vole defense?

[mitch landen]

I'll bet this has been done to death at this site, but I'm new, so .... here goes:

I've been on my (city) property 17 years and never saw a vole or vole damage (to my knowledge). Lately, holes're popping up in the garden, and worse yet, around 2 young apple trees. One seems dead -- no leaves, and both can be tilted lots in various directions (although 1 tree has new blooms and buds). The yard/garden are thickly mulched, and I know I made the mistake of letting ground-up leaves pile around the tree trunks.

I sprinkled a "deterrent" (some crystallized animal urine of some sort) around them. Also, bought a couple of mouse traps (!) which I plan to bait with food and then place under a secured plastic flowerpot [to keep other animals from falling victim).

Any advice, anecdotes, experiences that could help me (other than "Give up now")? Thanks much .....

 

[digitS']

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

 

[Nyboy]

Get a hungry cat

 

[Ridgerunner]

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

 

[majorcatfish]

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....

 

[flowerbug]

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...

 

[seedcorn]

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

Welcome to site.

 

[so lucky]

@seedcorn, what would you use? Mouse poison?
We have a lot of them too. DH has stuck mole poison pellets down the holes, but no evidence that it worked.

 

[flowerbug]

moles have to eat (when they are active) very often, about every four hours or so. if you can find their main run (just step on the runs here or there and wait a bit and find out which one they are using the most) you can trap them by using a choker loop type trap, which is not easy to set, but it works and you know exactly that you've caught one when you get it. it is not a nice thing to do to any creature, but i consider it much better than poisoning. btw. the fur of moles is amazingly soft. moles eat worms, grubs, and whatever falls into their tunnels.

voles eat completely different things and more more into plants/roots/bulbs but will likely also eat worms and grubs too. more like us, omnivores if needs be. baited mouse traps will usually get them. you can sometimes find them using old mole tunnels as access routes to bulbs/plants. which is why sometimes people think they are the same thing...

 

[mitch landen]

Get a hungry cat

Hi -- my n'hood has lots of cats .... and they love to visit my yard to eat birds and frogs! Maybe they'll catch a vole sometime, but .... my gardens are fenced, so cats don't go in those, and those are the primary vole-infestation areas. Complex situation.