Agronomy (2022) 12 (7 - 1629)

Radek Aulicky, Emil Tkadlec, Josef Suchomel, Marcela Frankova, Marta Heroldová and Vaclav Stejskal (2022)
Management of the common vole in the Czech lands: Historical and current perspectives
Agronomy 12 (7 - 1629)
Abstract: The integrated management of a serious agricultural pest, the common vole (Microtus arvalis), should be based on modern and empirically proven approaches. The aim of this paper was to map the historical development of the monitoring and control practices of the common vole in the Czech Republic (CR) territory. Published records of vole population outbreaks and heavy crop damage have been documented in the Czech literature since the turn of the 20th century, and even in crops planted in highly fragmented and diversified agricultural landscapes. In the CR, systematic state monitoring was introduced in 1955. In the 1930's, there were more than 100 various rodent preparations against the common vole, which were formulated as smoke generators, gases, baits, dusts, toxic mushy mass, and insecticide sprays. Currently, there are only six preparations with three active ingredients registered in the CR. Zinc phosphide is the only active ingredient that has been used from the 1940s to the present, whereas anticoagulants were banned for vole control in 2011 owing to the high environmental risks. The poisoning of nontarget animals by rodenticides is not a new phenomenon tied to synthetic pesticides; poisoning by botanical extracts (strychnine) was documented more than 100 years ago. This review may provide both historical lessons for current practice and new incentives for future research.
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Full text of article
Database assignments for author(s): Josef Suchomel, Marta Heroldova, Vaclav Stejskal

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general
review

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Microtus arvalis	Alfalfa/lucerne (Medicago sativa)	Czech Republic