Terrible vole damage (the lower tan-colored area) on an unhappy apple tree. Massachusetts, March 2025.
Today in the orchard
I spent all day in the Finley Lane Orchard pruning apple trees. It was raw and misty outdoors but certainly preferable to being indoors. I was joined by Skylar Bodeo-Lomicky, my new apple student. We haven’t taken off the tree guards this spring since snow is still in the forecast, but we did see some vole damage on the unprotected apple seedlings that have been germinating throughout the orchard. Every fall we put spiral, plastic tree guards on the grafted trees that we remove in the spring. (We wrap older trees with trunks that are too large for the plastic tree guards with old window screen.) The guards/ screening protect the tender tree bark from the hungry teeth of voles and mice during the late fall and winter when they tunnel under the snow and long grass looking for things to gnaw on. In a couple of weeks we’ll remove them all.
