17-10-2004, 11:05 PM
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(Fitz Grips) wrote in message . com...
FACE wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:32:29 -0400, Chelsea Christenson
A master gardener says they are voles and I use the nasty stuff by
the paths around my garden where they come in from other community
gardens and inside my garden my foot sinks, my water path sinks into a
hole and they just push up a little inch high bump every 8-10 feet in
solid soil. I can probe and find their tunnel system and dig down
nect to the perimeter path for the flares and stuff to keep them out.
So I have a 60X60 foot garden and that is a lot of wire but guess I
gotta since no big gopher snakes in the area. Could I pay postage for
a big one? Smile
JP
of course they are voles and for 18 months I had terrible problems
with them. I tried traps (would catch a few, but not enough). I poured
a box and a half of rat poison into the tunnels, and I am quite the
organic type but I was getting desperate. Exactly the same tunnels you
describe, running along the bed edges, two inches in, 3-5 inches down
(they could not get deeper because under the beds it is somewhat
boggy). The beds, underneath, were lined with chicken wire, so they
stayed above it. Finally, I dug up all beds one spring, and from that
moment on I spread large amounts of predator urine. never saw a tunnel
since, and it has been two growing seasons. You have to keep spreading
it until they are set to a different location for winter, or
continuously if you live in a milder climate.
Another thing I do religiously now is to keep the beds free of mulch
until Thanksgiving, as mulch attracts them specially in winter. I also
make a pile of leaves on the other side of the yard (next year's
mulch), which is clearly full of voles (several neighboring cats go
nowhere else when they come visit), and finally, I no longer put
unfinished compost on the beds unless it is way beyond edible.
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