USING IPM TECHNIQUES TO MITIGATE DAMAGE CAUSED BY TOWNSEND'S GROUND SQUIRREL IN IRRIGATED CROP GROUND
Agronomy & Pest Management
Mark Nelson
Extension Professor
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
BEAVER
Abstract
The Townsend Ground Squirrel is a small gray squirrel found in Nevada and Western Utah. It eats grasses and loves alfalfa and other agronomic crops. Hundreds of acres of crop ground in western Beaver County are currently infested. The squirrels are costing farmers over $100,000 annually. Current control programs such as shooting, flooding, treating with gopher bait and using fumigants are not taking care of the problem. We held two public meetings to educate land owners and explained a new baiting program. The program consists of applying a pre-bait and then bait before the alfalfa greens up. To determine the effectiveness of the prebaiting program we set up a trial where we compared the effects of no baiting, baiting and prebaiting. We selected 12 plots, 3 each in 4 different fields. Each treatment consisted of a plot that was prebaited with oats and then baited with zinc phosphide, baiting without prebaiting, and then a control plot. Each plot was observed each day for 3 days before treatment and 3 days after treatment. Results of the trial showed that the plots that were prebaited and then baited showed 75% control compared to 59% control on the bait only plots and 33% on the control plots.
Authors: Nelson, M.
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Nelson, M. Agricultural Agent, Utah State University Extension, Utah, 84713