No matter how deep my love for gardening goes, I will have to admit that there are a few really unfortunate things you have to put up with. It's just part of it. My most recent 'unfortunate' is voles. Have you ever dealt with them? If you haven't, be thankful. They have moved into my garden...en mass. They look like mice, but instead of being just a slight nuisance (like mice), they leave lovely, little mini-gopher mounds, they girdle and kill plants, and possibly the worst thing is that they burrow through the yard leaving devastation in their wake.
I had noticed that some of the edges of my grass were starting to look puny, so I watered and watered with no improvement. I finally got down there to see exactly what was going on, and found the starting of a burrow, and continued to follow the burrow for a good 30 ft! This wasn't the only one I found. At this moment my yard is host to 10 different burrows!
Let me know if you have a sure-fire way to kill these buggers! For now, I have set up a trap line (thanks to my husband who sets all the traps for me- I'm not talented in that department), I've used lots of MoleMax- a vole repellent, and have set out bags of Havoc. So far, we've dented the herd by about 8, but where there are 8, there is probably 100.
That is my sad story. At least we have lots of beautifully blooming plants this time of year to distract me!
Here is an example of a yard with vole damage...
(not my yard... image from http://www.volecontrol.com/Images/snow_melt.jpg)
and here is a vole...
(don't be fooled by it's cute face!)
(http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/forest1/FOLDER01/Bank_Vole_2.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment