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kines_gw

The voles are having a good year!!

kines
16 years ago

Here are the latest victims of this year's vole rampage: Frances Williams, Choo Choo Train, Blue Mammoth, and Blue Umbrellas. I was going to split up that CCT this year anyhow, but the others.... aarrgghh - fit of rage!!!


{{gwi:1062280}}

I've said it before, and now again: I just can't believe how fast these tiny animals can decimate a hosta crown!!!



And now, for balance, I once again post my victory photo of the vole I pounded with my fist last week.

I dug and dug around these last four, but alas came up empty.

{{gwi:1044100}}

Comments (33)

  • bunnycat
    16 years ago

    That's terrible! If you have them in buckets, then you must have a bit of crown left? Hope they survive for you!
    ~Bunnycat

  • kines
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Thanks Bunnycat - there's really very little left - probably I'll have a few little plants from each.

    on the positive side, my fav, the CCT, fared the best. I think I'll have a few decent plants out of him.

  • shade_tolerant
    16 years ago

    Oh, Kines that is just awful and all the nice big hostas too!
    Well at least you're minus one vole. Hope your Choo Choo makes it ok.

  • lowsilv
    16 years ago

    maybe I'm jus lucky or my ninga cats hmmm were r u cats hiding n da bushes ready to kill have something to do wit it but I've nvr seen a vole. know where my cats go ???

  • hostabff
    16 years ago

    I agree with you. This is a terrible year for voles. I have never had trouble in the summer....They have chewed off the roots on my Pilgrim, 1/2 the roots and crown of a blue arrow, and they have gone after my Hakone Grass. So far 3 voles are put to rest using a mouse trap wired with an almond; tucked under a black bucket...Then someone ate my can of nuts. Tried peanut butter on the trap, but the ants liked it too much and left nothing for the voles. New nuts today and I will try again.

  • kines
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    hey buff, do you have a photo of your setup?

    are the almonds raw?

    A few years ago when I last had an outbreak, I tried it all, including mouse traps, and nothing worked. I can't remember all the baits I used, but I never tried an almond. How to you affix it to the trap?

    TIA, KN

  • Carole Westgaard
    16 years ago

    Get a cat!! I have two mostly-in-the-house cats. They bring me dead things almost every morning late May and early in June. I don't know what they are - (except the poor little chipmunks I can identify) but there are lots of different creatures early and then nothing. All gone. My beasts must leave their scent around or maybe the 'word' gets out to all varmints.

    Westy

  • kines
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Get a cat? Well, when I discovered this latest round of destruction, I told my wife "I'm going to the pound!!". But then I thought about it for a while... There's a reason I don't own any domesticated animals already. I don't want to have to take care of one! Another reason I hesitate is that we're bird lovers. I think any cat that brought a scarlet tanager to my front step might face the same fate as the vole in the photo above!!!

    ....but I'm still considering it....

  • hosta_freak
    16 years ago

    Sorry to hear about your voles,Kines! They must be taking a vacation here. Thank goodness! I had some problems in the past,but things are OK now. Phil

  • hostabff
    16 years ago

    Kines, Your big, beautiful, wounded babies make me wonder what other damage is "underway" that I am not aware of. I know how you must be feeling. The traps can't work fast enough for me. The purpose of placing a container over the trap is to trick the little devils into coming out during the day (however I have not plugged the drain holes in the pots, therefor - no daytime activity). I know gardeners that use clay pots - one hole in center - cover with brick and it is lights out! By the way, I cut a little notch in each side of the nut to anchor the wire.

    Here are a few pics of my setup:

    Trapping for Voles


    Wired Bait (I also use twist ties)


    Come on out you little you know whats!


    NO, I am not showing you the results of my efforts - this reply is rated PG!

  • mum2knm
    16 years ago

    Oh what a terrible loss! I hope some of them make it!

    Sabrina

  • hostabff
    16 years ago

    Oh, by the way, the almonds are dry roasted with salt! Nothing but the best for my voles....

  • kines
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Awesome! thanks for all the info and photos!

    One more Q: do your victims look like mine? Cuz your hole does not look like mine. Maybe it's just because they don't have to, but they don't actually dig holes here. They just burrow channels under the leaves and mulch. You can feel them with your hand as you trace along them, but not much evidence is left behind afterwards, and certainly nothing that resembles an underground tunnel.

    Now, the chipmonks and moles here make holes like the one you pictured.

    I have read that voles will use those tunnels, so maybe that's what's going on there. Anyhow, do your voles look like the one I fist pounded, above?

    Thanks again

    KN

  • hostabff
    16 years ago

    Or...they burrow under lousy grass. Here is a picture of a trail like you described. It is adjacent to the area with the traps. I guess I have voles living under my decking too... and visiting the hosta patch in the dark of night for a midnight feast. Perhaps some traps in that area...

    The first catch may have been a mole (it was a little bigger and the eyes a little brighter, or perhaps I should say larger eyes - it is hard to have bright eyes when you are dead), however the second and third definitely looked like your vole.

    And I still question who ripped out a whole hosta and feasted on all the roots. Could a little vole tear out a young (still 4 eyed) Pilgrim and drag it 6 feet away from its original location? Hmmm, I wonder which came first, the ripping or the feasting. I guess if the roots were already missing, this could be the efforts of two perpetrators (I had not thought of that).

    Vole Trails


  • kcmojoe
    16 years ago

    HOW FAR ARE YOU WILLING TO GO?

    If you can stomach it, go to the pet store ...... walk past the cats.... walk past the dogs... and back to the snakes. blow some money on a king snake or black snake. Take him home. dont feed him for a day or two then take him out the next night, open up one of those mounds and turn him loose.

    I like snakes , so if you can handle them, they are a nice enforcer. And if you are luck (or what i consider lucky) he might even make a home of your yard for good.

    PS . dont tell my wife this, she is deathly afraid of snakes and would move out if she knew what I have done. :)

  • kines
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I think snakes are great, and my wife doesn't mind them. I had thought of your idea, but assumed that the appropriate snake would be any or all of: unavailable, unaffordable, and likely to slither right past the voles and take my investment miles away with them (they probably don't do well with leashes LOL).

    So, would it really work?!?

  • kcmojoe
    16 years ago

    Well there are a lot of different variables that will effect how well the snake solution will work. First I am not familiar with the NC area very well, but if you get a Black snake in Missouri after the spring rain falls, and get him really hungry then turn him loose you should have some good results immediatly. Also, if the pet shop is cheap enough and has the know how, try to get a male and a female around march and keep then indoors together. You may get lucky and get one pregnant.
    Other variables:
    1) I have a relative average sized yard so my Vole population was not HUGE.
    2) This solution is only an immediate solution but not a permanent one, unless the snake becomes thrilled with its new home and stays.

    HEre is a helpful link on Black rat snakes:

    http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/Facts/FactSheets/Blackratsnake.cfm

  • dirtdevil
    16 years ago

    So sorry about your plants. I too have a vole problem here in New Jersey. The little darlings had been driving me crazy for years. One day I was standing there looking at the garden and right before my eyes I stared in disbelief as a plant was pulled under the ground from below. From that point on I started planting plants - any plants not just hostas - in hardware cloth "baskets". This has worked in keeping the roots safe but on occasion the voles surface and chomp the plant at soil level and my voles have no problem in coming out during the day. So I started spreading Dr. T's Mole Out around the plants (it is castor oil impregnated granules effective against moles and voles) and spraying the plants with Bobbex Animal Repellent. I've even just sunk large nursery pots with small pieces of hardware covering the drainage holes (so the voles can't get in them) into the ground with the plants in them. But I think the hardware cloth is better for the plants because the roots can expand out of the holes but still keep the hosta crowns and the majority of the roots safe. So far I have won the battle. It is very discouraging (and expensive) to lose a lot of plants to creatures. Using some type of barrier method I think is the best way to go. Mouse trapping them is only marginally effective since the little devils reproduce faster than bunnies. Good luck

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    16 years ago

    oh come on .. how do you get the snake back ... once you let him free.. or do we presume he just stays in your garden ...

    or do you train them to come to your call???? here snakey .. here snakey .... oh good boy .. come on here... oh, good boy ... rotfl .....

    ken

  • sassy7142
    16 years ago

    Janice, now is a good time to post that picture again that you had showing us the difference between a vole and a shrew.
    You know, the graphic with the bullseye on the vole.
    Can you find it and post it again? I need a reminder myself which is the good one and which is the bad one.

  • kcmojoe
    16 years ago

    Actually, I never said anything about getting the snake back. What I am suggesting is a throwaway solution. The snake will make a home out of your garden if the food supply (voles) remains adequate and he has a good area to avoid his own predators. Once that is established he/ she will eradicate a large portion if not all of the voles (especially Black Rat snakes as they have voracious appetites). If the voles are eradicated or stay away, then obvously the snake will move on. But from my experience you spend just as much money on chemicals and traps as a snake would cost and you will just end up doing it all over again the next year. anyways, just my opinion.

  • rhian1978
    16 years ago

    Does anyone have any advice for dealing with the uneven ground caused by the tunnels, holes, and so forth? My yard was attacked by critters and now it has lumps and bumps all over. My main concern is how to deal with the unevenness of the ground, because it's hard to get around. Am I going to have to get it tilled and then re-seed the grass?

  • Janice
    16 years ago

    Sassy--I have just revisited this thread, thanks to rhian bringing it back up, so I will do as you suggested with the pics. of vole and shrew! :o)

    {{gwi:1062285}} {{gwi:1062286}}

    And how about those snakes:

    {{gwi:1062287}} {{gwi:1062288}}

  • deshima
    16 years ago

    Use Vole Block or Permatill you can get it at any Southern States store, or get rock dust clean it and that will do the same for less.

  • Janice
    16 years ago

    I have to confess, Richard, that I had no idea what *rock dust* is, much less how to "clean it"
    but I researched and at least found that it is a type of fertilizer. I found the link below,
    which looks very interesting but I didn't see anything on the site, that claims that product can be used
    as a vole repellent! There were other options for that purpose though that looks worth
    looking into, as well!

    Have you used it and found it to work well for you? I hope that is your experience because it does
    look inexpensive!! :O) But--how do you "clean it"???

    We love to save money, right--so we can have more to spend on hosta???

    Here is a link that might be useful: Source for all kinds of repellents

  • lavendargrrl
    16 years ago

    Hi Kines,

    I know this is an older thread, and I do hope you've got your vole population under control now :) I was having similar issues with voles decimating my hostas.

    This spring the guy who does my quarterly pest control brought this contraption that seems to be working really well for me. It's a hard plastic black box with 2 small holes for the voles to enter. The box actually locks and there's a key that opens it. He placed a huge bait block inside, and also scattered some kind of powdered poison along the route inside the box to the bait block. Up until today, I haven't opened it to see if the bait was being eaten. Since he brought it out, the voles haven't damaged another hosta in my beds.

    Exterior:
    {{gwi:1062289}}

    Interior:
    {{gwi:1062290}}

    ~Angie

  • sassy7142
    16 years ago

    Hostabuff, How many voles have you trapped so far?

  • whip1 Zone 5 NE Ohio
    16 years ago

    One comment about the snake, it's illegal, and not a good idea to introduce non native species. The snake you release better be native to your area.

  • toymr2mk2
    16 years ago

    Angie,
    Since I live near the water what I call wharf rats and what the exterminator calls roof rats are pretty common. He has put the bait traps out for them but I never thought about using them for the voles. The next quarterly visit I will have to talk to him about them. Thanks for the idea!
    Art

  • hostabff
    16 years ago

    Sassy, I have only caught five. Then no voles for a few weeks. I pulled the buckets and traps and gave it a rest. However I was recently working in the garden with the vole/chipmunk/mole holes(still not convinced who lives there)...sooooo...I am going to reset traps this week. I was thinking of building the traps described in the Hosta Journal, using pvc pipes and elbows, with bait inside. It might be worth it because I usually experience more damage in winter...

  • sassy7142
    16 years ago

    Here's an article that I found on Plant Delights website:

    You know you have voles if your entire hosta clump disappears into a subterranean hole, or returns in the spring as a fraction of it's last years size. Voles (herbivorous mole relatives) are easy to control if you follow all three steps. First vole bait (rat poison) must be applied every 10 feet through the infected area. If you can find the runs, then apply the material there. If a run isn't evident, then put the material on the ground (they find your hostas don't they). Secondly, cover all of the bait, as the voles only feed in the dark. We like to use clay flower pots (it makes visitors ask questions). Thirdly, repeat the procedure in 2 weeks. This doesn't mean three or four weeks...TWO. If you follow this procedure, you will get rid of your vole problem.

    Voles are most active in early spring and early fall. When we had severe vole problems, we applied the vole bait for two years (both in spring and fall) until the problem was eliminated. If you have pets, be sure and check with your vet as to the toxicity of the product that you use on your pet and other non- target species.

    In 1987, we were the first ones to recommend mixing pea gravel into the soil for vole control at a national conference. This has now been spread around the world, but in all bizarre manners. Our original recommendation is to spread 1-2 inches of pea gravel (#78) washed stone over the planted area, then incorporate it to 10 inches deep. The sharp points of the gravel seem to deter the voles from damaging the plants. It doesn't kill the voles, it only moves them to another part of the garden.

  • bunnycat
    16 years ago

    KN~

    If you don't want to try rat bait, and are will to try giving the kitty a try, how about just letting him/her out in the evening after the birds have gone to bed. Voles do most of their damage at night, I've read, so maybe kitty will go play hide-and-seek(-and kill). If kitty likes the job, you definitely don't want to be using poison, or kitty will be eating poison too. (oh no!!!)

    If kitty likes the fun and games, it may be hard to get him/her back in by bedtime. If kitty is a good mouser, you will find lots of ugly vole "presents" at your door.

    ~Bunnycat