A couple of years ago, Mike and I planted a row of shrubs along our back property line. The next spring, about half of them were dead. We replaced the dead plants and noticed the originals and the new shrubs didn't seem to be doing well as summer progressed. By the next spring, all but one shrub was dead or near dead. When we pulled up the remains of our plants, we noticed the roots were gone and the base of each plant was gnawed. We blamed moles, but after some research, we learned we had a vole problem. Moles eat bugs; voles eat vegetation.
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| Mole |
What to do? We have a mulched bed and seven holes. There are virtually no vole resistant plants. They like almost everything. We searched various articles and garden forums to find solutions. We learned there are above ground voles and subterranean voles. The damage on our shrubs indicated that we have the subterranean type - the Pine vole. Our options are trapping, poisoning, and thwarting the voles' attempts to feed on the roots of our plants. We rejected poisoning because we don't want to accidently poison any neighborhood pets. We plan to trap as soon as I can get to the store and buy several mouse traps. For the past two days, we have replaced the shrubs using vole proof barriers around the roots.
Here's what we did:
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| We used 1/4 hardware cloth to make cages. Wear gloves if you don't want a bunch of bloody cuts. |
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| Below ground barriers should be sunk 6"-10" deep. We put 10" under ground and left 2" above ground. We also put hardware cloth on the bottom, just in case we get a really determined vole. |
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| We left some hardware cloth above ground. |
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| They say the third time is the charm. |
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