VOLES

[Chiefs Mess]

I am battling the darn rodents and I feel I will never win. Here is what I have done so far, if anything else can be done please let me know.

In the spring and early summer I threw down granules of grub killer. When I planted my shrubs I put wire around the roots so they cannot chew on the roots. (now they are entering from the top base of the plant). Now I am throwing down pellets of poison (last resort, really did not want to do this) down there holes and covering back up. This fall I will throw down some more grub killer. I will say I did not notice a lot of Japenase Beetles this year. Don't know throwing down the grub killer made the difference, not the year for them this year (so dry and hot) or I did not plant a lot veggies (beans, they loved my beans) this year.

Is there anything I can also do to get rid of them before they destroy my flower bed. I am treating the lawn too, if you want to call it a lawn.

 

[lesa]

My cats do an excellent job...

 

[sparkles2307]

Our dog kills them....

 

[digitS']

When they have tried to move into my tomato patch, I've tormented them so much with a slow running water hose that they've moved on.

I actually saw a half-drowned vole come up out of a submerged burrow, shake the water out of his ears and scurry off under the fence into the neighbor's lawn . . .

Scurry might be the wrong word. He was moving so slowly that I could have easily whacked him with a hoe if I hadn't been so taken aback from surprise.

There was a burrow in the middle of a bed of peas one year after I'd pulled the vines. Before I got back to cultivate that bed and plant something for the fall, the burrow was dug up. I saw a coyote run thru the garden early one morning a few days later.

The "pellets" of the owls that roosted one year in the hay barn at the edge of my large veggie garden were made up of hair, bones and the skulls of voles. The owls regurgitate that stuff after digesting the more tender morsels.

The hay fields near my garden and a neighbor's raspberry/grape jungle will always provide a never-ending supply of voles.

Steve

 

[Chiefs Mess]

Just came in putting more poison down holes this morning

The dogs and cats were doing a good job but, I think the voles are outsmarting them. Infact my beutiful lawn in the backyard is gone due to the fact the Labby was digging them out. That is why I did not want to do the poison. Even have a wild guinia (sp) that hangs around and even he has no luck catching them anymore.

Thanks guys for the imput. Please let me know if anyone can think of anything else.

 

[hoodat]

If thre are gopher snakes around you might try putting one of them down a burrow.