vole metro

[Suee]

We've just discovered the cause of circular holes around the garden. Lifting a stone we saw the voles. They have created an extensive underground system and I'm worried that they will eat all the roots of my plants, and worse, that the land will eventually crumble away under the weight of the tractor. Any ideas about what we can do?

[Chrisc]

Get a 'thumper' they just push into the ground and use 4 D batteries-they work in about 2-4 weeks as voles hate vibration-check the local jardinage.

[Malcw]

Would these be holes around 1 inch diameter, going down not quite vertical? We've got quite a few in our lawn, and apart from a small toad living in one of them we've never seen anything and wondered what had made them.

[Kent]

I've got very similar holes in my lawn too and was wondering what the cause was?

[Lori]

Sorry, but what is a vole?? Is it a mole??

[Weedon]

[quote]Sorry, but what is a vole?? Is it a mole??[/quote]

A vole is like a mouse only smaller with a pointed snout and has a high pitched squeak when frightened by a cat or a dog but cats usually don't like them.

The numerous holes all over your garden may well be voles but more likely to be field mice (mulots) which take over the runs of moles (taupe).

Whatever they are it is good hunting material for different types of owl and kestrels and for all I know other nocturnal thingys.

If your garden is anything like mine I am convinced that one day the whole area will drop by 3 inches (only joking).

I have to confess that I do put poison seed into the holes beacause I hate the mice coming into the house in the winter.

I haven't tried the "thumper" but I have tried sticking kids windmills into the ground with little effect. I was told by a proffesional parks keeper in the UK that there was very little you can do to get rid of moles except to remove the 'slag heaps' and fill the holes with sand. When I was a bit paranoid about the moles I have been known to run like hell for my spade whenever I saw the mole hills moving in order to give it a b****y big whack which I read somewhere did them no good but I hit the ground so hard it hurt my shoulder so I now just flatten the ground with my garden tractor and worry about other things like getting rid of flies!!!!!!!

Weedon(53)

[Suee]

[quote]Would these be holes around 1 inch diameter, going down not quite vertical? We've got quite a few in our lawn, and apart from a small toad living in one of them we've never seen anything and wondered ...[/quote]

Yes they are about that size. I actually found some red pellets in Bricomarche to deter "campagnoles" and they seemed to do the trick. The holes don't seem to be in use now, so we hope they have gone away!

[Iceni]

OK, we have voles, we have voles for France BUT the little blighters did not seem to do much damage. Some plant roots went but the plants recovered.  They had the odd onion and more than the odd potato, but hey, they left enough for us - NOW I HAVE DECLARED WAR.  My wonderful and lovley leeks - huge tasty leeks, are suddenly getting shorter, I take a look and lo and behold they have been eaten away leaving just the tops to rot.

I have been out and sprinkled rat poison down the holes (the type that does not kill predators if they eat a treated vole), I did wonder about mothballs but decided that kidney cancer was too high a price to pay for dead voles (I have been surfing the net for solutions).  Now one I may try is predator smells.  Voles fear large birds and that includes chickens.  A 20% egg in water solution is supposed to work wonders - as we have a glut I may give it a try but I worry what may be attracted to the smell of gently aging egg mixture.

Off to by some more leeks if they have them tomorrow and they will go in the raised bed - they don't like that bed so much but they do infest it on occasion.