voles

In a message dated 7/27/00 10:08:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
sagecoach@prodigy.net writes:

I have found that if you have small sharp rock material that you can mix
 with your soil around the plants, it hurts their little noses and they
 don't like that. I use old clay pot pieces or brick pieces. Tony Avent
 of suggests to use #10 pea gravel I believe. The sharp stone also adds
 drainage to your soil.
 
 Something else I have found is to use and old very large nursery pot to
 sink your plants in. They run up against it and have to go around it
 much like they do when they run into a sidewalk or brick wall. This is
 similar to the hardware cloth cages around the roots that are usually
 suggested in books but with out the hassle of having to make them. Be
 sure to cut the bottom out of the 3-5 (or more) gallon pot before
 sinking your plant in it. I have been finding similar uses for crock pot
 liners that have the bottom broken out. (this is called recycle
 gardening:-) . >>

To Bill, Dale and Marge and All,

I have voles in all of my gardened areas.  They eat lilies, tulips, all the 
lesser bulbs, hostas, dahlias, cannas (can't kill these) and any plant with a 
fleshy root that is near home to them.

I have three cats.

I have tried with some success all of the above methods.  Snakes allowed to 
live in the gardens are supposed to useful as well and we have lots of them.  

After ten years in my present garden, I never dealt with voles before, I have 
decided that they win.  It seems that we have provided an unnatural food 
supply and therefore encouraged a population explosion.

As to Bill's remark about a plant sucked into a hole, that does somewhat 
happen.  You go out to the garden and see a lily waving about several inches 
lower than the clump.  You find it has no bulb, no roots, nothing.  The stem 
is chewed and you can get awfully angry with voles.

We do not buy expensive lilies or tulips.  We buy mixes of lilies and any old 
tulip on sale at the end of the season.  We don't expect to see them again.  
I do regret the loss of botanical tulips and have tried to keep those safe.   
The hostas if good ones are split into two or three crowns as one will 
usually survive. Just plant them about six inches apart in a circle and they 
will fill in the clump. 

I have planted in wire baskets, sunken nursery pots, with grit or gravel or 
big rocks.  You cannot police voles.  Just now the voles, with their neat 
small holes in the soil, are cleaning out all the species crocus in our rock 
garden.  We will replant the lot in late September being grateful they let 
alone some rarer plants.  The required poison is more expensive than the 
crocus.

One cat brought a vole to us a day or two ago and left it on the garage 
floor.  She was plain sick of them as we are.

Claire Peplowski
East Nassau, NY z4

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