vole defense?

[mitch landen]

Welcome, Mitch Landen.

I have been successful in having voles move after I have flooded their burrows with a slow trickle of water. One, honestly(!), showed up on the surface and ran out of the garden while I was standing and watching one day.

Yes, I have set mouse traps, successfully. A raisin dipped in peanut butter is a good bait.

Voles under flakes of alfalfa hay thoroughly damaged a 50' by about 20' planting of potatoes, I had one year. And, I mean thoroughly! So much for that experiment ...

Sometimes, my first awareness of a vole is when a coyote comes through and digs them out. I know that I will never be rid of them because the alfalfa fields beside the gardens are the voles' primary home. Traps will catch them but flooding might help ... good luck!

Steve

Howdy, Steve -- I flood any holes when I find 'em; pour gallons of pond water down, but the vermin always just create other "run" holes not far away. Tunnels must be all over the place!
Mitch

 

[mitch landen]

No suggestions from me Mitch, just a welcome to the forum. Glad you joined.

Thx much; I wish I'd known this website existed before now! I've been growing things since I was a kid --have learned a lot, but know there's plenty more out there. Part of the fun, huh?

Mitch

 

[mitch landen]

years ago "had" a fruit tree orchard the voles eat all the roots killed all but 1 tree "which is still living" to combat them use vole smoke bombs took care of their little butts, still see a few running along the edge of the spring, but have a very happy fat black snake population. couple days ago saw the first one sunning itself..

you might want to look into putting mothballs down the holes and covering them..

anyway hi from north carolina....

Howdy, catfish -- I'm in NC, too -- Greenville. Right in the middle of town, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in my n'hood growing veg's/herbs and with a major # of fruit trees. Folks here do love their dogwoods and azaleas, and make their yards a desert for the other animals. When I moved into the house 17 years ago, the 1st thing I did was start ripping out the ornamentals and start planting fruit trees, grapevines, "delawning". Not the most beautiful yard in the 'hood anymore but fersher the most productive and natural! .... and the birds, fish, frogs, bees, 'coons, 'possums, etc, etc seem to approve.

Mitch

 

[mitch landen]

we used to see them more often. semi-feral kitty comes through once in a while. just saw it out hunting a few minutes ago, very intent and patient about it too, likely a chipmunk or mouse. we have a lot of snakes here too (too cold/early for them to be very active as of yet). they make trails through the grasses right on the surface, so it's an easy to spot thing. i've caught a few in snap traps with peanut butter.

when talking about fruit trees often i've heard that people will put wire mesh around (a cyclinder out a few inches from the trunk) the plant stem to keep them from chewing the bark/roots and that gives the plants a change to get big enough where a little chewing won't kill them. i don't think i've ever heard of voles climbing very far, so a few feet up provides protection and also good bonus is that this also protects from rabbit chewings too. would need to be 6-8ft here to protect from deer chewings...

Much obliged, bug -- I see that was a mistake on my part -- not to protect the roots in the 1st place. Then again, I've been here a long time and never, ever, never saw any kind of damage to roots or trunks. A new experience for me -- and I'm a quick-learner after a disaster ....

 

[mitch landen]

They are voles, not moles? You can poison voles.

Welcome to site.

Hi -- I thought for a second about poison, but ... then again, it would go through the food chain (potentially); I don't want dead birds on my conscience. Somebody locally told me she found a dead bald eagle (!!) near her store not long ago, and suspects it ate some poisoned animal. Lousy outcome.

 

[seedcorn]

1). Once the target animal has eaten the poison, it’s ability to kill is gone. So unless you are using some viral poison, no worries about the food chain. (anything that powerful, you can’t attain as you have to have a license and piles of paperwork.)
2). IF you see a poisoned animal, it ate the poison direct. You do realize bald eagles are scavengers-like turkey buzzards-& eat all kinds of dead nasties that contain gang green, botulism, etc and thrive.
3). Moles are beyond difficult as they very rarely will eat poison. Never tried but heard gummy worms made special to kill them-just blocks their digestive system. I don’t know of anything that will eat them. Most cats look at them and run away. Terriers will kill them. Terriers will also dig up your yard trying to get at them. Which is worse?
4). Voles-kill like mice.

 

[Ridgerunner]

We all have to make up our own minds on poisons and other methods. I'm not going to try to convince anyone one way or another. I will mention that some poisons get passed up the food chain much easier than others so which poison used matters. I have used poisons, especially for mice and rats, but only certain ones and in ways that specifically target the critter I'm going after.

I do use poisons to go after certain pests on plants too. In my opinion a poison is a poison, whether organic or not. I try to use the same guidelines, use certain ones in a way that target specific pests and don't get passed up the food chain that much or have very short half lives.

And dosage is important. A friend told the story where their lab had eaten poison so they called the CDC. The CDC asked how much did the dog weigh, what was the poison, and how much did it eat. Luckily in that case it was not even enough to get the dog sick.

My dogs are not terriers but they do love digging my yard up looking for and catching moles. But no way would I allow them in my garden. The digging would do a lot of damage.

I have had plants killed by voles in the garden. They tunnel under certain plants, especially soon after sprouting or transplanting, and disturb the roots. I've also had voles chew up carrots and sweet potatoes. I've never gone after voles in the garden though, the damage has not been enough to make it worthwhile. I have more problems with rabbits and rats.

 

[seedcorn]

@Ridgerunner bunnies? Cute innocent bunnies? I tell you, they are falsely accused. Even if you catch them in act, it’s societies fault as the village did a poor job of education. No, send your bunnies to me-prefer them cleaned and packaged in dry ice.... thank you very much.

 

[digitS']

Snap traps was what I used most recently. None of these things are of great delight but we start from taking plant life and become defensive from there. Who will eat OUR food?

I once bought some gopher traps for an older lady gardener. I told her repeatedly that I didn't know how to use them. But, I knew a farmer, yeah farmer an organic guy, who used them with great success where gopher colonies would show up in his alfalfa. She had no problems with the traps and soon reported on her gopher harvest.

I've learned something about mouse traps. They can be new or weathered. They are not as effective at catching the 2nd mouse as the 1st. I have just left them in the garden from one season to the next so, I guess, that they don't smell of death to the next rodent generation. I've also bleached them.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner bunnies? Cute innocent bunnies? I tell you, they are falsely accused. Even if you catch them in act, it’s societies fault as the village did a poor job of education. No, send your bunnies to me-prefer them cleaned and packaged in dry ice.... thank you very much.

No, not the cute ones, those are in cartoons and kids' books. I'm talking about the crude rude rabbits that insist on maniacally destroying anything I plant like beans as they sprout, that consider it a life's mission to take just one bite out of all my veggies just before they ripen, dig holes under fences so anything can get it, and do anything in their power to make my life less enjoyable. The cute ones I leave alone. And they leave me alone if they know what is good for them.