Holes in Beets

[Farmette]

I am growing beets again this year and have a problem for which I can't seem to find an explanation. Initially, I noticed that all the beets that were growing up out of the top of the soil had large chunks taken out of them. I thought it was a rodent, but once I picked those that were smaller and not bulging out of the soil, I saw that they, too, had been "eaten" so that the round beet root was hollow. So, it must be something that has the capability of going underground. I don't know if it is an small animal, bug or disease.
All that was left of the root was a half moon shaped piece of beet. I am talking about beets that were up to 2 inches in diameter. Has anyone had experience with this and if so, do you know what it is?
Thanks!
Chris, who is sad to lose her whole beet crop

[Mudman]

Yep, sounds like slugs to me. They always seem to do it to my late season beets that I leave in the ground. I usually harvest them as soon as they are big enough now because it seems to only happen in late summer or fall for me and if I pick them early enough they don't get to them.

[tjg911]

i would have thought voles. they tunnel underground and have done this to me with carrots and potatoes. not slugs are not the culprit but do slugs go underground?

tom

[Mudman]

I find ones that have been eaten through a hole in the top/side and then the slugs enter and devour them down into the ground, but that may not be what Farmette has going on.

[travis]

Voles eat lots of things. Up north they particularly like sugar beets. I guess that means they also like red garden beets. In the south, they have a special hankering for sweet potatoes. But they'll eat darn near anything.

Do you mulch real heavy. Voles love deep mulch, and often damage fruit trees and ornamentals when there is too much mulch piled up in one of those mulch volcanoes silly homeowners and dumb landscapers build around trees and shrubs. Voles nest in the deep mulch, and make burrows and tunnels through which they venture out to do their plant damage.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7439.html

[Farmette]

Travis, I do not mulch heavily and in fact, this did not happen in another raised bed where I had mulched more heavily with leaves. One half the bed were beets, the other half peppers. One pepper that had lain close to the ground had a large hole in it. I have not seen evidence of grubs. How does one get rid of voles? Or does one?

[travis]

Farmette, the link I place in post #5 provides several methods for limiting or eliminating voles.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Farmette

Travis, I do not mulch heavily and in fact, this did not happen in another raised bed where I had mulched more heavily with leaves. One half the bed were beets, the other half peppers. One pepper that had lain close to the ground had a large hole in it. I have not seen evidence of grubs. How does one get rid of voles? Or does one?

I have a serious vole problem, I see them scurrying every time I'm in the garden if I don't keep on top of it. Hawks set on the fenceposts in my garden all the time and we've had great horned owls that nest 30 yards from the garden the past several years, they don't put a dent in the population. (My kids actually dissected the owl pellets in school today and someone found 3 mouse/vole skulls in one)

The only thing we've been able to do is put out peanut butter flavored poison packs you can pick up at places like Tractor Supply. I have to coordinate it with my neighbor that gardens because it seems like if we don't both do it they just move between us.

I don't think you can completely get rid of them but you can minimize their impact.

[Farmette]

Thanks for all the replies...clearly it is a vole problem that I have. So, tomorrow I need to set some traps, etc. and clear a brush pile on the property.