Voles!!!!!

15 years ago

I know this has been discussed before but I need to vent, plus most importantly I'm desperate for good ideas. I bought my house 10 years ago. The wife was a master gardener who had lived there 16 years whose specialty was hostas and lilys. They had a nice compost pile going and supposedly the best garden soil in the neighborhood. I immediately picked up on the hosta tradition she started, learning to divide and also buying new hostas and just generally trying to keep the beautiful gardens going. Most of the gardens are shaded but some have sun, and she had many, many varieties. At one point several years ago I counted over 300 hostas in total. Like most of my neighbors, I have problems with moles but in general they don't harm the hostas. In recent years I've had some disappear or shrink in size over the winter, which I've learned to live with. My most recent and greatest aggravation over the last couple years are voles. They seem to love to eat the roots of many of the various new hostas I plant and lovingly care for. Yet I look at certain neighbor's hostas which have been there for probably decades or longer and the people aren't nearly as fastidious as I am re maintenance, and their hostas endlessly thrive. I'm getting gunshy about buying new hostas because I know they won't survive our voracious voles. Is there a silver bullet cure? Do I have to plant all my hostas in larger containers submerged in the ground? I know darn well my neighbors aren't taking any special measures to protect their hostas. Should I just learn to live with this or is there something I can do that won't take so much time I'll have to quit my day job?

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Comments (8)

Janice
15 years ago
I'm going to tell you WHY the voles love your *restaurant* better than the neighbors--your soil has been and apparently
continues to be conditioned by all the composting, so that it is so easy for voles to make their way to the roots.

I had the same thing happen to me--not far from you it sounds like--and whereas much of my lot is hard-rock clay
there are areas where every winter I piled on the leaves I removed from the lawn every Fall.
That is where the voles made their appearance.

What I did--was I purchased rat poison (Lowes--Ace Hardware-grocery store--anywhere really) and I took jars
and in the lids of the jars I drilled a 1/2-3/4" round entry point.
I thought about hanging a sign that said 'Hosta Diner' on it but it seems I didn't have to! I put the poison in the jar
or bottle and I laid them on their sides facing east so the rain couldn't get in easily! It worked!!!! I've done this
with very narrow necked bottles, as well!

I'm thinking I will do some heading off this year, by doing the same--just in case--there were any survivors
who may alert other voles to come to our place!!!

Frustrating isn't it! But, don't you just love your amended and conditioned soil!!
inlimbo
15 years ago
I had the worst voles when I had a 4' layer of fine mulch laid...

It hardened on the top as they often do, and when I broke it up the following spring, the hardened crust lifted to show tons of tunnels below the crust & above the ground - too easy digging, 'pears to me.

No more Mrs. Nice Guy -- bare soil from now on....
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I just came across this thread and had to chime in. I've tried traps, castor oil concoctions, and I have a great hunting cat...however, none of them were anywhere near as effective as this simple solution I discovered a year and a half ago. First, in the fall, stay ahead of the leaf litter. DO NOT LET LEAVES LAY ON YOUR BEDS! The voles shelter under the leaves away from the eyes of hawks and owls. Besides, with the leaves gone, you will be able to spot the tunnel entrances with ease. Now go to your local hardware store (not big box) or Amazon.com and buy "just one bite" bar rat and mice poison. It is a seedy-poison-waxy bar that will not disintegrate when wet. I wear disposable gloves and break the bar into green pea size pieces and poke one piece into the opening of each tunnel entrance. I do it in the early fall and again in late winter when they are hungriest. No PVC tubes, no repeat baiting...I promise you that even this halfhearted strategy has reduced my vole population easily by 85%. I have at least a hundred hostas and at least as many perennials and shrubs on a wooded two acre lot and I lost one hosta and had damage to one hosta this year...no shrub damage...this year was by far my best year as far as barely no vole damage! I'm rejoicing! For what it's worth, I read that the small amount the voles eat, combined with the fact they metabolize it makes it no risk to larger animals like cats and hawks that may possibly eat a poisoned vole or mouse...besides I have not seen a single dead vole on the ground. I'm thrilled with my success and hope you have the same experience.Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002SAQ7ZM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1444518819&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=just+one+bite&dpPl=1&dpID=410DNMpGGUL&ref=plSrch
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woodthrush
15 years ago
I agree, the mulch was a vole haven for me too. Even the rock borders around the beds can be hiding places for them.
Pam
inlimbo
15 years ago
Yikes - make that 4" not 4'.....

Four feet might be a tad e x t r e m e.....

tee hee
cincyhostaguy
Original Author
15 years ago
I'll try the poison approach I guess, thanks for that suggestion, although I'm wondering if voles are anything like moles, there seems to be no way to eradicate them all, no matter in their case how many traps are set.

As to mulch, that's not an issue with me as I've got either bare ground or a minimal layer of pine straw.

Any additional ideas are welcome!
inlimbo
15 years ago
Search for a recent post about putting rodenticide in the bottom of wine bottles & laying them in the garden maybe hey_j or regatttagirl?

Haven't had to try it yet - thanks garden gods- but the logic appeals - small opening, long neck, wine consumed....
regattagirl
15 years ago
Sorry, not me, but for some reason it sounds like me...hmmmm...

I'll take being included in a group with hey_j anyday! Thanks for that! Although she may not feel the same.

regatatgirl
p.s. Found the thread below...

Here is a link that might be useful: vole death by wine bottle and rat poison
regattagirl
15 years ago
And I forgot to mention that it WAS hey_j !!! So, inlimbo, you have a good memory.

Voles!!!!!

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Voles!!!!!

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