Help! Pest damage to hosta.

[Carol Dee]

O.K. the Hosta site I visited say probably not Moles but voles or pocket gophers. I have tunnels in two areas of my flower beds. The pest ate or destroyed everything there but some dead nettle and creeping Charlie (Which I would gladly let them have.) Any idea what it was and how to get rid of it. They must have spent the winter freeloading as this is what I found when the snow cleared, and I was prepping beds for spring. Photo shows between deck and fence. Thankfully they did not damage the Clematis. (yet) There was hosta planted along fence and deck. The strappy leaves at top of pic are Naked Ladies. I want to be sure they are gone before I plant in there again. They even got my Red Sails Hosta.

 

[flowerbug]

O.K. the Hosta site I visited say probably not Moles but voles or pocket gophers. I have tunnels in two areas of my flower beds. The pest ate or destroyed everything there but some dead nettle and creeping Charlie (Which I would gladly let them have.) Any idea what it was and how to get rid of it. They must have spent the winter freeloading as this is what I found when the snow cleared, and I was prepping beds for spring. Photo shows between deck and fence. Thankfully they did not damage the Clematis. (yet) There was hosta planted along fence and deck. The strappy leaves at top of pic are Naked Ladies. I want to be sure they are gone before I plant in there again. They even got my Red Sails Hosta.


View attachment 48573

try a few rat traps baited with some peanut butter and some dried apricot tied to the trip pan. put most of the peanut butter under the trip pan (before setting it). be careful! rat traps can do some damage. yes - i've found out the hard way...

 

[flowerbug]

i should have noted that there are easier to set and bait types of rat traps that are well worth the $, but i am still using up the previously purchased ones first.

 

[Carol Dee]

Thanks @flowerbug

 

[digitS']

I have caught voles with a mouse trap but have also driven them out of the vegetable garden by flooding their burrows.

Be aware that they may have just moved to higher ground nextdoor. That might be your neighbor's or still in your own yard. Watching a vole escape the flood water, shake his little head, and escape into the neighbor's lawn convinces me that they may not all drown.

Serious harrassment of gophers also seemed to cause them to vacate the premises. Me setting some gopher traps in the friend's garden resulted in nothing. However, she reported that she became quite proficient in catching those rodents with the same traps through the season.

Steve