Gopher, Vole, Mole, something causing problems

[Nifty]

I'm pretty sure I've got some critter underground eating my plant roots in my raised bed / sq. ft. garden. I know we have gophers and that moles don't eat roots (right?). I've never heard of voles around here, but a map showed that they are in CA.

I've got a raised bed with heavy gage expanded metal below it. The holes are diamond shaped about 1 inch wide by 2 inches long (sounds bigger than they actually are because of the diamond shape).

So, my questions:

1) Do you think they are digging through the holes (are they small enough)?
2) Even if the holes were tiny, could they still climb over the boards and go into the raised bed?
3) Should I just let them do their thing, or should I pull up all my plants, dig up the soil, put in smaller wire (hardware cloth) and then put the plants back in?

I can't make out any real holes that would allow me access to poisoning or trapping. I think my soil is too fine and the holes just collapse.

Any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[poppycat]

A vole could fit through a 1" hole no problem. They are tiny and we have zillions of them here in Oregon. I'm not sure if they actually eat roots or just disrupt them with their tunneling

I don't think a gopher could fit through that size mesh, but a smallish mole could.

If it were me I'd try some kind of trap before I dug everything up, or you could just see if you can live with them. But eventually you may need to replace that mesh with something like hardware cloth if they insist on getting into your beds.

My cat is an avid mole/voler, but not all cats are, so that's not really a solution either.

Is there any way you can post a pic of what you have going on for educational purposes?

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

I've found a few things that sometimes help prevent against little tunneling creatures.

1. Using a spicy pepper spray. Just take a bunch of dried hot peppers, boil them in a few gallons of water, pour that into a 5 gallon bucket and fill with more water. Let sit overnight and then water the areas affected by the critters. Usually helps in the short term.

2. Try planting some garlic or bunching onions along the perimeter to make a sort of moat around the beds. Make sure you plant them really close together to make a solid perimeter. I've found that this keeps most things out.

3. Plant gopher purge. This works for making a line of defense against the critters. Beware, this plant reseeds very easily and grows to about 4 feet. If you have the room, this makes good sense. Works against gophers and moles.

These seem to work pretty good. Hope this helps.

 

[Nifty]

Well, considering you're just about 20 miles from me I may take your advice!

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Well, considering you're just about 20 miles from me I may take your advice!

It seems to work great. It's usually the first thing we get in the ground in the spring to start forming that barricade. And the pepper spray is great on everything. Always keep a bottle around. Chopped garlic and onions work great to add in there too.

Where abouts in the Bay are ya?

 

[Nifty]

Pesky little buggers! For now I will see how much damage they do / don't do and will try a few suggestions before I declare all out war.

OaklandCityFarmer, do we really have vole's out here? I've never ever heard anybody mention them.

Oh, BTW, I'm smack in the middle of Contra Costa Cty.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Pesky little buggers! For now I will see how much damage they do / don't do and will try a few suggestions before I declare all out war.

OaklandCityFarmer, do we really have vole's out here? I've never ever heard anybody mention them.

Oh, BTW, I'm smack in the middle of Contra Costa Cty.

I've never seen them here in the Bay Area but have seen them quite frequently in So Cal. They constantly inhabited the wood piles.

 

[patandchickens]

Voles and your smaller gauge moles could go through a 1" hole, but both (voles especially) could also take the overland route - in fact, voles would do it without a second thought. I have no personal experience gardening in gopher territory, thank goodness.

But you know what. I would not worry about it at this point. See what happens. The worst that happens is that you have poor crops this year, but it is only one year. FAR FAR more likely, you will notice little if any effect. I get voles tunnelling around in my veg garden and plants do just fine. I figure it helps aerate and turn the soil If there is one particular crop that appears more affected than others -- like potatoes or carrots -- then you can decide what you want to do about that in future years, protect more heavily or just not plant it.

Digging everything up, putting on ton$ of hardware cloth, then refilling and replanting seems most likely to be killing a flea with an elephant gun. Or possibly not even *killing* the flea, since all it takes if for one of the culprits to stroll over top of your raised bed walls and you're back to square one.

If you ask me, an awful lot of gardening consists of learning to live with the pests you got

Good luck,

Pat, whose veg garden is nearly underwater from 2+" of rain yesterday, but all that's in there yet is garlic and lettuce and green onions, all of which are in the higher drier end.

 

[Nifty]

Pat, if you've learned anything about me by now, it is that I'm all about killing a flea with an elephant gun and then sifting through the dirt to make sure he's dead.

I'll let things go on as they are this year and see what happens. I found one of those sonic mole chasers someone gave me years ago so I dropped that in the ground. I'm not convinced they do any good, but I had it so I put it in the ground.

Also, as far as digging up the bed. I realized that I have it way too sloped (my light fluffy compost soil is just running off down to one end) so I'll probably have to dig it up next year anyway.

We've also been planning to plant onions anyway, so maybe that will help too.

Thanks all!

 

[patandchickens]

Pat, if you've learned anything about me by now, it is that I'm all about killing a flea with an elephant gun and then sifting through the dirt to make sure he's dead.

LOL

Also, as far as digging up the bed. I realized that I have it way too sloped (my light fluffy compost soil is just running off down to one end) so I'll probably have to dig it up next year anyway.

Is it too thoroughly planted already to terrace at all? Just by setting in one or more crosswise planks? They wouldn't even have to go 100% across the bed. Even if you can't level the soil into flat terraces between them, crosswise planks (set at least 4" into the soil, or whatever it takes to avoid washouts underneath them) would help control water movement and erosion so that your existing crops would do better. Any room to stick 'em in between blocks of veggies?

Good luck,

Pat, having the OPPOSITE problem at the moment after 2+" of rain... I planted my poor lil' bareroot trees 'cuz they're so leafing out, but it is a good thing that most are very hardy souls, because almost all were planted into standing water in their holes... I *think* I'll get away with it... :/