Urgent vole advice needed :(

[pontus]

Hello everyone

Unfortunately I am having a huge field vole invasion (again!) most likely because of the very mild winter...this has brought about 2 questions :

- I just noticed they had eaten the roots of my Vitex agnus-castus from underneath...very sad, as it was a nice specimen. But I think that the damage is very recent. I was wondering would it still be possible to save it, and of so, how? can I take cuttings now and hope that some will root? if so that is the best method?

- Secondly, I am starting to fear more and more for my large lilium humboldtii ocellatum specimen...it was one of the first bulbs I planted in my show garden, and at that point was not aware of the vole issue...so I did not put any chicken wire in the planting hole, which I regret now of course...
I am contemplating wether a preventive rescue mission would be worth trying? But at the same time I am weary to disturb it as it is doing really well and I know this sp hates disturbance and mooving once settled.... I suppose that if I am very carefull I might be able to dig up a big chunk of the soil, not damaging any roots, not even exposing the bulb, and replanting immediately after the wire has been placed, what do you all think? it will start shooting in mid-late march...and i dont want to risk breaking the shoot if i moove it. The other day, I pulled slightly on last years stem. it did not come out of teh ground, which is potentially a good sign that the bulb is still there, and stem still attached to it...

needles to say the voles massacred my new tulip hybrid bed...over 70 bulbs planted last autumn..now dessimated .. at least those were not expensive...

Any insights into all this would be greatly helpfull, as I will start all this next week.

Pontus

[Graeme]

[johnralphcarpenter]

(Attachment Link)

Yes! Only bigger and fiercer.

[David Nicholson]

.... as long as it (they) enjoy their meal and don't do what naturally follows in my garden! I have sufficient regular users.

[Graeme]

don't let looks deceive - its a mean lean killing machine - how do they just leave the kidney?

[Karaba]

Cats don't hunt vole, at least water vole (Arvicola terrestris sherman) because this species never leave their tunnel. Cats only hunt birds, shrews, common vole, wood mouse... and usually they hunt in other garden or in th fields but not in your garden (at least not in my garden...)
The only way I know to get rid of water vole is to trap them. I use crowbars like this http://www.vivelelevage.com/produit_piege-a-taupe-fil-rond-1110-15697.html My parents have trapped 15 voles in one year in a garden of 4000 m²

[Graeme]

Cats only hunt birds, shrews, common vole, wood mouse... and usually they hunt in other garden or in th fields but not in your garden (at least not in my garden...)

can you add baby rabbits - rats and moles to that list........ Edit and an odd bat now and again

[pontus]

well the neighbours have alot of cats, but unfortunately enough these are very lazy and dont eat any voles it seems...they do like however to use my birders as toilets....apart from the rockery, which they leave alone as i dont think they like digging in the gravel...

[Cfred72]

Time to raise cats or owls and you will not have garden ...
For Lilium, I will not hesitate. Better to try to put it in a cage and have a chance to keep it. It's better than crying after. 

[Growild]

Alfie is a vole specialist at the nursery! I hate to think of the numbers ... must be well into the hundreds. He has only caught one mouse though ... likes the odd rabbit. We still get damage though even with him and the resident owls.

[Tristan_He]

Yes! Only bigger and fiercer.

You mean like ours Ralph? He's a bit podgy at the moment, as he's not got out much in the wet weather.

Catches all sorts and loves voles, also rabbits if he can get them (not many round these parts). Catches moles too, but doesn't eat them. He once caught and ate a fox cub! Thankfully he doesn't eat too many birds.

I always feel a bit conflicted regarding cat ownership. They certainly do eat a lot of wildlife and there is nothing to be done about that. On the other hand there used to be wildcat and lynx here (not to mention pine marten), but these have been largely or completely extirpated by humans. Even predatory bird diversity is pretty low, though some species are bouncing back. In that context it's probably no bad thing to have something that eats rodents about the place.

[Tristan_He]

Unfortunately I am having a huge field vole invasion (again!)

...I am starting to fear more and more for my large lilium humboldtii ocellatum specimen...it was one of the first bulbs I planted in my show garden, and at that point was not aware of the vole issue...so I did not put any chicken wire in the planting hole, which I regret now of course...
I am contemplating wether a preventive rescue mission would be worth trying? But at the same time I am weary to disturb it as it is doing really well and I know this sp hates disturbance and mooving once settled.... I suppose that if I am very carefull I might be able to dig up a big chunk of the soil, not damaging any roots, not even exposing the bulb, and replanting immediately after the wire has been placed, what do you all think? it will start shooting in mid-late march...and i dont want to risk breaking the shoot if i moove it. The other day, I pulled slightly on last years stem. it did not come out of teh ground, which is potentially a good sign that the bulb is still there, and stem still attached to it...

Pontus, in the light of the comments about water vole's relative safety from cats, do you know what sort of vole is causing your problem? Is it field vole (Microtus agrestis) or water vole (Arvicola terrestris - which is very aquatic and endangered in Britain but quite terrestrial in Europe). 

Regardless, I agree with cfred - carefully dig up and replant your lilies. Perhaps not all though, if you have enough and are worried about root disturbance? That way you can spread the risk. You may even be able to entrench some chicken wire during your excavations. I expect you will also get loads of scales falling off too, so lots of propagation opportunities.

Best of luck anyway. I've always wanted to try L. humboldtii ocellatum, it looks like a very beautiful plant. I just love the turkscap lilies and cannot understand the attraction of many of the hybrids being bred at the moment.

Best, Tristan

[ian mcdonald]

I must be wrong. I thought gardeners also cared about wildlife. Try feeding the voles with cabbage leaves or similar away from your prized plants.

[Karaba]

I must be wrong. I thought gardeners also cared about wildlife.

That why I'm against cats (even if I have one, or if I was agree that it stay here, because what a woman and kids want, thay have....). I trap vole as I slam mosquitos or crush aphids, that's not because I don't care about wildlife but I care about me  .

Arvicola (terrestris) scherman dig big tunnel of about 6 cm high and 4 cm wide, other vole (Microtus) made only 3-4 cm round tunnel as moles do. If it's eating lots of bulbs, I think that it is Arvicola scherman. Montane water vole is not aquatic in Switzerland, nor in the main part of France (see here to know evereything about aquatic vole in France (in french)) and they can be very very abundant in low mountain (Jura, Massif-central).

[Steve Garvie]

I must be wrong. I thought gardeners also cared about wildlife. Try feeding the voles with cabbage leaves or similar away from your prized plants.

I like voles,





................ but I couldn't eat a whole one!