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Vegetable Gardening

Rodent or voles problem

15 years ago

I had at least 5 turnips gone this weekend and my neighbor thinks its voles. I googled it and noticed I do see them sometimes in the garden. I don't use any chemical fertilizer and only use compost so I don't want to use chemicals if possible. What could be the easiest way to control them ? I was fine with the slugs taking away a portion of my vegetable in order to grow organic product but the voles simply eat away or waste most of the produce and leave a hole where the roots used to be. Its like sometimes pulled the turnips from inside the earth... the plant is left handing there but the roots are all gone. Very clean job too. Do you think rat trap with peanut butter would be enough ? All my beds are raised and I grow mostly kohlrabi, cauliflower, turnip, zucchini etc and except for zucchini, they have attacked almost everything. I also had oranges that were half eaten from the plant last month - wonder if voles were the culprit there too.

thank you

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Comments (3)

stephen_albert
15 years ago
Rat trap with peanut butter is exactly what I use for the voles (usually just one or two a year) who find my raised beds. I attached the trap to a line so that I can easily recover the trap.

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com
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bella_trix
15 years ago
Greenthumbs -

Do not use killing rat or mouse traps outside in the garden. You are about 95% more likely to catch a useful bird in the trap than a vole. Finding a dead or injured wren is not any fun. As Stephen suggests, if you can get the trap all the way down the rodent hole, you may be OK, but do not use them out in the open. I've even caught birds in my Havahart traps.

Two good options are live traps and castor oil repellents.

I had really good luck with a live-mouse (well, vole) trap called the smart mouse trap. It's a small green house with a really cool design. I had the best luck using peaches and peanuts as bait. I put a peach slice and peanuts in the bait section (you'll see once you have the trap) and threw a few peanuts in the main section, too. I placed the trap near the entrance to a vole hole or on one of their pathways, with a piece of cardboard laid over the whole trap. Be very careful on hot days. Once the vole is in the trap, it can overheat very easily (not a nice way to die). I set mine in early evening and checked every 15-30 minutes, depending on the temperature. It wasn't long before I caught voles.

Once you have the vole, you can dump it into a five gallon bucket for transport. They can't jump very high. I released mine on a grassy, seed-covered slope (with lots of ground cover), next to a road. Cattail areas are also good habitat. Just make sure it is far away.

Castor oil repellents are considered organic and I have had luck with them keeping the voles away from my potatoes. Any garden store should have a mole (works on voles, too) repellent with castor oil as the main ingredient.

Good luck! Don't let the little buggers get you down!
Bellatrix

Here is a link that might be useful: Smart Mouse Trap
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rdback
14 years ago
Greenthumbs,

Did you ever get rid of these things? If so, how please?

Bellatrix,

I've found a castor oil based repellent (Dr. T's Mole Out @ Lowes). It's 10% castor oil mixed with 90% clay pelletized. Now, the label says safe for yards, flower beds, gardens, etc. but it doesn't say VEGETABLE gardens specifically. Paraphrasing, the directions say poke a hole in the tunnel every five feet and pour a TBL of the granules in. Then, cover the hole. Lastly, sprinkle over entire area and water in - lasts up to 60 days.

Since you've had success using this type of product in your potato bed, how did you do it exactly? Put some in the tunnel? Sprinkle your whole potato patch? Or...what? I've got the same problem (root crop), only it's onions and garlic.

I guess I'm a little concerned about sprinkling it over the whole row, being these are ROOT crops and they'll be sucking this stuff up lol!

Thanks

Rick
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