Field vole problem (again!!) :(

[pontus]

Hello everyone,

I yet again have a field vole invasion...they have already devoured my baptisia collection, (which I thought where toxic, so hopefully at least some voles must have died?)..and they are probably now going for all my bulbs...!

I have put some protective chicken wire at teh bottom of some borders, at the bottom of some raised beds with some gravel ontop as protection, but I have not been able to do this in every single border or small raised bed..

My main question is, do field voles also dig upwards into raised beds to pull down bulbs tubers and corms? or do they mainly burrow just under the surface and underneath, looking for what they can come across?

I have not put chicken wire at the bottom of my USA and european raised beds, and in those are my expensive erythronium, trillium and USA lillium collections, as well as podophyllum, and then expensive anemones, lilies and more in the europe bed...I know from experience that field voles have a taste in expensive bulbs!!! so now i have big fears again!!!

Pontus

[Robert]

Pontus,

I've dealt with field voles for years here at our farm in Northern California. My experience has been that the voles will go after all sorts of different plants and bulbs in any fashion that works for them, above ground, below ground, up , down, or side ways. They love to eat lilies!

The only way I have been able to keep my bulbs safe from the voles in to protect them with wire. I have even had them chew through the drainage holes in containers to get at the contents and then nest inside of the pot!

Having raptors, cats and trapping help, but for me it has never really solved the problem for the plants that they want to eat. An elevated planting bed with wire on the bottom has been the only effective way for me to keep the plants safe. If the bed is at ground level they simply crawl over the top of the ground and then borrow in for a meal.

I wish that I could be more encouraging. Maybe someone has an effective solution?

Good luck with saving your plants and garden. I've been through all of this and it can be discouraging, however wire can keep the pest out and predators keep the the numbers lower.

[rob krejzl]

I think individual cages are often used where a whole bed can't be protected.

I sympathize though - a wallaby has recently decided to make my garden it's larder; the vegetable plot being nibbled I don't mind, but scrapes here and there amongst the bulbs and things like Cardiocrinum uprooted and their bulbs eaten (but the leaves discarded...) is more vexing.

[Maggi Young]

I expect the wallaby is just decorating the garden with foliage for your birthday, Rob 

Many happy returns of the day - if not the wallaby. 

[rob krejzl]

Thank you Maggie. I didn't know you could arrange visiting wallabies as well as e-cards.

[Maggi Young]

Thank you Maggie. I didn't know you could arrange visiting wallabies as well as e-cards.

It's not easy, Rob, it's not easy!

[Leon]

I have a good bit of clay.   Voles don't seem to want to burrow down into it however they do get in mole runs then devour any bulbs the moles happen to run by.   I plant all bulbs in wire baskets sunk level with the top of the ground and I find that to be effective until the level of the ground is raised by the addition of compost and mulch.  Then the moles go over the top and voles enjoy a smorgasbord of bulbs.  It has happened many times.  I do hate voles.   

[John85]

Yes they will dig upwards,go everywhere they smell food.They even climb onto the table of the greenhouse.I though mice where the culprits of the damage till I caught some in a trap.
Even the roots of coreopsis are eaten and this year they specially like sedums
And yet they are on the menu of the resident owl:I counted 30 pellets under his favourite branch and in the summer 3 adders take their share!
Does anyone know of ready-made planting baskets that are not in plastic?

[P. Kohn]

Had the vole problem at Kerrachar, mainly in the nursery. Our solution was also cages and getting plants up into the air on tables. The voles didn't seem to be great climbers so we didn't need wire mesh underneath.

[Robert]

Yes they will dig upwards,go everywhere they smell food.They even climb onto the table of the greenhouse.I though mice where the culprits of the damage till I caught some in a trap.
Even the roots of coreopsis are eaten and this year they specially like sedums
And yet they are on the menu of the resident owl:I counted 30 pellets under his favourite branch and in the summer 3 adders take their share!
Does anyone know of ready-made planting baskets that are not in plastic?

I concur with John. Having the predators do the work for you is an excellent first step. Around here, nesting raptors are a great help. The long-eared Owls, that live in the barn, eat voles all night; Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawks eat the voles during the day. Every year we have at least one pare of nesting Cooper's Hawks. They mostly eat other birds, however with plenty of voles to eat I see them with voles in their talons all the time. We also have various snakes around here that eat the voles too.

Having said all of this, we still need to trap. The voles like to travel the same above ground pathways, generally against a wall of some sort. We place un-baited mouse traps against the wall - this works fairly well. A few years ago, I caught about 100 voles using this method. That same year, the farm cat caught about the same number. The vole population seems to go in cycles too, some years there are many, other years not so many.

Even with all this effort, I still use wire to keep voles out. Without wire they seem to find the most precious bulbs and plants sooner or later. And I have to admit, I enjoy watching the raptors hunt and feed their young.

[penstemon]

I have the U.S. National Collection of Rodents. (I live next to a large field in a semi-rural area.) I set some poles in the back garden to allow the great horned owls to sit there and wait for mobile food, and that works fairly well. Half the plants in the garden are caged, just above ground, not below, but, as you know, that doesn't help with voles.
I've found the most effective method for getting rid of them is to sprinkle blood meal at the entrance to their tunnels. They don't like that at all, and leave.

[Robert]

I have the U.S. National Collection of Rodents. (I live next to a large field in a semi-rural area.) I set some poles in the back garden to allow the great horned owls to sit there and wait for mobile food, and that works fairly well. Half the plants in the garden are caged, just above ground, not below, but, as you know, that doesn't help with voles.
I've found the most effective method for getting rid of them is to sprinkle blood meal at the entrance to their tunnels. They don't like that at all, and leave.

Blood meal at the entrance to their tunnels.... I've never tried that. Definitely worth a try. It will be great if something so easy works well or even reduces their presence.

The rodents around here still have not heard that Gopher Plant, Euphorbia laythrus, is supposed to repel them. I also thought that the raptors and snakes would put the fear of G_d into them and they would make their homes somewhere else. It has helped to keep a plowed strip around cultivated areas. The rodents have to run the gauntlet of predators before reaching the garden.

[Maggi Young]

I've found the most effective method for getting rid of them is to sprinkle blood meal at the entrance to their tunnels. They don't like that at all, and leave.

I'd have thought that you'd get every passing dog, coyote etc digging bigger holes around the blood meal than you'd get from the rodents?  Our dogs would dig around any areas of bone meal, for sure ( if given that chance) - perhaps blood meal is just yuckier?

[art600]

My cats have brought me 3 voles in the last 3 days 

[Robert]

Several years ago, my cat and I had a contest to see who would catch the most voles in a season. I keep forgetting who won. I do remember that we both caught near 100 each.

Now that I think more about it I am sure the farm cat won, as I only counted the voles that she brought to me.