Is it a mouse or a vole?
 

I had some Brussel sprout plants left over after the main planting. 3
weeks ago I planted what was left rather than throw them away, I
planted them in a new small bed in the back garden adjoining fields.
Yesterday, 2 of the little plants had been severed at ground level and
the top of the plant was just left on the ground uneaten. What could
have caused this, mice, vole or could it be the rabbits they have been
burrowing under the fences but surely the rabbit would have eaten the
plant and not left it???

Is it a mouse or a vole?
 

"Judith in France" wrote ...
I had some Brussel sprout plants left over after the main planting. 3
weeks ago I planted what was left rather than throw them away, I
planted them in a new small bed in the back garden adjoining fields.
Yesterday, 2 of the little plants had been severed at ground level and
the top of the plant was just left on the ground uneaten. What could
have caused this, mice, vole or could it be the rabbits they have been
burrowing under the fences but surely the rabbit would have eaten the
plant and not left it???

Sounds more like slugs to me.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Is it a mouse or a vole?
 

"Judith in France" wrote
"Bob Hobden" wrote:
"Judith in France" wrote ...

I had some Brussel sprout plants left over after the main planting. 3
weeks ago I planted what was left rather than throw them away, I
planted them in a new small bed in the back garden adjoining fields.
Yesterday, 2 of the little plants had been severed at ground level and
the top of the plant was just left on the ground uneaten. What could
have caused this, mice, vole or could it be the rabbits they have been
burrowing under the fences but surely the rabbit would have eaten the
plant and not left it???

Sounds more like slugs to me.


That particular patch has been treated with anti slug stuff Bob,
wouldn't a slug have eaten what he bit off? Confused in Auvergne.

Treated? You mean with a nematode or chemicals?
I've had them fell plants as you describe, like small beavers, with no sign
that the plant has been eaten. Probably saving that for the next night.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

To a modern biologist, a vole is quite distinct from a (true) mouse. But in colloquial use the distinction is not as clear. The biologists borrowed the term "vole" and then applied it consistently to various members of Arvicolinae, the voles muskrats and lemmings, which is a different family within the rodents to true mice. But orginally the colloquial term "vole" meant "field mouse", which are examples of true mice. (The most common field mouse, often colloquially called as such, in Britain is called by biologists the wood mouse; the yellow-necked mouse is also a field mouse). And the three voles found on the British mainland today (bank vole, field or short-tailed vole, and water vole), originally had other common names.