iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Wildlife damage: What killed this oak tree?

Started by Dodgy Loner, April 23, 2008, 01:54:51 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Dodgy Loner

Can anybody guess what did the damage to this oak tree?  Penny is included in the photograph for scale. :)



"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Radar67

"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

Dodgy Loner

Rat is closer than armadillo, but no cigar.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

BaldBob


Dodgy Loner

Also close, but you've got to think smaller...
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

ellmoe

Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

Riles

Knowledge is good -- Faber College

Dodgy Loner

Both good guesses, but moles and shrews are both carnivores/insectivores.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Tom


WDH

It was a gnawing thing of some kind.....a little tiny itty bitty ground dwelling beaver :).
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Lanier_Lurker

Rodent, smaller than a rat and not a mole or shrew.   :P   ???

If it ain't field mice I dunno.


Dodgy Loner

Here's another hint: it's more closely related to lemmings than to mice  :P
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Radar67

"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

SwampDonkey

Woodchuck? chipmunk?  Both marmots I guess.

Radar is probably onto it.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

ellmoe

   Is that the root or the stem?

   P.S.   My dog was a carnivore, and he was a chewing machine! :D
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

Dodgy Loner

That is the taproot - or, what used to be the taproot.  And Radar got it right - it's vole damage.  A client of mine had planted dozens of sawtooth oaks along a creek bank in his back yard, and several of them, including one that was about 6" in diameter, were killed by voles.  They feed on grasses, herbs, bulbs, and roots, and they burrow into the ground, producing holes near the surface that are about 1" in diameter.  Populations can get very dense in a hurry. 

Voles can be controlled with rat poison, but this does not discriminate between species and will kill anything that eats it.  A safer method is to use mouse traps baited with peanut butter.  Dozens of traps must be set and reset several times a week to have any appreciable effect on the population.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Radar67

Does the right answer hold a personal on-site visit with WDH to walk over my place and make suggestions???  ;)  :)
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

Tom

I never  heard of voles before I read of them on this site. Mice were Mice and Moles were moles.

Reading up on them a little bit, I do that when it's something new, I found that a peculiarity of voles was monogamy. Only one strain, the field mouse (the meadow vole) has promiscuously mating males.

Reading on, the author says that it can be remedied by the insertion of a DNA string via a virus.  "The behavior is influenced by the number of repetitions of a particular string of micro-satellite ("junk") DNA, and the same DNA sequence is found in humans."  This is leading me to a supposition that human females may begin using this for social design, as if they need any help.

I can hear the nuptials now as the preacher asks, "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

And, the woman replying, "Yes sir, as soon as he finishes his vaccinations".  :-\

Dodgy Loner

Radar- It depends- Who's paying for gas? ;)

Tom-  :D I've read the same thing, but can't say that thought ever crossed my mind.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Radar67

I'm sure we could work something out. Danny can vouch for the food quality over here.  ;)
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

WDH

Quote from: Radar67 on April 24, 2008, 10:26:07 AM
Does the right answer hold a personal on-site visit with WDH to walk over my place and make suggestions???  ;)  :)

I ain't much on voles, but trees I can handle.  If I get stumped, I can consult with Dodgy ;D.

The answer, Stew, is yes...
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Radar67

Hopefully I'll have my pool taken care of within the next month or so, and my house site leveled.
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

Dodgy Loner

Alright Danny.  Let me know when we're leaving and I'll have my bags packed :)
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

Phorester

Think I've stated this before in another thread, but in the last few years voles have become a big problem in several mid-Atlantic states. I've talked with foresters from Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, they all have tremendous vole problems.  They've devastated every open field tree planting project I have done in the last 5 years.  Practically 0 survival. They have girdled trees with 6" diameter stumps, they have climbed into Christmas trees and girdled limbs 4 and 5 feet off the ground.  Darndest thing I have ever seen.  They can be poisoned in existing tree plantations.

As for new tree planting projects, we've tried herbiciding the grass, herbiciding and burning, burning alone, scalping the tree rows before planting, herbiciding the tree rows. Nothing worked. I now recommend that the landowner plow and disk the entire field for site preparation before tree planting, just as if he was planting a crop, to completely destroy the grass thatch the voles live in.

SwampDonkey

Maybe that was what got into my spruce winter before last. I thought it was porcupines because I seen one in my cedar tops. Whatever it was chewed at the based on the stump about 4" wide, which was almost half the circumference of my trees. Always something, make a preacher lose religion.  :-X >:(
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Thank You Sponsors!