Re: Help-roots eaten.
Hmm-what kind of bait--the same stuff used for mice? Do you mean to place
the bait on the surface of the soil in the jar, horizontally, or bury the
bait jar vertically--wouldn't that get full of water though? I'd like to
try to get them under control. I see 2 cats that spend a lot of time
watching the wall--they must be neighbor's cats, my cat is too old to hunt
any more. Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: <ECPep@aol.com>
To: <perennials@mallorn.com>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2000 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: Help-roots eaten.
> In a message dated 7/3/00 12:59:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mtalt@clark.net
> writes:
>
> <<
> Agree with Dean - definitely sounds like voles. In between cat
> populations, had about all my Hosta roots eaten - huge clumps would
> come right out of the ground. Luckily, they are tough guys and
> regenerated. A hunting cat is the best vole deterrent. Lacking one,
> planting in wire cages works and backfilling around plants with sharp
> gravel helps as they aren't that keen on digging in rocks. >>
>
>
> My experience is the same as the others. One more thing to do is to
change
> the location of the sedums. Voles (and in the fall squirrels) are
attracted
> to recently disturbed soil. If you really love those sedums, you can
plant
> the roots between two bricks. The sedums will do fine as they like good
> drainage.
>
> Another trick is to plant the attractive plant in a black nursey pot
slicing
> down the sides with knife after a year or two. If the plant is one you
really
> love have more than one location. Voles have nothing to do all day except
> hunt for food. Of course, we should have nothing to do all day except
police
> the garden. Even the cats, I have three, are sick of the voles.
>
> Poison bait is the best way to reduce (not remove) the population. If you
> put the bait into a glass jar with a small neck and secure it from rolling
> around, the vole population will be thinned. You can camouflage the jar
with
> some gravel or mulch. Putting the bait into a jar will protect birds and
> cats. The baits are now colored with bright colors so you do not lose
them
> in the soil.
>
> I buy lilies and botanical tulips every year as the previous year's bulbs
are
> nearly always pillaged. Once I watched a vole tunnel under the soil. You
> can see the movement from the top of the soil bed. It zeroed in on a lily
in
> the cold frame and rendered that cold frame useless for geophytes. Sorry
> about "geophyte" but it is the catalog term currently used for plants with
> underground storage systems allowing dormancy. Keeping up is a challenge!
>
> Claire Peplowski
> East Nassau, NY z4
>
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