Farmers were told how to accurately assess the threat of damage by rodent pests in the field.

According to the expert, the first to be affected are winter crops sown early—especially well-developed rapeseed and wheat crops. "Well-developed rapeseed and wheat crops attract rodents from the beginning of autumn. Migration to rapeseed starts from the beginning of September. For wheat, it starts from the first decade of October," Myhlovets clarifies. Monitoring is a key element of protection. It is usually carried out by the route method: a 1 km route is laid out on a field of up to 200 hectares, and colonies are counted in a 5 m wide strip. The obtained number is multiplied by two—this is the estimated number per hectare. Next, it is necessary to assess the habitability of the burrows. For this, the entrances to 10 colonies are trampled down in the evening. In the morning, it is checked how many are open. This gives a real idea of the active part of the population. These data allow predicting the scale of the damage and determining when to apply rodenticides. "The threshold of ...