Imre Hubai, a bio-farmer, has found a novel and environmentally friendly way to deal with voles, whose populations have recently increased and cause damage to crops. The plant protection specialist from Karcag has installed wooden perches for use by birds of prey, making hunting easier for them. Thanks to the method, 90% of the new generation of voles perish within 2-3 weeks, and the relatively small numbers of remaining rodents no longer cause significant economic damage.

The common vole is a native pest in the Carpathian Basin, but in the old days of small, family farms, the cats would catch them, or farmers would simply kill them while tending their crops, said Imre Hubai, according to whom problems began in the fifties, when arable farming began to consume larger and larger areas.

According to experts, the dry weather of the past few months is responsible for the large increase in their numbers this year. In large, modern fields, voles are not threatened by any natural enemies within the food chain, because there are no longer any trees, the natural perches of birds of prey.

Imre Hubai helps the Common Buzzards and Harriers around his own bio-farm by installing T-shapes wooden perches a few metres high, thanks to which the birds are able to catch 10-12 voles each day. The perches, placed every 5-6 hectares at the edges of fields or on dykes and drainage ditches, can help birds of prey catch 90% of these pests within the area in just two to three weeks.

The conservation role (protection of birds of prey, ecological protection against agricultural rodent pests) played in ecological farming by the installation of T-shaped perches is also recognised by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Farmers involved in implementing Hungarian ecological farming measures and those cultivating Natura 2000 areas may receive funding towards the installation of T-perches from resources earmarked for non-production agricultural investments.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)