ABSTRACT
The magnitude of the rodent problem in Europe has never been evaluated in detail due to many factors. First of all the assessment of rodent damage is very time consuming and difficult to carry out, whether the damage is inflicted to crops or to structures. The significance of rodents as carriers and transmitters of diseases has, apart from a couple of well-known bacterial diseases, not been thoroughly investigated. From an agricultural, forestial, and horticultural point of view rodents belonging to the family Microtidae are by far the most important in Europe; and, due to their often strictly herbivorous feeding biology they are also difficult to control by traditional poison baits. Microtus agrestis, the short-tailed field vole, is the most important rodent pest in aforestation areas and fruit orchards in Scandinavia. Clethrionomys glareolus, the bank vole, is less graminivorous than the two Microtus species, but may also damage young trees by debarking them in the winter season.
