RODENTS AND MOLES AS PESTS IN BULB PLANTINGS 3 



Moles (Scapanus) are distributed generally in the coastal belt of 

 Washington, Oregon, and northern California, and more locally in 

 the southern parts of the last-named State. 



The meadow mouse (Microtus), the white-footed mouse (Pero- 

 myscus), and the common brown rat (Battus) are three rodent 

 genera that may be found in favorable environment almost any- 

 Avhere throughout the country. 



Pocket gophers (Thomomys) range throughout the bulb-growing 

 districts of the western coast, except in agricultural lands of western 

 Washington, where they occur mainly on the prairies just south of 

 Puget Sound. 



Kabbits include the snowshoe hare {Lepus was king torn), occurring 

 sparsely in western Washington; the black-tailed jack rabbit (L. 

 calif ornicus), throughout the humid coastal belt of California and 

 north into the Willamette Valley of Oregon; the cottontail (Sylvila- 

 gus auduboni), in the Sacramento Valley of California and the 

 coastal belt to the south; and the brush rabbit (S. ~bachmani) , found 

 in the coastal belt of California and up along the Oregon coast nearly 

 to the Columbia River. 



Though the grower of bulbs on a commercial scale may suffer 

 heavier individual losses and the plant breeder perhaps more exas- 

 perating damage from depredations by burrowing mammals, it is the 

 keeper of the home garden who has the greater ground for complaint 

 and the greater need for advice. The commercial grower, with much 

 at stake, usually takes pains to seek out and adopt measures of pest 

 control without delay, but the average home gardener, frequently 

 puzzled and not knowing what to do, is apt to postpone aggressive 

 action. 



The types of soil more commonly chosen for commercial bulb 

 growing are those of valley floors or prairies — places likely to be 

 infested by burrowing mammal pests, particularly moles and meadow 

 mice. Within their ranges, however, these two groups of animals 

 respect no bounds set by slope or contour. Where snow falls in 

 winter or where mulching with leaves or straw is practiced, the 

 grower will have to be more than ordinarily vigilant, for these 

 pests work best under cover and keep busy all winter. 



With respect to the losses in bulbs stored in sheds or warehouses, 

 it need only be said that the kinds that are relished by the wild 

 rodents may be just as acceptable to any mice and rats that infest 

 such quarters. 



BULB CLASSES AND PEST RELATIONS 

 NARCISSUS 



By reason of distasteful and sometimes poisonous qualities, the 

 various types of narcissus — daffodils, jonquils, poeticus, polyanthus 

 (bunch flowered), and others — are practically free from rodent at- 

 tack. In a few cases that came under observation in southern Cali- 

 fornia, narcissus bulbs had been removed by pocket gophers, prob- 

 ably from the instinct of the rodents to store things that at first con- 

 tact seem edible. The likelihood of mechanical damage by moles 

 and rodents to narcissus plantings in field rows is slight, as the ]3lant 

 structures are fairly tough and not easily torn or broken. In beds, 



