I think I have VOLES!

I've suspected for a while that something was happening in the garden that I couldn't put my finger on. Yesterday I noticed the leaves to my soybeans were gone - just the stems have been left. They look like little green sticks set about six inches apart!

I did some research and have decided I must have voles (field mice).

What I need now are owls, snakes and perhaps a neighboring cat!

Anyone have ideas as to how I can persuade these critters to go back to whence they came?

Before I purchased my little dog, Chloe, I had considered a Jack Russel - but then someone pointed out that they are "diggers." A Jack Russell looks rather good right now. I've tried telling Chloe there must be some J.R. in her somewhere - go get them voles!

We have voles too - I saw one the other day, it was hiding under the hose when I lifted it up. I jumped 6 feet in the air but surprisingly did not give it a heart attack, it just ran away. I think it has eaten the bulbs I planted in the front garden as nothing came up and there are kind of tunnel-patterns visible in the mulch. The only thing I read was to poison them, no other controls I could find, I personally can't do it... My veggie containers are inside a fence and seem to be ok in there, but I only have a few.

They don't like Castor Bean. I planted one in my front yard and they all left. But you have to cut the seed pods off as they dry out or you'll have them sprouting everywhere. And they are poisonous so have to be careful if you have dogs or small kids.

Pam

I had great luck using snap-mouse traps. I set them with peanut butter and some dry oats, and put them next to a hole the voles made, then covered with a trash can lid. Got Three voles i n two days.
But I gotta say--from what I've read they prefer to stay underground and eat roots. Do you see holes in the ground about an inch diameter? Can you dig and find tunnels?

I've had voles. Ways to deal with them:

1) keep your lawn mowed short. They like long grass and live in it in the winter.
2) use Mole-Stop. It is a mix of castor oil that you water into the ground. Voles don't like it either. I tried it, and it did the trick. It doesn't kill them; they just don't like the smell. I have voles in other parts of the yard, but not where I had used this stuff. You just have to make sure you water it in good. I have not seen anything about it killing worms, like one person said. Or other bugs, for that matter.
3) traps. You can get traps specific for voles that are little plastic things. I didn't catch any, but they would not go anywhere near them. I set them next to plants they had damaged and they did not damage them again.
4) a knowledgeable cat. My cat was a very good hunter, but she was unable to keep up with the vole population explosion in that place. It was my fault because I did not mow the low short in fall. I found they had been tunneling in the grass and using a skunk burrow all winter.

Great tips, everyone - thank you!

If you look carefully at the photo, you can see where the voles have removed the lower leaves from the soy beans. The other soy beans that they did the same thing to are regrowing their leaves.

Yeah, they were stripping my pepper plants like that.

paracelsus - where did you buy your Mole Stop? The sites I looked at only mentioned Mole Stop for Moles.

I used the Mole Stop for moles. It worked good for the voles. I read about using it for voles somewhere, maybe on a forum. The main thing was you had to water it in more than they said on the container.

paracelsus - I'll give Mole Stop a try. Do you remember where you purchased it?

I'm pretty sure it was Lowe's. We haven't got much here, and I know I didn't buy it online, so it must have been there.

Thanks, paracelsus, I told hubby about Mole Stop, and he's afraid our dog might get into it and get poisoned. I'll have to read the label before purchase.

It's castor oil with an emulsifier that makes it soluble in water. I don't know how dogs do with castor oil, but it is considered medicinal for people. It's not ricin! :)

Thanks, paracelsus. I thought it was ricin, I'm glad to hear it's not. Can I buy castor oil in a drug store if it's medicinial?

I don't know, but it wouldn't mix with water without the emulsifier.

paracelsus - I did some research on Caster Oil and found that it is, indeed Ricin and is very poisonus.

Here are two links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil_plant

According to the 2007 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, this plant is the most poisonous in the world.

Because I have two small dogs (my daughter's and my own) I won't be able to use caster oil, or it's seeds as a vole detterent.

You're mixing up the castor bean plant with castor oil. Castor oil does not contain any ricin. Notice that even the Wikipedia article you cited explains that castor oil is a food additive and medicinal, and the FDA says of castor oil that it is "generally recognized as safe." When castor oil is made, the ricin is left behind in the pulp of the castor beans.

So there is nothing whatsoever dangerous about putting castor oil on anything.

paracelsus - I reread the article and you are correct. Are you certain it will be okay to use in the garden around the birds, bees, and our dogs?

I'm never comfortable with spraying or dusting anything on our garden - I'd rather let nature take it's course, but I feel if I don't do something to deter these voles, they will destroy everything.

Well, it's just castor oil and soybean oil with something added to help it mix with water. I don't know anything about whether dogs have a problem with castor oil or soybean oil. I don't know anything about the company that makes it, either. I have cats and one was an outdoor cat then, and I felt okay about using it. You might contact the company and see if they have any information about its toxicity. It's marketed as biodegradable. That's all I know. That, and it worked.

A year has past, and with the new season I expected the voles to reappear, but (so far) they haven't.

Now, it's not like a rodent to give up on free food, so I began to wonder why they have shunned me.

When hubby and I turned the compost bin last fall, I added blood meal to each layer. This spring each raised bed has received an inch or so of compost from that bin.

I have read that blood meal is a deterrent for voles. Ergo, the blood meal has (hopefully) worked!

I'm passing this along for any other members who are having problems with voles.

Thanks! That is for sure worth a try!!!

sallyg - This year I armed myself with something called: Plantskydd

http://www.arbico-organics.com/product/Plantskydd-Repellent-Rabbits-Critters

So far I haven't needed to use it.