FIELD MICE AS FARM AND ORCHAED PESTS. 



5 



ested regions, they are unknown on the open plains. Ordinarily 

 they live in the woods, but are partial also to old pastures or lands 

 not frequently cultivated. From woods, hedges, and fence rows they 

 spread into gardens, lawns, and cultivated fields through their own 

 underground tunnels or those of the garden mole. The tunnels 

 made by pine mice can be distinguished from those made by moles 

 only by their smaller 

 diameter and the 

 frequent holes that 

 open to the surface. 



While the mole 

 feeds almost wholly 

 upon insects and 

 earthworms, and 

 seldom eats vegeta- 

 ble substances, pine 

 mice are true rodents 

 and live upon seeds, 

 roots, and leaves. 

 Their harmful activ- 

 ities include the 

 destruction of pota- 

 toes, sweet potatoes, 

 ginseng roots, bulbs 

 in lawns, shrubbery, 

 and trees. They 

 destroy many fruit 

 trees in upland or- 

 chards and nurseries 

 (fig. 3). The mis- 

 chief they do is not 

 usually discovered 

 until later, when 

 harvest reveals the 

 rifled potato hills or 

 when leaves of plants or trees suddenly wither. In many instances 

 the injury is wrongly attributed to moles whose tunnels invade the 

 place or extend from hill to hill of potatoes. The mole is seeking 

 earthworms or white grubs that feed upon the tubers, but mice that 

 follow in the runs eat the potatoes themselves. 



Pine mice feed to some extent outside their burrows, reachhig the 

 surface through the small openings made at frequent intervals in the 

 roofs of the tunnels. In their forays they rarely go more than a few 

 feet from these holes. Most of their food is carried under ground, 

 where much is stored for future consumption. Wliile they differ 

 90112°— Bull. 670—15 2 



Fig. 4.— Pine tree killed by pine mice. 



