„MäuseMöhre“ - Non-chemical management of pest rodent in organic carrot cultivation

Project description

About every three to five years, common voles severely infest agricultural areas in many parts of Germany, causing major economic damage. Therefore, crop, vegetable and fruit farmers suffer considerable problems due to common voles. Mass reproduction occurs in Germany, sometimes synchronously over large areas, and leads to mass infestation of agricultural land.

Rodent damage in horticultural crops is by far the most important damage caused by vertebrates. Rodent infestation in vegetable cultivation can lead to total crop loss over large areas. In carrot and potato cultivation, rodent damage can also lead to considerable losses, which can reach 50-100%, as gnawed carrots and potatoes are not marketable. Carrots are the second largest crop in the area and have the highest harvest volume, so that this crop occupies a prominent position with approx. 20% of the harvest volume of all vegetable crops.

The considerable economic losses caused by common voles and other rodent species (e.g. wood mice) require population regulation measures. In organic farming, the use of chemical rodenticides is not allowed and non-chemical methods must be used. However, there are hardly any/no validated non-chemical options in vegetable production to counteract rodent damage or their effectiveness is considered to be low. Measures for repelling (scaring, repellents), biological control (birds of prey, terrestrial predators) etc. are usually not very effective for vertebrates. Therefore, there is an urgent need to (further) develop non-chemical alternatives to reduce the population size and/or minimize rodent movement into crops.

The aim of the „MäuseMöhre“ project is to develop non-chemical measures for the management of rodents in organic farming and to test them under practical conditions. Thereby we focus on the further development of low-risk plant protection methods, cultivation techniques and the knowledge transfer into practice. The results will be used to validate non-chemical methods for the management of pest rodents in carrot cultivation and to provide cost-benefit estimates for these methods.

Common vole - Microtus arvalis (Photo: C. Fischer)
Nagerfras an Möhren
Rodent feeding on carrots