa and Palomino horse registries put similar rules in place that year, as well.
                   ii.            The Genetics – HYPP is an autosomal dominant gene mutation, which means it is not gender linked, all offspring are affected and will pass the gene on to their offspring.  Horses of the Impressive line that do not show symptoms still carry the gene and will pass it on.  Basically, while not all offspring suffer visible illness, all offspring are “carriers”.  It is not a result of “inbreeding,” it is a mutation.  Unfortunately the progenitor of this mutation (Impressive) was not identified until after Championship status created a large generation of affected offspring.  It is estimated that Impressive has more than 100,000 descendants and the number continues to grow.  Testing is available from UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory.  These tests look for a specific gene pair that can be homozygous, heterozygous, or normal.  Results are express h/h, h/n, and n/n respectively.  Horses testing homozygous h/h are most likely to experience the severe symptoms and are at highest risk of death early in life. The heterozygous horses testing h/n are more moderate and may not suffer visible attacks at all.  Horses testing normal n/n are at no risk.  As far as breeding goes the inheritance possibilities look like this.

Breeding Outcomes
N/H x N/H have 25% chance of producing normal offspring, 50% chance of producing heterozygous carriers and 25% chance of producing homozygote offspring			N/H x N/N have 50% chance of producing normal (NN) offspring and 50% chance of producing carriers (NH).
	N	H		N	H
N	25% NN	25% NH	N	50% NN	50% NH
H	25% NH	25% HH

Diagram from www.vgl.ucdavis.edu

For the full article please click here.