Re: moles-voles

Dennis you asked about mole/vole solutions.

We live in a wooded area and have very little space, if any, that does not
have tree roots. Raised beds lined with hardware cloth make life easier. So
far that has kept the voles out of those iris and companion plants. However,
we still have a lot of things planted, including more iris, that could not go
in a raised bed. If we do not have enough of one plant to share with the
voles, we pot the plants in pots or wire cages (hardware cloth) and plant
those in the ground. Drain holes must be small and the rim should be about an
inch above ground. Roots will grow out of the cages but that is fair game. We
cage any hosta, lilies etc. that we don't want to loose.

We do not use poison to kill the voles because a dying vole can become a
poison vole for whatever eats it. 

The next suggestions we have not tried but many of our gardening friends have
with various degrees of success. 

1. Bait a mouse trap with peanut butter or apple or one each. Place each trap
next to a hole or active run, cover with bushel basket (or something that
size) and weight it down. 
2. The neighbor's cat.
3. Juicy fruit gum stick that you have not touched placed in an active run. 
4. Sharp edged gravel lining the hole a plant is in.
5. One person put edging in the ground around her vegetable garden.

Personally, I'm not sure one can win the war but it is nice to chalk up a
battle or two!

Nelda Pressly in Williamsburg VA
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index