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Re: Rabbits or Voles

I've had the same happen here. I believe the culprit to be a skunk (or a
few). They are actually quite precise with their small holes. I think they
see the open ground as an open house for grubs and other soil dwelling
goodies.
Ron

At 10:52 AM 8/17/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Thanks Jim....have you tried watering them in?...In other words , does
>watering them as you plant help any?  Other suggestions point to skunks or
>even raccoons, but the holes are no wider than 2 or 3 of my
>fingers....Don't think a raccoon could be that precise and probably neither
>could a skunk....thanks again
>
>
>                                                                  
> (Embedded                                                        
> image moved   James MacDonald <jmacdon @ access.digex.net>       
> to file:      08/17/98 10:25 AM                                  
> pic25752.pcx)                                                    
>                                                                  
>
>
>
>Please respond to prairie@mallorn.com
>
>To:   prairie @ mallorn.com
>cc:    (bcc: Alan Rider)
>Subject:  Re: Rabbits or Voles
>
>
>
>
>At 08:47 AM 7/28/98 -0500, you wrote:
>>I have transplanted a number of wildflowers and find that within a couple
>>of days (sometimes overnite) they are dug up and dead.  At first I thought
>>it was rabbits, but now I am not so sure.  I now wonder if my problem is
>>voles, which I have plenty in the area.
>>Can anyone confirm and/or comment?
>>Any suggestions?
>>
>>Area is in Central ILLinois.
>
>I used to have this problem many times myself here in south central
>Wisconsin.  I would plant out the little seeding guys in my prairie
>restoration and over the next few days I would discover they had been dug
>back up.
>
>I have no idea what is doing this but I have managed to find a solution
>that works for me.  Over the years I noticed that the nighttime diggers
>seemed much more interested in the loose soil than they did in the plants.
>Many times I would discover that the entire planting had been dug up and
>the seedlings would be intact mixed in with the soil thrown out on the
>ground.  I suspected that whoever was doing it was looking through the
>loose soil for something they thought one of their pals had just buried.
>
>In my case at least the problem was solved by very firmly packing down the
>surface of all the soil in the planting.  This is not what they teach you
>about transplanting seedlings.  The theory is that the seedlings do better
>in loose soil, but not if they are immediately dug back up.  I leave the
>sub-soil loose but the surface has to be very firm.  Since I started
>packing the entire surface the digging has completely stopped.
>
>Jim MacDonald
>
>
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>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora32\attach\pic25752.pcx"
>
Ron Lane
RL7836@worldnet.att.net
Central NJ, USA

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