![]() ![]() They can multiply very quickly if they find an area that can provide enough food. Young voles reach maturity at one month of age and can have up to 10 litters a year with five to 10 in each litter. It is sometimes referred to as a field mouse or meadow mouse. The vole is a small rodent that resembles a mouse. Her photographs illustrate the exact kind of damage I experience in my garden as well. I do not have any photographs of the damage voles caused in my garden, but Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm has some very good photographs of the damage they have caused in her garden. I am still learning and experimenting and would love to hear about any other methods gardeners have tried with success. Although I have some experience deterring these persistent creatures, I would not say I am an expert. I still may find a nibbled hosta or some vole holes, but, for the most part, I feel I have them under control.cross my fingers in hope. For the last few years, I have been able to keep them at bay. I spent a lot of time researching their behavior and methods of controlling them. But the main goals, he added, are to get rid of the food source and then to repel the creatures.Īnd every time you get frustrated, just remember you are the one who has made your lawn and garden so attractive that pesky moles and voles love it.Before I gave up, I decided to find out as much as I could about their behavior and deterrents to try to control them. There also are other products such as traps and systemic repellents, Westphal said. A flyer, “Solutions for Moles & Vole,” also is available at McDonald Garden Center, if you want to know more. Milky spore and repellent products are available at garden centers. These products work for a season and then have to be reapplied. They won’t harm plants or pets, but moles and voles don’t like getting them on their faces when they dig, Westphal said. These products are made with ingredients such as pepper, castor oil and garlic. So the next step is to use another safe organic product that will repel both moles and voles. Not to mention that you still have voles. So the moles might dig on over to the neighbor’s yard to find some grubs and then come back to home sweet home, where they will perhaps eat some of your earthworms and other insects. You still have hungry moles in your yard, because they are loath to leave their underground tunnel mazes that they call home. The application works and will last for years, he said.Īfter using milky spore and sending the grubs packing, you are only partially done. Milky spore is granular and applied to the ground and watered in. “Milky spore is a beneficial bacteria that will work only on Japanese beetle grubs,” he said. You can begin removing the welcome mat from your yard, Westphal advises, by first getting rid of the grubs with an organic substance called milky spore. “The voles are actually the critters that do the most damage to your yard,” Westphal said. Daffodil and fritillaria bulbs are about the only bulbs voles don’t eat. Voles are not picky and their diet includes almost all plants, even trees and shrubs if they’re hungry. Voles take advantage of the safe, fast travel route to quickly reach your plants and bulbs to dine on. So they use the mole feeding tunnels as travel tunnels. “On the other hand, voles don’t like to dig,” Westphal explained. ![]() “They are the “mole clean-out hills,” he said. You may occasionally see other signs of mole activity, little holes surrounded by mounds of dirt on top of the ground. It’s their home, where they live and have their young. Those tunnels and dens are 3 to 4 feet deep. ![]() Those raised tunnels are different from the permanent tunnels that moles build deeper underground, Westphal said. So on the one hand, you could say moles are doing you a service by eating the Japanese beetle larvae.But the trouble is, the feasting moles also are digging raised feeding tunnels all over your yard to find grubs because grubs live close to the surface. Westphal said most lawn grubs are Japanese beetle larvae. Grubs, a catchall name for various beetle larvae, look like white, plump roly-poly worms. And most of the time, their food of choice is the grubs that live under the surface of your lawn, though they also like earthworms and other insects. Moles are in your yard because you have something they want to eat, Westphal explained. They look like furry brown mice that are plump and round. Moles are odd-looking, obviously adapted to a life underground, but voles are cute. E-Pilot Evening Edition Home Page Close Menu ![]()
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