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December, 2016 11 USDA to Collect Final 2016 Crop Production and Crop Stocks Data (TRENTON, NJ) – As the 2016 growing season comes to an end, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will contact producers nationwide to gather final year-end crop production numbers and the amount of grain and oilseed they store on their farms. At the same time, NASS will survey grain facility operators to determine year-end off-farm grain and oilseed stocks. “These surveys are the largest and most important year-end surveys conducted by NASS,” explained NASS New Jersey State Statistician Bruce Eklund. “They are the basis for the official USDA estimates of production and harvested acres of all major agricultural commodities in the United States and year-end grain and oilseed supplies. Data from the survey will benefit farmers and processors by providing timely and accurate information to help them make crucial year-end business decisions and begin planning for the next growing and marketing season.” The information will be compiled, analyzed and then published in a series of USDA reports, including the Crop Production Annual Summary and quarterly Grain Stocks report to be released January 12, 2017. “Responses to the survey will be used in calculating county yields,” explained Mr. Eklund. “USDA uses county yield information from the survey to evaluate and administer vital farm disaster mitigation and insurance programs such as Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC). Farmers who receive this survey are not included in the County Agricultural Production Survey, therefore this is their only opportunity to be included in the calculation of New Jersey’s county yields.” These and all NASS reports are available online at www.nass. usda.gov. For more information, call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at 1-800-498-1518.
“Not A Creature Was Stirring, Not Even a Mouse….” By William A. Kolbe B.C.E. December is here and if the weather experts get it right, we should be in for a pretty hard winter here in New Jersey. Plenty of snow and cold weather and creatures like the house mice, field mice and white-footed mice will all be snug in their beds (nests) waiting out the winter, right? Wrong.. sort of! Pest management professionals typically deal with “commensal rodents.” The word commensal means, “Living in a relationship in which one organism derives food or other benefits from another organism without hurting or helping it.” Also “eats at or shares food with humans.” Inside homes and buildings, we deal mostly with Norway rats and the House mouse. Field mice (Peromycus spp.) are rodents that prefer to live outside. These are the deer mice and white-footed mice.
House mice (Mus musculus) are the primary mouse found inside our homes here in New Jersey. House mice will also live outside and around our homes and structures. These animals are extremely successful and adaptive creatures. Like most wild animals they prefer to be outside, but over the years the house mouse has adapted more towards “living with man” than its cousins the field mice. Noted PhD Rodentologist Dr. Robert Corrigan (yes he got his PhD in Rodentology) states, “In my opinion house mice are the most successful animal on earth”. Bobby (as we know him in the industry) has labeled house mice as “kleptoparasites.” They are parasitic on humans and steal from us. If you want to see how successful house mice are, just go to youtube and search house mouse infestations. Some of the videos are incredible. Enough about the house mouse. Let’s talk about their cousins the field mice.
Deer mice are associated with Hantavirus and Lyme disease. Most of you have read about these diseases and are familiar with them. Gardeners need to take precautions to keep ticks off during tick season as the Black-legged tick is the one that transmits Lyme disease to humans. Hantavirus is spread by inhalation of the hantavirus that is in the urine, dry droppings and nesting material of field mice. If you happened to be working your garden over the winter and come across nesting material or mouse droppings, take precautions. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has precautions to follow on their website. Basic recommendations are to disinfect with bleach and water and during clean up wear protective gloves and a respirator. It is better to be safe than sorry when dealing with droppings you find outside in the garden or in outbuildings. We often find field mice in sheds,
detached garages, wood piles and in crawl spaces. For some reason, field mice (deer and white-footed) do not like to be around humans inside homes. We are not quite sure why. My guess is because house mice are more aggressive, territorial and more combative than the field mice; hence field mice tend to stay outside away from structures. How do field mice survive outside in the winter? Well, they have been doing that long before man build structures. Rodents (rats and mice) are primarily seed feeders and that is their preferred food. So during the summer months, they are busy fortifying their outside nests by digging a little deeper down and storing seeds and nuts in the colony as well as caches close by. So how do you tell if you have house mice or field mice? House mice are typically gray to gray/ brown in color. Young mice can have more brownish hair than adults. Field mice (deer and white-footed) are
usually more brown and they have a very defined white underbelly, larger eyes, and extremely Roman nose. The eyes of field mice are much larger than those of house mice. White-footed mice look almost identical to deer mice, and the only real way to tell them apart is to look at the tail: a deer mouse has a long, multicolored tail, and a white-footed mouse’s tail is one color. And be careful when you go to get those Holiday ornaments out of storage! Uno Who may be nesting close by! Editor’s Note: William A. Kolbe, BCE is a Board Certified Entomologist for Viking® Pest Control based out of Warren, NJ. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Entomology with a minor in Ecology from the University of Delaware (Class of 1974) Bill is a member of The Denville NJ Community Gardens. He can be reached at 800-618-2847 or visit www.vikingpest.com