Re: voles
- Subject: Re: [sibrob] voles
- From: J* M*
- Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 18:25:21 -0500
Murphy Here,
Murphy's law applies mainly to me. :)
As to voles, here are some interesting tidbits.
Voles are principally underground eaters and they are mostly vegetarian. They
prefer roots and crowns of plants for their main course. They can tunnel, but
will just as soon follow a mole tunnel to great plants. Moles are principally
carnivores. They prefer grubs when they can find them. That is why some lawn
areas are hard to walk on in the spring and fall. During these periods, grubs
are near the surface.
Voles do best in heavily mulched or very densely packed leaf areas. Typically,
if you leave the leaves on a large clump of iris or other perennial, it makes
great cover for them and helps to keep the area from freezing.
They look like a mole, except that their feet are not as paddle like and they
have bigger eyes.
Mice are much different creatures, although they are small and brown or grey
also. They have perky ears, large eyes, and feet more like cats or dogs. They
mainly hide underground, or in holes or dark piles of downed trees or brush.
They too can damage plants, but mainly tree and shrub bark in the winter. If
mulch or leaves are piled up on the trunk of a woody plant, they will strip the
bark in the winter, when there is little to feed on.Voles will also strip bark.
The tunnels under the snow but above the ground are usually mice and rats in
this area. In areas where the ground freezes solidly under the snow, then, voles
will run above the ground. Jim
Harold wrote:
> It is my understanding that "vole" and "field mouse" are essentially the
> same thing.
>
> The fact that all criters eat the most valuable items first is a colorary of
> Murhphy's Law.
>
> Harold Peters
> Beautiful View Iris Garden
> 2048 Hickok Road
> El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
> harold@directcon.net www.beautiful-view-iris.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Walkup" <krw25@cornell.edu>
> To: <sibrob@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 18, 2002 3:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [sibrob] voles
>
> > Re Voles,
> > Can't say if it was voles or mice, but the one year I didn't get
> > around to cutting back the foliage on my irises in fall, some rodent type
> > critter cleaned out a whole row of hard-to-get sino-siberians. When the
> > snow melted, you could see a tunnel on the surface, and nothing at all
> > where the plants had been. Sometimes it takes a hard lesson to learn. It
> > does seem uncanny how you lose the stuff you value the most.
>
>
> To post to Sibrob: sibrob@yahoogroups.com
>
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