PINE VOLES (PITYMYS PINETORUM) AND ORCHARD DAMAGE RESEARCH: AN OVERVIEW OF THE N.Y. COOP WILDLIFE RESEARCH PROGRAM IN ANIMAL DAMAGE

We began our research effort in 1968 with a project aimed at determining the efficacy of endrin treatment for pine vole control. Grower concerns and a small amount of laboratory data indicated that endrin was no longer as reliable in controlling pine voles as it was in the early sixties. Our initial efforts were twofold. We sought first to determine the existing efficacy of endrin and secondly to evaluate any resistance by pine voles to this chemical control procedure. Unfortunately, this entire endrin research effort was dropped by the Cooperative Research Unit when endrin as well as other persistent chlorinated hydrocarbons were banned for use in New York State about 1969. As an outgrowth of this false start we identified two important needs in the control area. The first of these was to gain basic population information about pine voles and meadow voles in Hudson Valley orchards. And, secondly, we saw the need to gain further information about the economic impact that these orchard pests were having on the growers.