I missed the first post (if there was one)
I am having a critter problem and trying to figure out what it was - can you link?
Whatever I have eats the roots but not the plant

That sounds like voles, hipchick. I have 4 cats and I permit them to go outdoors; this may not jive with your beliefs or it may not be feasible if you live in an urban area. But cats are effective, VERY effective. :)

I normally leave autumn's leaves where they fall, but that sets up perfect cover for voles. They sort of wriggle through the cover, partially digging, but never going completely subterranean as a mole would. You can't detect their movement and they can easily do great damage right in front of you. I now clean out the gardens that have plants I prize. In conjunction with "Rodent Control", I have not seen much damage in 3 years.

Here's the link to my first post:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/neweng/msg041913396354.html?11

It sounds like you have voles too. Like I said above, try to re-plant the plants with root damage. I am sorry that I didn't try harder to save some of the perennials I composted. I think I was just eager to clean-up, assess the damage and prepare to start over. I was quite upset by the whole thing!

Now I will plant my new plants with gravel in the hole and will be better about fall and spring clean-up.

Live and learn!

Thanks for the link, informative thread. Gravel in the hole- I will have to do that,great idea.
I am so sorry about your garden. Where are you located? maybe I can help you out with some replacements.

So what about mulch in general? I could cry, I have been putting down leaf mulch on all my perrenial beds on the advice of an organic gardener I know. So I probably laid out the welcome mat by doing that?

Here is a post I had on another board re: the critter

"Something fairly small is tunneling under my soil, and eating plants roots.
It is not a woodchuck- the tunnel is WAY too small for that, and when we had one he only ate the tops of plants.

Here is a typical occurance
Day 1 - oh look at the pretty flower!
day 2 - hmmm, that flower looks like it is wilting, and is leaning at a wierd angle. ~go over to flower, and realize it is now just a stem in a hole with no roots

It only eats certain things, it unfortunately loves delphiniums but doesn't touch other things around them - my peonies, iris, daylilies - all very close by- are fine. It only eats the roots, and from the top the plant looks fine - all leaves and flowers stay intact, but start to wilt, and that is when I notice.

The tunnels are about 2"-3" across. I saw a mole (i think) once in the yard about 2 years ago- could that be it?

Nope, it's a vole.

The voles use the holes that the moles made (Hey, that sounds like a rhyme!). Moles eat insects and grubs, not plants. But then voles use their tunnels and eat the roots of plants, just as you are describing. Also, I've found that they don't like peonies, daylillies and iris, as you are seeing. However, they ate everything (and I mean everything) else in my flower beds. Now, I've also found that they will avoid coreopsis, russian sage, mexican sage, lamium, and yarrow, among other things.

I have found that using a regular foliar spraying of fermented salmon (from The Coast of Maine) seems to help...and it's fantastic for the plants. I think the stench keeps that at bay.

Patty

Hi hipchick, thanks for the sympathy. I was really upset about it, but am recovering now and so is the garden. Just a lot more mulching this year due to the plant loss. I am in Southborough. Where are you?

I just read that possums eat voles - I was googling possums late last night, after my dog had a close encounter of the dumb retriever kind with one out in the yard.

Apparently, possums eat rodents of all types (from voles to rats) as well as lots of bad insects, and they are never aggressive, so they are good garden visitors. Also, they don't pass along communicable diseases the way other wildlife might do, because they're so different, biologically, from other animals (they're marsupials, after all).

I'll have to do some fact-checking, since this was all on a pro-possum site, but it sounds promising. By the way, my dog thought this possum was just great, he was wagging his tail at it so hard that I was concerned he might fall over. The possum did not look like he returned the feeling.

my mom had a possum she "adopted" and would feed it cat food. The thing was HUGE. I came home one night and it was in the garage (where she would feed it) scared the s**t out of me LOL

I looked at home depot today for something but the selection was limited. The guy recommended spraying cayenne pepper around.

Hi,

Gee DtD, thanks for that info about possum. We have had possums around every summer. Last year there was one in our rubbish barrel in the garage and he played dead when someone discovered him. My son, didn't know that they do that and he thought it was dead and when it suddenly showed signs of life again, it scared him to death..lol.

I am so glad to know they eat voles...yay! I have been worrying about getting them since I saw a baby mole last year in the fall.

Great news :-)

Opossums apparently don't stay in one place for long, but you can encourage them to visit by leaving them some shelter; they don't dig their own dens so they rely on undisturbed brush piles, spaces under decks etc.

Unfortunately, of course, these spaces also attract more undesirable visitors, like skunks. Had my dog's encounter the other night been with a skunk, I'd probably be clearing out the brush pile and the wilder corners of my yard. Don't know if there's a way to invite possums without also inviting the ... less appealing ... wildlife.

The only time I ever saw a live opossum was in NYC! I was working for the Parks Department and taking a required driving test to allow me to drive city vehicles.

I was driving into the main office building lot (near Shea Stadium in Queens), and a large possum meandered across the road right in front of me. I slowed to a stop as quickly as I could, being mindful of the inspector in the seat next to me, and watched in amazement as it took off, probably going into Flushing Meadow Park. At least it didn't come over and threaten to wash my windshield ...

Claire