We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
The following tables show
A. A summary of options available for protecting trees from certain species of mammals
B. An assessment of the advantages and disadvantages for each method
Barriers | Preferred control | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tree guards | Fencing | Electric fencing |
Chemical repellents |
Shooting | Gassing/ poisoning |
Trapping/ snaring |
||
Field vole |
yes |
no |
no |
? |
no |
no |
no |
|
Bank vole |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
Grey squirrel |
no* |
no |
no |
? |
no |
yes |
yes |
|
Rabbit |
yes |
yes |
no |
? |
? |
yes |
? |
|
Hare |
yes |
yes |
no |
? |
? |
no |
no |
|
Deer |
yes |
yes |
? |
? |
yes |
no |
no |
|
Sheep & goats |
? |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
|
Cattle & ponies |
no |
yes |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
no |
* Isolated specimen trees can have smooth collars fitted.
Method | Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|---|
Tree guards |
|
|
Fencing |
|
|
Electric fencing |
|
|
Chemical repellents |
|
|
Deer – shooting |
|
|
Grey squirrels -poisoning |
|
|
Grey squirrels -multi-capture traps |
|
|
Rabbits – gassing |
|
|
Rabbits – cage traps |
|
|
Rabbits – box traps |
|
|
Further reading
Several Forestry Commission publications covering mammal management in more detail. Some are available for downloading.
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.