- [Narrator] Montana AG live is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU AG Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, the Montana Bankers Association, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, The Galatin Gardeners Club, and the Rocky Mountain Certified Crop Advisor Program.

(soft dueling guitar music) - Good evening, folks.

You're tuned to Montana AG Live, originating tonight from the studios that KUSM on the very dynamic campus of Montana State University, and coming to you over the Montana Public I'm Jack Riesselman and I'll be your host this evening.

Those of you who have watched the program in the past, know how it works.

You provide the questions and we will do our best to provide the answers.

We do like to stump the panel once in a while.

Last week, we managed to stump the panel a couple of times.

So, if you asks some questions that you're really curious about, go ahead and send them in this evening.

Tonight's panel, let me introduce 'em, You to Uta McKelvy.

Uta is here as a plant pathologist.

She's been with us several times before.

Glad to have her back.

Tim Seipel.

Tim is kind of a weed specialist, ecologist, crop plant weeds, a little bit of everything.

Plus, if you've got weeds any other place, good chance to ask about 'em, because if you don't have weeds in Montana, you're doing something special, I guarantee you there.

We all know Mac Burgess.

Mac is a small farm specialist, specializing in all kinds of different, independent agricultural endeavors, and also, he knows a lot about horticultural plants.

So, any questions tonight that you'd like to know about, good chance to call 'em in, and our special guest tonight is Stephen Vantassel.

Stephen works for Department of AG up in Lewistown.

He is a critter specialist.

If you've got critter problems, this is a chance to find out how to keep the mice out, keep the voles down, keep the skunks out, whatever you want to do with critters.

He's going to answer those questions tonight, and we'll come back to Stephen a minute.

But, first, let me introduce the people taking the telephone calls this evening, Erica Rockville and Cheryl Bennett.

And Cheryl was here last week, and she told me I looked better last week, and I think that's probably true.

So with that, Stephen, tell us about what you do.

- Well, I think you hit it right on the spot there.

So yeah, I help people resolve conflicts with vertebrate animals.

That's the animals with a spine, so be skunks, raccoons; unprotected birds, like pigeons and starlings, and prairie dogs.

And so, that's basically what I do is do a little bit of writing.

I do presentations for our pesticide program, and then, also do a little bit of research, as well.

- You know, I've used Stephen too.

We've had some skunk issues at various places.

I spent a little time in the fall, it's called a Duck Blind, and the skunks took up residents under that Blind.

It was not particularly pleasant.

Stephen helped me eliminate that problem.

So, at that, let me move ahead, and we have a Facebook question already, Stephen.

This person had issues with voles during the previous winters.

Is it advisable to use plastic protectors around the stems of rose bushes, or are the thorns deterrent enough.

- If you're having damage with voles with rose bushes and you'd want to protect those.

Typically, voles are going after your thinly barked trees and plants.

And I would encourage you to be thinking about doing some aggressive control now, as the vole populations are declining.

Usually, people wait too long.

They want to do control in the spring when they see the damage, but the damage, actually, is occurring all winter long.

So, I'd be putting in some traps and doing any types of barrier, barrier fencing around your plants that you are very concerned about because once that snow comes, they would love to take advantage of and then they'll be attacking some of those plants, they can get access to.

- Stephen, about two or three years ago, I had a major vole problem.

And I've been around voles long enough to know that I keep trash piles down, so forth and so on.

The last two years, I've not had any issues.

Are they cyclical or do they?

- They are.

And so, there can be- Generally, the rule of thumb is, I think, every four to five years, the numbers begin to spike, but there's no rhyme or reason to it.

You can't guarantee that's going to happen.

So obviously, environmental conditions will play a role in that.

And we don't understand it completely as to whether it's food-based or whether it's because they age out.

The literature is a little bit, hasn't made a decision, a ruling, on that quite yet.

- Okay.

Are they more of an issue in the Northern climates?

You know, you and I both spent a lot of time in Nebraska.

I never had vole issues down there, but I have them up here.

- Well, there's vole- Yeah, no.

There's vole problems in Nebraska, as well.

And I think that when you can start getting farther south, there's just so much green vegetation that there's probably enough food for them to just keep eating, and so, the vegetation will overcome the damage caused by the voles.

But once they have that snow cover, they get food-stressed, and then they start attacking your ornamental plants that you know, that are valuable to people.

- Okay.

Mac was asking me earlier, we were talking about voles even before this question came in Facebook, organic methods of controlling these pests?

- None of the chemical means are approved for organic use.

So, I would think, habitat, mowing, keep your cover down, like, you said, Trash piles, weed-free areas around your trees.

And I've seen them, you know, take up cover in mulches.

So, mulches are a double-edged sword.

They can be great in many ways, but they can provide habitat for these rodents.

- Absolutely.

- Keeping the bare ground.

- Okay, thank you guys.

- Even cholecalciferol?

Even cholecalciferol isn't allowed?

- I don't know.

(laughs) - Okay.

- You might, you might know more than I do there.

- All right.

- I'm not aware of that one.

I'd have to look into that.

- Okay.

Okay.

- Vitamins, it's vitamin D. - Vitamin D. All right.

A question that came in this evening, we were talking about trees and shrubs.

What about pruning?

Uta, is this a good time to prune trees?

- Right.

So, typically, we want to prune our trees and traps when the plants are dormant.

So, I would, generally, recommend to do it in the early, early spring, February, March, next year.

I think you could do it in a fall, but you want to be sure that your plants are dormant, and given how warm this year has been and how warm to fall still is, I wouldn't quite count on that yet.

So, wait a little longer, or just wait until March and you know, do something fun this fall.

- March is a great time.

You can get out there when the wind blows, and the snow flies in March.

- That's just a good time.

- Yeah, it is a good time.

I agree.

- Keeps you warm.

- Question from Three Forks.

Tim, this person has heard that there is a glyphosate shortage, which is, also, a lot of people know, is Roundup, is this true?

And will that affect agriculture in here, in the state of Montana?

- Yeah, there is actually a nationwide glyphosate shortage, and prices have gone up for Roundup, or glyphosate, quite a lot.

And there's people who are out there looking for alternatives for next year.

I don't know that we have a lot of alternatives, but it will drive up producer prices and prices per acre of inputs for the next year, or so.

I think 30 to 50%, even more than that, in terms, of glyphosate prices going up.

- Well, that makes a big difference in a chem fallow operation.

That makes a really big difference in a chem fallow.

So, people who are looking at chem fallow next year, and, you know, they may go out every 30 days and spray, it's going to be, it's going to be challenging, and it's going to require more money to input in there.

So, there might be instances where you could skip a chem fallow application, but don't skip on rates.

Don't cut your rates and think you'll get away with it.

You won't get as good of weed efficacy.

It would be better to figure out if you could actually cut out one of the chem fallow applications.

- And you probably don't know the answer to this, but I am kind of curious, is there a particular reason why there's a shortage?

There never has been before.

- I think it's related to all the shortages we've had with Coronavirus around the world, and, sort of, our supply chains.

A lot of the precursor molecules come from other places in the world, whether that be China or whether they be made in other places, and so, I think that's led to some shortages of manufactured and ready-to-go Roundup combinations, on the market out there.

- Tim, so is this shortage then only affecting glyphosate, or are we talking about, essentially, all herbicides being short?

- Not all herbicides, there's other- So, the two biggest ones right now that people are really looking at is glyphosate or Roundup, which we, really, commonly use in Montana.

And the other one that's been really short this fall and going into the next spring, has been glufosinate, which is a molecule that's more commonly used in the Midwest of the United States.

So, we don't have to worry about glufosinate as much.

We are really affected by the Roundup shortage.

Glufosinate is used in LibertyLink crops, LibertyLink canola, and some of those things out there.

It's used in corn and soybeans more often.

- Okay, thank you.

Interesting situation.

From Facebook, Bozeman, Stephen, this is for you, and it's kind of interesting question.

They have a lot of rabbits living under their porch, and they wonder whether or not those rabbits could cause any structural damage or damage to the house.

- I have never heard of rabbits causing structural damage to the house.

They can chew some wood if they can get access to it.

So, if you have any type of wood exposure underneath that porch area or that deck area, that might be a little bit of a concern.

Otherwise, they're not going to be gnawing on concrete or anything like that.

So, if there's any pipes or wires underneath there, they could certainly gnaw on that.

But, otherwise, I have not heard of rabbits becoming a problem.

Now, if they're doing any type of burrowing underneath there or exposing, if you have like a slab foundation, I'd be more concerned about your foundation area.

If they're exploiting a borough that was already created by another animal, and that could be an issue, in terms of, cracking a foundation, depending on how large that borough was.

- Okay.

Well, what about ornamental plants?

I've wondered we've had heavy snows, which we haven't had, rabbits we'll do some damage all around.

- Oh, they sure will.

Oh yeah, they will.

You can always tell it's going to be a rabbit as opposed to a deer, because you're going to look for that 45 degree angle cut, and also, the height of the damage will be different.

I mean, the rabbit can only reach so high.

You want to be thinking about something a couple feet above the snow line, where a deer is going to, obviously, be able to go up almost six feet, so that'll also be another one.

So, deer when they bite, they bite and then twist.

So, if you look carefully at the branch, it'll be frayed at the top.

A rabbit takes a clean slice at a 45 degree angle.

So, look carefully.

You want to make sure we go after the guilty animal.

And then fencing will stop your rabbit damage around your plants.

It's very easy to do.

- I have a couple of golden retrievers that have moved the rabbits out of our yard pretty effectively.

- Biological control can work too.

- Yeah, your right.

Thank you Stephen.

Mac, this person said, "Last time you were on, you had a lot of squash in front of you."

(laughing) They grew some winter squash, and they said, "it tastes like-" and I can't mention the word.

Was there a problem?

- Depending on the variety, you might just wait a while.

And as I mentioned, last time, several of those varieties do get better with storage, and some of them are at their peak, you know, two months after harvest.

So, I would say some of those bigger Hubbard's and Kabocha squash are still not anywhere near their prime eating quality, but it's great.

Delicata and Acorn squash season right now.

- You know, I bought an Acorn squash not long ago, and I happen to like squash quite a little bit, and be honest with you, it really wasn't very tasty.

And, normally, it has a little bit of a nutty flavor.

You put a little butter and brown sugar on it.

- And it can be hit and miss if they weren't harvested, or if they were harvested too early, which is a temptation with some producers and production areas, so.

I would think Montana producers, by in large, don't have any incentive to harvest early and get a second crop in.

So, they let them go all the way to full ripeness or even to the frost.

And so, we tend to grow pretty good ones up here.

But, the market sells them out pretty quick.

And if you just go to the store and get them, they may well have been harvested when they looked like a squash, but not without guards to make it tastes like a squash.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Uta, last week, this person says, "You talked about dry seed decay.

Can you explain-" This question is from Custer out in the central part of the state, a long I-90, 94, actually.

What can you tell us about dry seed decay, and what can you do to prevent it?

Because this has been a dry year in which they seeded winter wheat.

- Well, I guess this person missed me at the Pest Management tour, where we sure talked about dry seed decay.

Maybe keep an eye out for next year.

Dry seed decay is a disease that affects the seed.

And, as the name suggests, that typically happens when we put seed in a ground that has not enough moisture to promote an early germination and seedling development.

And so, there are a lot of organisms, fungal organisms, living into soil that just naturally occur there.

And for them, a seed that is not growing and it's just laying dormant, it's just a very, you know, easy meal for them to attack.

So, there are various fungi that can cause this disease, aspergillus or- - [Jack] Penicillium.

- Penicillium, that was the other one I was looking for, are some of the causal agents here.

And you may observe that, you know, you don't have a great emergence.

And if you look for the seed in the ground, it might appear like it's covered in some grayish, bluish, or whitish fuzz or mold, or it's just covered in soil, 'cause the fungus growing around the seed is just trapping the soil and keeps attract to the seed.

And so, the best way to prevent a dry seed decay is planting into moisture.

So if, you know, a rain or precipitation is coming, that's a good time to plant.

And fungicide seed treatments can also be very effective.

And I cannot recite a specific product right now, but, essentially, any fungicide seed treatment that has broad-spectrum activity would be a suitable choice for a dry seed decay.

- I agree entirely.

Okay, Stephen, we got a lot of questions coming in here, and some of these are fascinating.

(group laughing) This person would have liked to know, how to keep mice out of parked cars?

- Yeah.

- Any suggestions?

- That is- Yes.

It is a tough one, but here's some strategies for you.

One, you want to be sure your parking on gravel and away from planting areas.

You want to try to keep everything as mowed down as much as possible.

You want to be looking at putting out multiple-catch traps around the structure.

You also want to be sure you're if you have bird feeders around, you modify those bird feeders; you want to be thinking about food sources.

Remember, anytime a plant grows long enough to go to seed, that's the seed for rodents as well.

So, you want to be sure those are all cut down and not allowed in.

So, then you want to be thinking about putting out some bait stations.

Make sure you're following the label, and put out some, probably some Rodenticide.

If you're not wanting to use Rodenticide, then use the multiple-catch mouse traps, and place them around your facility as well.

But, around your area as well, to kind of keep those rodents in the low end.

Yeah, those are some bait stations there, and there should be also a photo of some multiple-catch baits, multiple-catch traps as well.

And you just have to, basically, put enough material, enough traps out there, to sort of, get that population down so they're not going to go after your vehicle.

- Stephen, is that half-eaten bag of potato chips and food scraps left at the floor of my car, are those going to be issues, or?

- I don't think it helps, but I'd be, probably, you know, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough because a mouse is going to want to get up in there, simply, your know, if you're driving, it's going to be a heat source and they're going to be attracted to some of that heat, but also, in terms of structure, if a rodent, you know, Deer mice will travel 400 plus feet to go somewhere, so their home range is quite large.

So, they would, probably, just jump up into it because it's a structure, and it provides them shelter from predators.

So, I don't think the food, you know, I would always encourage you to keep the food out of it, 'cause, you know, bears may want to be interested in your car as well.

But, I think it's more of the issue of the fact, that the presence of the vehicle is there, is going to be the attractant.

- You know, Stephen, while we're on the subject, it is mouse season, and you move into November in Montana.

Those mice like to move into warmer places as you have suggested.

- Absolutely.

- Can they do a lot of damage at homes if you don't keep them under control?

- Significant.

It's one of the things I've been doing in my training.

I've been trying to help people understand.

It's one of the interesting psychological elements in Montana where, even generally across the US, is that when people have rats, they will move heaven and earth to control the rats.

But, when it comes to mice, they'll just say, "Oh, it's just a mouse.

No big deal."

No.

I want you to take that seriously.

That photo that you're seeing there, is at my house when I was in Nebraska.

We used some use some foam to fill a gap, and the mouse, mice, just chewed right through it.

So, don't rely on foam to be your solution.

But, once they're getting into the walls, they are damaging your insulation.

They can also attack your wiring.

And so, if you're wondering why your heating bill is sometimes going up, it may not just be, it may be partly due to the cost of the fuel, of course, but you may also have, over time, those mice are degrading your installation, and so, you're losing more heat to the outside.

And so, take mice seriously for the physical damage they can do to your structure.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Good advice.

Tim, this person from Conrad, has heard of a weed called Beggars Lice.

Do you know what that is?

- Beggars lice.

I might know what that weed is.

So, Hound's-Tongue.

So, it's either- So, it could be a Hound's- It could be Hound's-tongue, which is an obnoxious weed in the state of Montana.

And so, it makes these...

It looks, I guess we call it Hound's-tongue, because it has, sort of, a rough cover on the outside.

It's, sort of, round shape with a little point on one end, and it'll stick to all your clothes.

And it'll end up all over the place, and it can be a real pain.

I encourage you, not to just pull them off and throw them in your yard, I encourage you to put them in a bag and throw them away.

We also call Beggars ticks a closely related native species, actually, too.

There's a few native, blue-looking, forget-me-nots that you'll see in the mountains, in the summertime, and those can also be called Beggars ticks.

So yeah, there, we have a couple of 'em out there.

- Okay.

Here's an interesting question I've thought about a lot.

And this comes from Bozeman.

And Mac, I'm going to put you on the spot with this.

This person wants to know, "Why Dixon melons are only growing in the Dixon/Plains area, and why we can grow good melons like that anywhere else?"

- What is the elevation in Dixon, Montana?

- Probably, around 2,500 feet, I would guess.

- I think that's it.

- I thinks it's a little special.

- It's a little bit warmer.

Yeah.

- In Sander's County over there.

I think the nights are warmer.

- [Mac] Yep.

- I think it's lower elevation, and there gets to be some really warm days.

I've also- - To be fair, I think that you could grow great melons along the Yellowstone River, down in Billings, as well.

It's a challenge in Bozeman.

A real challenge.

- I guess it's not possible here, basically?

- Well.

(laughs) - Yeah, they don't ripen very well.

- And it needs to be- Because of the cold nights, is it really the cold?

I mean, we have warm enough days, but cold.

- Well it's both.

Yeah.

It's the cold nights and the not-warm-enough days.

- [Tim] And then maybe humidity.

- Is there a specific variety that does well in that Plains/Dixon area that you guys know of?

- I don't know what variety would grow.

- I'm sure the Dixon melon folks have got their favorite, and I bet they keep it fairly, closely guarded, but there are a number of Musk melons available.

You just look for the earliest ones.

Sweet Granite is one that comes to mind.

That's an open pollinated one, I think.

And I don't know, I've tried to several of them.

And you can grow them in Bozeman, you know, all the usual tricks to retain heat with plastic.

And then, you know, you want to make sure it doesn't rain as they're ripening, either.

You want to cut the water off as they ripen, and that, sometimes, September we get a rainstorm, and then they'll explode on you or they're no good, so.

- You know, they, they look like they're going to ripen, but if you try to eat them, they're really- I'd buy a Dixon melon anytime.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - It's much better.

- Yeah, they come out quite a bit earlier.

- Yeah, they do.

Stephen, from Great Falls.

Squirrels in the yard, and they want to get rid of them without trapping.

Any suggestions?

- These are Tree squirrels?

'Cause Ground squirrels should be in hibernation now.

- Probably, Red squirrels, I guess, or Fox squirrels.

- Okay, in the yard.

So, I would have say, you want to control the amount of food.

So, I'd be asking, you know, "Is there a bird feeder on the property?"

Or, "Perhaps, your neighbors have bird feeders?"

In which case, modify those bird feeders so you're not feeding the squirrels, to reduce the attraction to that particular area.

But, if you have like an Oak tree or something, that's coming into seed, that's going to be, obviously, clearly a challenge.

What some people do, is they'll actually wrap the trunk with some aluminum flashing to prevent the squirrels from climbing it.

But, that assumes that you don't have another tree nearby that they can jump to.

So, I would need a little more information to provide some other stuff.

Otherwise, the dog running around the backyard may be helpful, but it's probably going to be pretty hard to keep a squirrel, Tree squirrel, out of your yard.

- Do the Tree squirrels we have here, are they a problem to any ornamental?

- I haven't had a lot of reports of that, but they certainly can get into structures and be an issue.

Yeah, absolutely.

- Well, where there's a lot of them, they can do some pruning and gnawing on stuff, which is not real good.

We had them, at one time, in the Midwest, and I used live traps.

And that really worked well, except, if you don't dump them far enough away, they're going to be back the next day.

- Yeah, and that's not quite legal, here in Montana.

So, you can't really dump 'em somewhere else.

You have to get landowner permission, and so.

- I didn't say that.

(laughs) - It used to be a one-way, kind of a one-way deal.

Plus, you know, there could be some game species issues as well, so that has to be factored in.

But, typically, if they're damaging turf, that that can be, you know, sometimes when they're scatter hoarding, and they're putting out some food, that would be more of your Gray squirrel, it can be quite extensive, in that regard, with their feeding.

But, that tends to be not something that occurs every single year.

I haven't heard that very often.

So, I guess give me a call, and we can, certainly, talk a lot more next week.

- Okay, thanks.

- When I'm back to the office.

- All right.

A call from, here in Bozeman.

People have seen a lot of ads, that they need to spray their lawns for disease control.

- Uta, do you think that's necessary here?

- I don't think that lawn diseases are a big issue here.

I mean, a lot of the diseases are caused by fungi.

They typically like it moist and warm.

I don't know if that's, necessarily, so much of an issue here.

I think that's maybe something that your lawn and tree care service suggests, 'cause you know, they have to run a business.

But, I think you might be fine, skipping that one.

- You know, we got some snow last night here.

And I don't think it's going to stick around for good, quite yet, but we hadn't got all the leaves raked up.

Is that an important thing to be getting on top of?

- I raked my leaves up yesterday, so.

Actually, that's a good question.

You know, I think it depends on how thick the leaf layer is on your lawn.

I think if it's a lot of leaves on your lawn, there might just be a risk that they don't decompose.

And then, you just have this, like, kind of like, gluey layer of half-composed leaves laying on your lawn.

I don't know if it will cause disease, but you know, it will like take away the air and the light from your lawn, in the next spring.

- I'm always figured that could contribute to the, sort of, the environmental side of the disease triangle for all the fungal diseases.

- Oh yeah.

I mean, so there's this concern of, there's a snow mold.

So, I think Abby talked about it last week too.

If, you know, if we have a lot of snow cover and our grass blades are very long, they can be attacked by certain fungi that, you know, seem to thrive under these temperatures and conditions that are provided under the snow cover, so that can be an issue.

So, in that sense, I think she recommended to mowed lawn.

I don't know if the leaves do quite the same thing.

I mean, you know, I think one idea would be, like, rake it up or if you don't want to rake it up, mow it over with the lawnmower, and kind of break up the leaves a little bit, to help them decompose.

It could be like a little bit of mulching for your lawn.

- I, first of all, it's November here, and to have warm conditions like we have, I mowed my yard Friday, - [Uta] Yeah.

I saw that.

- in November, which we never used to do.

- [Uta] Yeah.

- I mowed it just before we had that nice, big windstorm.

I mowed the grass very short.

And you know what?

I don't have any leaves left in my yard that fell off the citrus trees.

- Oh, there ya go.

- Worked very, very well.

- Perfect.

- It blew away into your neighbors yard?

- Yeah, exactly.

And it controls snow mold.

- Got hung up in the fence.

- Okay.

Question came in this week and last week, and I didn't ask it last week because I hadn't heard of it, but we talked about a little bit before.

From Facebook, "Is it okay to plant Yellow Rattle seeds in flower beds that are riddled with a horrible grass that has a lot of underground rhizomes?"

First of all, I'd never heard of Yellow Rattle.

So, you want to tell us what it is?

- Yes.

So, Yellow Rattle is, it belongs to the genus, wren sinus.

Excuse me.

I'll just put my plant nerd credentials out there.

And it's a member of the scrophularia family.

So, it's a hemi-parasitic plant, actually.

And it lives, I'm pretty sure it does not live on grass roots, but lives on Daisy roots, of the different.

And so, if you planted it into a heavy grass stand, I think it would be okay, and I think it would grow.

It's a little bit of a weed that people worry about in certain- If you have a really clean, alfalfa legume, sort of, grass hay, it's not desired in that alfalfa, or sort of- - Were you planting it because it's a desirable ornamental?

- I think people have planted it before, as an ornamental plant, but you know, a weed is just one step away from an ornamental plant.

Sorry to all the horticultural people out there.

But, we've introduced a whole lot of weeds into Montana that were introduced for their horticultural value.

And so, sometimes, when we look at those plants, and it's an attractive, little yellow box, or like a little Yellow Rattle, that forms on the top.

And so, you know, I don't know if I would encourage planting it.

It has been a weed around the Twin Bridges area, and, I think, at some other heavily irrigated pastures.

It needs a lot of moisture.

So, it's usually in flood irrigated pastures, where I've seen it, as a weed.

- Okay.

I've learned a lot tonight.

I had never heard of it before.

Thank you, Stephen, from Phillipsburg, this caller has had rabbits eating her car wires.

Is there any way to stop this from happening?

And I know that's an issue a lot of places.

- Well, number one, I would love to have, have her send me those wires.

I'll be glad to pay for the pay for the shipping for that.

So, I'm always looking for damaged items.

I wish there was an easy way.

Short of garaging your field, there is a product out of California that uses a shock mat around the perimeter of your car.

And you, basically, drive your car into this grid, and it uses a shock track, so animals aren't going to step towards your vehicle.

But, I think that's not going to be practical once we start getting snow, here in Montana.

I think, ultimately, what you're going to have to do is either have some sort of fence around your vehicle, put it in the garage, or try to trap down those rabbits in your particular area, or reduce the population.

The problem is, is that we have some vehicles are using organic type of wiring now, for the installation, and that seems to be some thought, it's called Soy.

And some people believe that that's, actually, encouraging more gnawing on these wires.

- [Jack] Okay, thank you.

- [Mac] It doesn't happen in my old truck.

(group laughing) - If you've ever been to the Bugaboos in Canada, outside of Fernie, you drive down a really long gravel road.

One that you don't want to, you don't want to have car trouble on.

And when you get to the trail head, people wrap their cars in chicken wire, around the base, and put rocks on the base, because they had a really bad problem of porcupines chewing vulcanized rubber hoses.

And so, it could be a tough, tough out there.

So, I have seen chicken wire and rocks.

- That'll work.

That will work.

- We learned something again tonight.

- That will work.

- We're going to do a little promo after this next question.

So, I'll let the studio know that I'm going to plug a little thing called, Annie's Project, after I ask a question.

Will there be herbicide carry-over caused That's a good question.

- I would say likely.

Yes.

It's a hard thing to predict.

So, when we use herbicides in our crop fields, we often use molecules that have what we call, a residual half-life.

And we want them to stay in the field to continue to affect the weeds.

But, when most herbicides are broken down, either through a chemical reaction that requires water, or microbes consume it, and they also require water.

So, in these really dry drought years that we've had this year, sometimes the half-life of that herbicide is longer.

So, it takes longer for it to break down.

So next year, there may well be issues of herbicide carry-over from things that were applied year.

I know in Canada, they've made some, in Saskatchewan, Alberta, they've some of the companies have really talked about, "Be careful with pulses and be careful with oil seeds next year, where you've sprayed certain residual herbicides."

So, it definitely could be a problem next year.

- Okay.

I'm going to bring up a little a blurb here, there's a project going on in the state called Annie's Project.

And they're promoting empowering women in agriculture.

And that's a six-week program that starts, actually, tomorrow night, virtually.

It starts at 6:00 PM, goes to 8:30.

It is $50.

And I tell you, what I've heard about this program, it's absolutely incredible.

Women are playing such a more important role in agriculture every year.

This would be a good chance to interact with those women who are involved with agriculture.

If you're interested in joining that group starting tomorrow night, you can get a hold of Katrin Finch.

And her number is (406) 454-6980.

And I'll repeat that phone number again, in about 10 minutes, if you didn't have a pen.

But, folks, this is a great program.

It's a chance to learn something.

If I weren't going to be gone a lot, I would be joining this group tomorrow.

So, anyway.

- [Uta] But you're not a woman, Jack.

- I know, but you can still learn, right?

(group laughing) And, actually, that's a good point.

I think next year, we're going to really take a special look at women in agriculture, on this particular program.

It's high time we do.

And they play a very critical role in today's agricultural picture.

Why have you, Uta- This person would like to know, is there anything special they should do to prepare their garden for winter?

And Mac, you can jump into.

You guys, just hop on it.

- Yeah, I think that's a great question.

And I guess applause to the person for, you know, thinking about that and asking that question.

You know, I think there are a lot of things, we already talked about leaves.

I want to add here, if you have a tree or shrub in your yard or in your garden that has some disease issues and foliar disease issue, I would think it's especially important that you rake up those leaves and actually dispose of them.

So, put them in the garbage rather than composting them.

'Cause those leaves can often, you know, be a place where the pathogen overwinters and then re-infect the tree in new, the next season.

And then while we're talking about, you know, sick plants, I'm a pathologist.

So, I think it's a great idea at the end of the season to sanitize your garden tools to really kill off the germs that, you know, are maybe residing on there.

So, your tools that you use for pruning, but also for example, your wheel barrel or other things that you carry sod with.

Your pots, once you've emptied them, you want to wash them, rinse them, sanitize them.

That would be something important to do, and just sets you up for a successful season the next year.

- I agree.

Anything you want to add?

- Yeah.

Clean up.

Look for your tools, and bring them inside, and oil handles.

- So, my frozen, cold cucumber vines that still have the last stragglers, I should go clean those up and pull them out of the garden?

- You know, it's probably not the end of the world.

But, you know, in this number, of specific cases, are mind boggling.

But, there are diseases and pest that will proliferate on, you know, either from the presence from your old cucumber vine, or just having residue on the surface residue.

And residue on the surface can be good for many aspects of soil quality, but they can also harbor pests, and so.

Some fall tillage, or just turning things over and covering things up, can be beneficial from some of the insect pest perspectives.

- Okay.

Thank you, folks.

Stephen.

From Billings, this person has soft-wooded trees in a ditch that are about six inches in circumference.

They're being gnawed down by a beaver.

How do you get rid of these beaver without destroying the ditch bank behind your home?

Legally.

- Well, you'd want to be trapping.

And so, seasons should be here.

I think it's seasons going on right now.

So, if you can find a fur trapper, who'd be interested in trapping those beaver, then that would certainly be the easiest way to go forward.

Otherwise, you're looking at either some sort of fencing situation, or a mixture of paint and masonry sand, that can sometimes be placed on trees to prevent their gnawing.

It's not a foolproof.

And so, generally speaking, if the beaver doesn't have alternative trees to feed on, it's not going to be something that's going to be very effective for you.

So, I think if you're having tree damage, trapping and removal system is going to be the way forward for you.

- Okay.

Thank you.

I like this one.

Mac, you ready?

- Okay.

What do we got?

This person from Townsend, like Split Pea soup.

They want to know why Split Pea soup is always made with green peas and not yellow peas?

- You can make it with yellow peas and just call it, "Dal," right?

(group laughing) - Well, I, you know, if you ordered in a restaurant, and I happen to like it, it's always green peas.

Is there a nutritional reason or quality reason?

- You know, the yellow peas and yellow lentils are eaten in other countries, and, you know, enjoy them too.

They're great.

But yeah, green are traditional, I guess.

- This summer, at a cropping tour, The Streetery out of Havard, they actually made some really delicious Yellow Pea hummus.

- [Jack] I like that.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

I do those Crimson-red lentils that are decorticated and they're, kind of, pink-red in color and they make a real nice soup.

- Okay.

- If you want to call it that?

- Well, have- - A little bit of garlic.

- Isn't that what pulse means, right?

Pulse means- - [Jack] Soup.

- Yeah, pulse means, soup or a stew.

Yeah.

- Okay.

Well, now that we got that settled.

- [Uta] I'm getting hungry.

(group laughing) - Yeah.

Steve, and this is another interesting one.

From Plains, the caller has seen and heard of plastic sunflowers that are placed in the ground by plants.

They make a noise and scare away voles and rabbits.

Have you heard of that before?

- Not that specific frightening device.

I'd love to hear more about it, but here's the rule of thumb.

The rule of thumb for wildlife control is, "If it's easy, and something simple, and inexpensive, and you want to do it, it probably won't work."

So, unfortunately, that's just the reality of it.

The reason is because the animal can come at it from a different angle.

Like, you know, people will try repellents of various forms, and often they don't have the kind of success that people want to have.

So, I would be highly skeptical.

I have photo of a vibrating-type device that was used to repel voles, and you can see the vole damage around it.

A lot of this stuff simply doesn't work.

So, I would be very cautious about putting money into that.

- Why I have you up, and we have a lot of questions about voles, and every time you're on, we get a lot of questions about voles.

It comes down to, most people want to know, what's the best way to trap voles?

And I think you probably sent some pictures down showing vole traps, or am I- - And I have a publication, on our website, on vole control.

So, if you can find the trails, take your mouse trap.

You want to use an expanded trigger mousetrap, and you don't even need to bait it.

You can then put it perpendicular so that the trigger is right in the trail, and just line them up, and start trapping your voles.

You can also use your multiple-catch mousetraps, and just put the opening right in the trail, and they'll run right in.

Vole aren't that smart.

And just trap aggressively.

And keep that debris down, and that's going to be very important for you.

- So, right now is the time?

- Troll, aggressively, now before the snow hits.

- Yep.

- Okay.

Thank you.

- Absolutely.

- Uta, you had something here earlier, that you're showing me.

You want to show the audience what you have here, as kind of a show and tell?

- All right.

I wanted to or I brought along today, the, what's it called?

It's a calendar.

It's produced by the Urban IPM program, or the it's the MSU Extension IPM program.

But, this calendar is specifically focusing on Urban IPM, and it's for next year.

So, this is a great time to grab some, and then, you know, give it to your friends and neighbors, or hang it up in your house.

So, it's really pretty.

I hope, you know, you can already make that out from the cover, but what's really nice about this, is it has, for every month of the year, some tips, you know, that are just around house and garden care, et cetera.

And yeah, it's a, kind of, a product that is, you know, we put a lot of effort in, and it turns out really nice every year.

So, if you are interested in these, they are for free, and every county extension office across the state has several of those laying around.

So, you just stopped by, and ask for a copy, and it's yours.

- I've been into a lot of nursery shops over the last few years, stocking up on plants that the voles have eaten and so forth.

But anyways, I see those in most of these nursery shops.

And I think they're great.

And thank you for showing us.

Stephen.

- Yes.

- Back to you.

And this one, I can kind of relate to.

From Missoula, this caller has a skunk in the basement of her older house.

How can she get rid of it?

- Okay, well, I have a publication on skunks as well.

So, you want to get a cage trap that is at least 7 x 7 x 24.

And then you also want to get an old cloth cover.

You can use a larger trap if you wish, but the minimum size would be 7 x 7 x 24, and that's an inches.

And so, you'd want to get a cover, some sort of an old cloth, that would cover at least half of the length of the trap, typically, where the bait area is.

Get some fried chicken.

Set your trap so it's a very stable, you don't want any movement in that trap when the skunks walk it in.

Put the fried chicken in the back.

Cover the trap so you have a blind place to come to.

And then capture it.

And that way, when you capture it, you can then take it out of your basement and let it loose, if you let loose your backyard, or dispatch it, accordingly.

But, you know, you're not going to be trans-locating it.

If you're gentle with that trap, you shouldn't have the skunk smelling, Make sure you know how to set and open the door.

Because once the skunks inside, if you're going to be releasing it, you need to be sure you know how to quickly open that door.

You're always wearing gloves and safety equipment.

Happy to give you more advice from my publication, or you can call me, as well.

That's basically it.

It's pretty easy project.

- Okay.

I'm going to follow-up skunk, a little bit, because I learned something this year from one of my golden retrievers.

If they get skunked, or you get a little bit, and you treat 'em with something like, Skunk-Off, or some of these products, you have to do it before you give them a bath.

Is that correct?

And if so, why?

- Well, I recommend when people are having a dog issue, you want to be sure, don't let the dog in the house.

That's very important.

Wear gloves.

And then you want to be wearing gloves, and you want to use a product- You want to use a cup of baking soda, a pint, or I think it's a quart of hydrogen peroxide, and one tablespoon of liquid dish detergent.

Mix that fresh, and then simply place it, you know, pour that over where the dog- Keep it out of the dog's mouth and eyes.

And it actually de-natures the odor.

Don't use tomato juice.

Don't use a lot of this other stuff.

Skunk-Off may work, but you'll find that the hydrogen peroxide formula is chemically proven to denature the odor, and so.

- [Jack] It's a lot cheaper.

- And it's cheap.

- It's very easy to use.

Just mix it fresh.

Don't mix it in advance.

Just keep the materials around.

It's very good, But, don't let that dog in the house, because that odor can just contaminate a whole host of things, and you'll rule-the-day if it gets into your house.

- My dog was out in the garage for a lot longer and he preferred to be there, I will tell you that.

(group laughing) Another question, this isn't on peas, this is on lentils.

Mac said that he uses red lentils.

Can you actually tell the difference in tastes of their various, different colored lentils?

- I don't know if you could do the taste.

There's definitely textural differences and size differences among them.

But, some of the smaller ones that have their seed coat on them still, can stay kind of crunchy or al dente.

And then, your typical green lentils, you know, you taste the- Not you taste.

You experience the fiber on the skins, and those red lentils I was talking about, those do turn into a much smoother texture because those skins have been rubbed off.

- Yeah.

They cook much mushier, quicklier, where you end up with more like a dal, or something like that.

Where as, the green lentils tend to, at least- Yeah, I think it's texture.

- Yeah, they stay a little chewier.

And then there's some of those small ones, like I said, you know, especially, if you don't cook them as long, they can have more of an al dente- - [Jack] Okay.

Thank you.

- Experience.

I'd like to do a blind taste test on you.

We'll see if he can tell 'em apart.

(laughs) - I'm going to another good one for Stephen, in a minute.

But, before we do that, I have another one here that fascinates me.

This person from Conrad, wants to know the difference between wild oats and regular oats.

- Wild oats and regular oats, they're both in the same genus of plants, and that's Avena.

So, when you go to the grocery store, and you look at the Avena soap on the aisle, it'll be called, "Aveeno" or something.

They are two different species.

Cultivated oats are much larger in size and their seed coat is not as tough.

Wild oats are, you know, we have to sew our wild oats, and they're pretty tough seeds.

They live a long time.

They have a thick seed coat, and there's not as much sort of germ plasm in there to eat.

The actual genus of plants is pretty big.

There's a lot of wild oat grasses and oat - So, what makes them weedy is that seed dormancy then?

- Yeah, the seed dormancy, they grow more rapidly and their fruit is smaller.

- We get resistance to wild oats, quite rapidly, with the herbicides that we've used, is that correct?

- Yes, we do, in Montana, herbicide-resistant, wild oats is, probably, one of our biggest problems when it comes to herbicide resistance.

And we do have multiple herbicide-resistant wild oats.

And the Fairfield Bench, I think with the irrigated barley, or some of the barley that's been up there, was a real focal point of it in the 90s and the early 2000s, but it's also spread across the state.

And now, we have wild oat problems where we have resistance to the grassy herbicides that we would normally use in peas, and lentils, and pulses.

And so, wild oat can become problematic in there too.

But, it's definitely more of a spring wheat, so it's a spring wheat, pulse crop weed, not so much a winter wheat weed.

- Okay.

Thank you.

Stephen, question from Missoula, and they say they are plagued by Fox squirrels.

Once they found this person's Apricot tree, they never tasted a ripe one.

They only want the innermost core, the fruit is discorded, and my dog's gave up.

Had a similar problem with raccoons.

Is it time to get rid of the apricots and plums, or any suggestions?

- No, I think that, you know, you have a couple of options.

One, you know, population reduction, of course, but also though, that flashing wrapping of the tree is certainly something to be thinking about, especially if your tree is relatively isolated, but if it's not, you can do all the trees that are nearby it to prevent the squirrels from being able to climb the trunk.

And so, you'd want to have at least three feet wide and probably four feet, starting four feet off the ground, really make the force that squirrel to commit, and then layer it like you would shingles.

So, you'd always have one wrap underneath the wrap above it, and then you'd want to have little quarter-inch dowels between the flashing and the tree so that there's some air flow so you don't get mold fungus growing underneath that, but moisture dry out.

- I haven't seen a ripe apricot in Bozeman since 2007.

(group laughing) You might, you might need to put bird net too, as they ripen, or?

- Well, the bird netting might get chewed through by the squirrel.

So, you'd want to, it's certainly, if you'd have to be thinking metal, because squirrels are beaver that climb.

And you want to be sure that you're being aggressive, not, you know- So there's also, maybe some electrical fencing that can work for you as well.

It depends on how much effort you really want to put into this, but there can be some ways to at least diminish some of this damage for you.

- Okay.

Thanks, Stephen.

A comment from Billings.

This person says you can get a Deprivation Tag for beavers from the Department of Fish and Game, and get a permit from the agency to trap the beavers in the summer.

So that's good to know.

- [Stephen] That's correct.

- Uta, this is an interesting one, and I can't remember a little bit about this.

Black Walnut trees, and we do have a few in the state, have a toxin associated with it.

I think it's called juglon toxin and or something.

Does that prevent other plants from growing under Black Walnut?

I think it does, but I don't remember for sure.

- Yeah.

I don't know what the toxin is called, but it rings a bell, I think.

Yeah.

It's like a nifty little trick that this tree has developed, that it suppresses anything else growing nearby.

So with Walnut trees, I think it's important that you rake up the leaves to maintain your lawn, you know.

I think that's all that I can say about that.

- Yeah, that's the thing.

Yeah, the outsides of the fruits is where most of the toxins is.

- Oh, not even the leaves, the fruits?

- I think it's mostly the fruits.

And you know, my neighbor down the street has a Black Walnut tree.

And just in the last few years, as climate change has made it a little bit warmer, we start to see them make a few fruits.

- That's interesting.

- Okay, Stephen, you're back on board.

And we've had several questions about Pocket gophers.

And almost everybody says, "They're a pain and they want to get rid of them."

Any suggestions?

- Sure.

I have a publication on Pocket gophers, as well.

So, you have various options.

You have, of course, trapping is the preferred method, actually, the best method.

But, if you have lots of acreage, then you probably want to be looking at, for some sort of Rodenticide.

Strychnine is the best toxicant, but it's also one of the most expensive.

And you also have zinc phosphate and, also, chloracetophenone, and a diphenadione product as well.

All those Rodenticides are placed below ground in the main tunnel.

Make sure there's no access to the surface.

Read that label carefully.

Always treat fresh mounds.

And the same thing occurs when we're talking about trapping, you're always focusing on the fresh damage.

And if you work hard enough at it, you will get enough success to eliminate them from your landscape.

- Thank you.

I'm going to mention that phone number again, for the program on empowering women in agriculture, you can Katrin Finch and the number is (406) 454-6980.

It starts tomorrow night at six o'clock.

So, the rerun next week, you'll know that you're already late for registering.

So, if you want to register, you need to do it tomorrow before 6:00 PM.

Okay.

I have a question here that I find interesting from Belgrade.

This person was cleaning up their flower bed, and found that the tulip bulbs were emerging.

Will they last through the winter?

It's all yours.

- It depends on how much they come up.

(group laughing) - I have not observed that.

- I haven't either, but it's been a warm fall.

- It sure has.

- Yeah.

It's very possible.

One last question for Tim.

This person wants to grow a rye for grain.

Does that increase the chance of them getting feral rye?

- Yes.

You can grow rye for grain.

It is not done very much in Montana.

I do know of a couple of organic growers who do grow rye.

But, you can end up with some feral rye problems if you have a lot of volunteer, your fields don't clean up.

It's not quite the same.

You know, it's really more of a volunteer rye problem.

Feral rye can happen, but that was, actually, the feral rye problems that they have further to our south, that came from rye that went feral, so the genetics is a little bit different on that.

- All right.

Thank you.

- Now, a lot of Montana wheat growers have spent their childhood hand-walking wheat fields, growing that out.

That might not be popular with a- - It might not be so popular and- - Some of your neighbors.

- Yeah.

There's some people that, you know, I do know of a couple of organic growers who are growing rye, but not very many.

- Okay.

- Does Triticale have the similar issue of becoming weedy in wheat?

- No, not as much as I've seen.

You know, I have seen some sort of volunteer Triticale, or weedy Triticale in years after, but it's nowhere the same as, as the feral rye problem.

All right, there.

- Folks, we're getting down to the end here.

I've got one thing I want to ask Stephen real quickly.

This person says that, "If they use steel wool, that it keeps mice out of coming in the house."

Is that true?

- It would be steel wool, but I recommend not using steel wool because it does a rust.

So, I would recommend Xcluder fabric, which is spelled, X-C-L-U-D-E-R.

So, that's stainless steel shards, embedded into a plastic mat.

- Stephen, I got to cut you off.

We're just out of time here.

Next week, Joel Schumacher will be here talking about labor crunches in agriculture.

Folks, thanks for watching.

Steve, thanks for being here.

Good night.

- [Narrator] For more information and resources, visit montanapbs.org/aglive.

(soft dueling guitar music) Montana AG Live is made possible by the Montana Department of Agriculture, the MSU Extension Service, the MSU AG Experiment Stations of the College of Agriculture, the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, the Montana Bankers Association, Cashman Nursery and Landscaping, The Galatin Gardeners Club, and the Rocky Mountain Certified Crop Advisor Program.

(slow, dueling guitar music)