Protection from voles??

[kathyd]

I can't believe how much damage these little blighters cause, and I used to think they were cute! As if I don't have enough problems with slugs already!

Can anyone suggest ways to protect crops from voles please? They're even pulling cabbages and fennel down through raised beds built over landscaping fabric in the polytunnel now... Eaten entire middles from my very few parsnips, decimated leeks.. I'm beginning to wonder if there's any point trying to grow anything this coming year at this rate .

[mothhawk]

Voles are not supposed to be good climbers, so maybe if you raised the height of your beds, and added an overhang round the top it would discourage them.

[mothhawk]

I just goggled them - crikey! The females give birth after 16 to 24 day pregnancy, and the female juveniles are fertile at 13 days, so can give birth themselves at 33 days old Good job they only live 4 to 5 months. Talk about life in the fast lane!

Oh, and there can be anything between 200 and 2000 per hectare

[kathyd]

omg... well thanks for that info mothhawk.. I think! ;p

The voles are coming up underneath, not burrowing down, so raising the height of the beds wouldn't really help unfortunately. I was thinking more of planting every individual carrot inside a wire tube! Lol. Jk.

[Two_Sheds]

Can anyone suggest ways to protect crops from voles please?

[VirginVegGrower]

I was just about to suggest that any up here soon disappear owing to no shortage of owls from the woodland

[PyreneesPlot]

Cats.

I lost almost all bulbs and a third of my leeks two years running. We've now had cats for 13 months and I've seen no vole damage in that time. We have too many leeks now.....

And we have loads of owls they just can't get into the holes in quite the same way!!

[kathyd]

Lol . We do have lots of owls around, but I guess the voles are smarter. We now have a couple of young cats - about 6 months old we think - so fingers crossed they learn how to catch voles soon! Problem is, if I let the cats into the tunnel they'll shred the plastic trying to catch insects, and then use the beds as litter trays... yum. And I keep having to rescue shrews from them, they're not very discriminating are they?

[Nicos]

I have found the scent of daffodil bulbs puts them off scent of other plants.
Maybe try planting a few around the place?

We have had major problems with them too

Our cat is a good hunter- which certainly helps.

[PyreneesPlot]

Voles ate the daffodil bulbs too

[Nicos]

Voles ate the daffodil bulbs too

...well, that's my theory out of the window!

[PyreneesPlot]

...well, that's my theory out of the window!

Well, there wasn't a lot else to eat at the time as most of the vegetation (it was a field) went with the levelling for building construction.

The daffs in the 'grass' beside the drive are still there. Well, they were last spring....

[Peppermint]

Apparently there are over 3 million voles on Orkney. The Hen Harriers and Short Eared Owls hunt Orkney Voles - as does the cat from across the road who thinks our garden belongs to him. We've also seen gulls take them from the garden. They are bigger than mainland voles and we come across then quite often in the garden as they come out in the daylight.

Unfortunately voles manage to get everywhere, including digging though into our potting shed.

We quite often watch them bobbing out of our garden wall to pinch blades of grass (and there are probably some in other parts of the garden doing the same to my onion sets as I've found a number pulled up with bite marks in)

Bill Oddie had a run in with one. BBC Two - Bill Oddie's How to Watch Wildlife, Series 2, Orkney Islands, Giant vole

I've spent hours looking on the internet for ways to discourage them from eating my strawberry plants.

[smallblueplanet]

Don't know if we've got voles or moles or both - but in the greenhouse borders and for certain stuff in the raised beds we plant in bottomless plant pots. We put a piece of chicken wire across the bottom of the plant pot. Can't see you doing that for all your garden though (nor us come to that!)...

[legume]

Hi there

Coincidentally I posted a separate thread last night about the possibility of deterring mice with strong-smelling Olbas oil, as I had such a problem with them woofing down my peas last year. I am pretty sure they stole all my anemone corms too.

As voles are pretty similar - i.e. small, furry, greedy little tikes - this might also be worth a try with them? The basic idea is you dilute 3 drops of olbas oil (or any other pure strong-smelling oil like peppermint) in a watering can and water round your veggies once a week / every other week, as they hate the smell of it and it also disguises the 'food' smell so they can't even find the crops so easily to scoff them down (I think voles especially rely on smell more than sight).

Anyway, here is the link: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ice_69369.html