Hi
@Zeedman, I remembered reading your posts somewhere talking about traps for rodent and would like to have your advices. This year, lots of victims in my garden were killed by rodents, including tulips, dahlias, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tomatoes(not as many as the previous four, I guess due to the unique smell). Those are pretty small mice, but they chewed on the tubers or stems - and killed the plants overnight. They even invaded the planting box (L100*W15*H15) on the window sills - no plants were kill (not their food, maybe), but there was a 'tunnel'! Until I got one yesterday, I can't believe they even went into such planting boxes.
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I don't know why the predators showed little interests in them this year. All I did now is use the traps + peanut butter. Thanks in advance.
Rodents aren't usually a problem for me until later in the season, when the garden growth has become dense enough to give them cover, and pods/fruit start to ripen. As in now.
They have now begun eating low-hanging yardlong pods & fruit. They tend to make runs under dense growth, so that is where I place my traps... especially under tomatoes, peppers, and soybeans. I use survey flags to mark the trap locations, so I won't be playing "where's Waldo" when checking traps.
Voles are the worst. They are very destructive; and for reasons unknown, will sometimes chew through plants at the base, killing them. If they find a good food source (like ripening tomatoes) they might even dig a burrow beneath them, and raise a brood. The likelihood of that possibility is increased if a ground-covering material (such as cardboard or agricultural cloth) is used, since that offers protection from cats & other predators.
In a dry year, the natural food supply is lessened, and mice might migrate into the garden from the surrounding area. They can appear earlier, in greater numbers, and be very destructive unless killed. The trap in your photo,
@Phaedra , looks similar to the ones I use. Peanut butter or dried apricots seem to be the best baits, since they are both aromatic (to attract the mice) and weather resistant. I try to alternate between the two (so the mice won't learn to avoid them) and change bait often. The traps should be cleaned well after catching a mouse, since the scent of a dead mouse may warn mice away from the newly-baited trap.
Voles are smart, and at some point the adults will begin to avoid the traps - all you will catch is juveniles. Ground squirrels & chipmunks are smart too, and less likely to be caught (only rat traps are strong enough to catch them). I strongly dislike the idea of using poison; but will use it to save a crop when traps fail. I put the poison in tall, narrow jars laid on the side, to both protect the poison from being washed into the garden, and to prevent larger animals from reaching it. If laid in the mouse runs, or where feeding is ongoing, this usually works quickly.
Edit: don't be surprised if you lose a trap occasionally. I believe those traps are dragged off by predators who are attracted to the sounds of prey in distress, and drag off the mouse trap & all. I've probably lost about 10 traps over the years, and have yet to find any of them.
For me, covering them would not be worth the trouble anyway, since both plants tend to get stronger on their own with time.
