I do not know anything of skinks. But I have suffered the wrath of voles in the garden. My first year growing roses many years ago those little )(*^Y*&%*& took out 14 roses in less than 2 weeks. They were healthy beautiful roses and the voles ate them at the base as if they were put in a pencil sharpener!! I'm tellin ya enough to make you cry when you plant over 40 roses and have garden lookin pretty and they take it away.

I have scinse then and always will use hardware cloth and put all my roses in cages. Oh its a pain and all but I have not lost one single rose scinse. No poisons or traps ect, I mean they are rodents guys they will multiply faster than you can kill em so to me cages just easier and once roses in them I don't have to worry.

At my old house i did accually dig around the bed and just put arount the bed at least a few of them because I had so many already planted. But I now only put em around the roses themself.

Goodluck in your vole nightmare no matter how you choose to handle it!!

Here's another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9cFspBjb-U

I set a dozen traps and caught not a single critter.

Now I'm buying rolls and rolls of 2' and 3' gopher wire, making baskets (sorry, having them made since my hands won't do it), digging up all 200 roses and planting and replanting everything in baskets.

I've tried these traps, cinch traps, black hole traps and caught all of three gophers and no voles in two years. I certainly wasn't gonna win the war that way.

Susan

I caught five gophers in two weeks. I'm really happy with that result. Now I have three dozen of these holes all over the place as the voles moved in to take over the old gopher runs. Just have to change methods for a while. I'm sure more gophers will show up in time. It will be an ongoing process. I don't mind, as long as I have a way to fight back.

I'm going to try this method first, just because it looks easier. If I don't have good luck with this, I'll go to setting traps in the gutter tunnels.

Glad it's not ground squirrels. I do see them around but I don't see their holes in the ground. I understand they are more difficult to trap. I'd call in a professional for them.

Rosefolly

Thank you!

I've actually gotten pretty fast at making my wire baskets, and I saw vole holes right by some roses that did wonderfully all year! That is amazing.

I still have to check the soil all the time with a stick to make sure the moles haven't made a tunnel too close, but the roses (etc) did extremely well.

My first vole experience was when I was convinced all my holes must be snakes, which I like. The wretched voles invaded a gravel bed interplanted with my roses from my old house. I tell you, roses were toppling each day like a demolition zone.

Whatever anyone does, do not ignore the first chewed-off rose. Do something!

can someone give me a link showing me how to make or get these wire baskets? That does seem like a great idea. I have a bunch of roses I am about to plant along the same area I hsve seen these holes and this might be the best way to go to insure they survive. I only have them in this one bed which is near woods. This is also where I have seen the raised tunnles in the past. Thanks ~Meghan

I can get pic maybe later today as I gotta do more work today getting ready for roses i plan to order.

I buy what they call at lowes hardware cloth, it is 1/4 inch galvanized steel and I buy the wide roll cut it in half then cut my cages from it. The cages can be however round u need. I do not fasten them shut anymore I just let the hole do that. The wire is about 20 dollars might be tad more as I haven't bought any in while. You get plenty of cages out of one of these rolls.

Be sure to pick up wire cutters to cut threw it!! I get the 1/4 inch cause remember voles are rats under the ground. In 5 years I have done this never seen them get a rose in 1 of my cages.

Oh and when i put mine down I let wire come up couple inches out of ground, the mulch usually will cover it for most part!

I found the hardware cloth too stiff to work with myself, but some places (Harmony Farm Supply in Graton) sell rolls of "gopher wire". It's like chicken wire in it's design, but slightly heavier gauge with about a 3/4" hole size.

(So far I've used two 100' rolls of 2' and two 100' rolls of 3', and today I'm heading out there to buy another roll of the 3'.)

Here's how the helpful woman at Emerisa showed me to make them: First cut a square of wire (if you are using the 2' wire, you cut a 2' length; if you are using the 3' wire you cut a 3' length). Now, fold it selvedge edge to selvedge edge; those selvedge edges will make the top of the basket and won't be rough or tear your fingers if you are weeding around the baskets later. Next, fold the raw end edges over a couple of times (as narrowly as possible) and hammer them flat and tight. Then open the basket into a rectangle and flatten the bottom. This creates a triangle at each end, which you fold flat underneath the basket.

When it gets warmer outside I'll go out and take a picture...not yet, though.

landperson i would be interested in seeing yours, I do however like mine simply because do not believe a ground rat the vole is is gonna get threw 1/4 inch versus 3/4 or more. Also with the galvanized steel it lasts a long time I've dug cages up for various reasons (usually planting to close) and cages are in good shape. I do not find it hard at all to get it to circle to go in the ground. anyway whatever works is all that matters right!

gonna try put pic in here its been a while so sorry if i mess this up my son took pic of it for me as he made one today for me

[IMG]http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss92/rosarose_2009/volecage.jpg[/IMG]

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:227859}}

Sorry, I went out to take the picture and of course my camera battery needed recharging. I really will take that picture today and load it up here.

Susan

I don't have any particular fondness for rodents, but I just don't have the heart to kill an animal. For me "exclusion" is a much easier method. I just keep all my roses in gopher cages, and have no problems. But I do laugh when I see a ring of gopher mounds around a caged rose.
On a related subject, I was going crazy with my son's cat who is a rat killing machine. There are weeks when I end up with 2 or 3 dead rats in the house, or patio. So, I came up with a new program called "Rats for Roses" Each time the cat brings me a dead rat, I bury it under one of my rose bushes. I have about 30 roses, so I just keep buring them , eventually all 30 roses end up with a nice little bonemeal/bloodmeal treat. By the time all 30 have been given a rat, the first rose is ready for another one. It's good for the roses, and it gives the little fellers a decnt burial.

Let's see if this works
http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/SusanJoM/gopher%20baskets/?action=view&current=IMG_4857.jpg
http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/SusanJoM/gopher%20baskets/?action=view&current=IMG_4856.jpg
http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/SusanJoM/gopher%20baskets/?action=view&current=IMG_4855.jpg

Okay, I'm hopeless. My apologies. I just don't know how to put the picture into the message itself. Here's a link to one picture

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:227860}}

This is great thanks!

Those are great!

I'll try to get pics of how I make mine.

Wow landperson that does look like it would work too!! Have you ever had to dig one up yet, how tough was it and could you reuse cage? Can i ask how much you paid for wire and how many cages you get out of it? If its less than hardware I will probably try it if its same then I probably wouldn't.

I pay about $100 for a 100' roll of the 3' wire, which makes about 30+ baskets. Since I just started digging up roses this winter and putting them back in the ground in the baskets, I haven't had the occasion to dig any of them back up/out. I'm trying to get all of the roses into baskets so the gophers won't have anywhere to go when they run into a basket where they used to have a free lunch, but I've still got rolls and rolls to go.....:-((((((

Susan

They seem to last 2-3 years from my experience. The hope is that after that much time, the roots will have hardened off, and gophers won't be interested in them. I am not all together comfortable with this theory.........

landperson trust me when I say I know and feel your pain. I lost 14 roses in less than 2 weeks when I discovered I had them. I had a really nice bed dug and mulched with over 20 roses and then had couple more beds with 15ish and I had to dig up all the roses in bigger bed and then decided just put the hardware cloth all around the smaller beds. I was most definitely back braking but yea it was worth it.

poodlepup LOL I know what ya mean each year when I go outside and feel the ground where a vole obviously burrowed threw sense my last time out I cringe and I just know one of these days one of those (insert not so nice word here) are gonna get in a cage and kill a good rose. But knock on wood hasn't happened yet thank heavens!

But looks like I get off cheaper with my wire so I will stay with it, mine definitely lasts 5 years for sure too.