Information and discussion regarding garden diseases, insects and other unwelcome critters.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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Just wanted to share a few pics of the habitat taken up by voles this winter, and revealed when the snow receded! At first I thought there had been some kind of animal drama involving a fox and hare on a very soggy muddy slippery day which afterwards froze! Maybe that did happen too.
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#2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Vancouver Island
Posts: 5,931
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Hopefully you have done foxes and raptors to thin those out for you and keep them out of your garden!
Karen |
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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If you want to thin them out really good get a few miniature dachshunds. I had them for years before my son gave me a couple. Nearly every day for months I they would leave one or two on the back doorstep until they were all gone.
Bill |
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#4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin
Posts: 3,149
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The moles and voles are usually there to feed on the grubs in the area. You can treat the area organically for grubs with Milky Spore. One application lasts for several years. Once the grubs are gone the rodents will be too since they will have nothing to feed on. Of course there are several products with chemicals that will work too.
__________________
~ Patti ~ |
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#5 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Colorado
Posts: 124
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I had a severe outbreak of voles several years ago. They ate probably a quarter of my cantaloupe crop and I had a 150' double row of beets that when I went to pull , the voles had been in between the two rows and eaten the majority of them. The worst part came towards the end of the season the voles had chewed so many holes in my drip tape that I had to abandon several rows. If you look at there life cycle its amazing how many can be produced in a season, the young are reproducing 30 days after birth. Anymore I am proactive, if I see signs of them I put out the wax bars of rat poison I think its called Radamix. I generally don't like poison things but I make an exception for voles.
Good luck, Marcus |
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#6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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I found a shrew once in the yard the cat had caught it.
Though it looks like a mouse it is not a rodent. |
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#7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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I've never seen any vole damage in my garden except once or twice the same burrowing in winter got into a patch of hollyhocks I was sad to lose... never on this scale though. I sort of doubt they will hang about here in the summer because there isn't that much grass in my garden. Overall there seems to be a rodent thing happening everywhere here, mice, rats, too many! Everyone is plagued. I feel lucky there was no sign of rats this winter, and no rodents getting into my house or greenhouse...phew!
I've seen shrews here too Worth. I thought they were rodents, though? They are really small and boy do they move fast. No one complains about them, if anything they probably eat a few insect pests! ![]() |
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#8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Vancouver Island Canada BC
Posts: 1,253
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#9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Nope shrews not rodents but some sort of carnivore / insectivore.
I found out when I looked them up in the dictionary when I saw the thing the cats brought in. Way back before we had the internet and had to use books. ![]() |
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#10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 6,794
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Wow... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrew.
Closer to hedgehogs than rodents.... and I never knew that some of them have venemous bites! They really are pretty common around here, but the normal thing to do is... nothing! Just don't mess with em. ![]() ![]() |
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