OT: Moles, voles, gophers and groundhogs
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: OT: Moles, voles, gophers and groundhogs
- From: "* G* C* <j*@erols.com>
- Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:55:18 -0600 (MDT)
The question was raised by someone -- Rima? -- what does a vole look
like? A vole (based on direct observation as I cleared away my woodpile)
looks like a stubby-tailed mouse with small ears. It is grayish. It
leaves a raised trail about an inch wide in the ground as it burrows
toward your most treasured bulbous plant. A mole, on the other hand,
leaves a raised trail about 2 1/2 - 3 inches wide. It cares nothing
about your plants, unless they happen to be in the way as it bulldozes
through the ground in search of insects, grubs, etc. The mole is a
generally harmless creature, unless you insist that your lawn resemble
the surface of a pool table. It is marvelous to cup a velvety, captured
mole in your hands and feel the strength of its forelegs as it tries to
escape. A mole cannot hurt you. Gophers (distinguishable by their
lateral stripes) and groundhogs (both of whose bites CAN hurt you) are
very good for sharpening the skills of budding archers. I have (in my
youth) spent considerable time crouched in tall grass waiting for a
groundhog to peer out from his den, so I could skewer him with a shaft
from my bow. Gophers, on the other hand, were targets of opportunity,
prone to pop up intermittently as one traversed the golf course with the
greenskeeper's best wishes. In either case, the results were the lips of
groundhog and gopher holes neatly transected by arrows with no harm to
the denizens -- their hearing being so acute that the snap of the bow
reached them before the deadly missile launched therefrom.
Griff Crump, along the tidal Potomac near Mount Vernon, VA
jgcrump@erols.com
Griff Crump. along the tidal Potomac near Mount Vernon, VA
jgcrump@erols.com
