Mice or voles eating brassicas?

[Bigmallly]

How exactly did you get the voles under control? I saw a suggestion somewhere for using solar powered mole repellers, they apparently repel rodents too. Anyone got any experience of these??

Yes, I do think it must be rodents. The kales in the woodshed are losing whole leaves from the bottom of the stem upwards, every day a few more leaves gone, leaving just a small bit of stalk. I'm sure a pile of wood is an ideal haven for mice, so they seem a likely culprit to me. Want to plant them out, but plan was to put them in after the green beans, which are suddenly getting a second wind thanks to the warm weather, so it's hard to pull them up. Might just have to do it for the sake of the kale!

The cavolo outside is damaged in a different way, more like the pics of the possible moth damage from Penellype. But only one plant out of 6. The others are untouched. And no sign of a caterpillar. Very strange. Could be some other kind of leafcutter insect I guess, but they are netted with fine netting to the ground, so I just don't know....

I lost a lot of spuds to voles so next year I'm growing them in bags but am also bordering all the beds with garlic cloves as it is supposed to deter rodents..............time will tell.

[Penellype]

I may have to invest in garlic if it deters rodents. I was weeding at my friend's the other day to the sound of something (100-1 on a rat) munching loudly, probably on the nearby carrots. There are large holes (1-2 inches) in various places in the soil, and some of them must have tunnelled under the peas earlier as a few patches of plants died, and when I pulled the row out there was a lot of very loose soil.

Rats are inevitable on farms and near stables so I don't think I will get rid, but deterring would be great!

[Bigmallly]

I'm increasing the height of my raised beds from 6" to around 10". The theory being that voles tunnel approx 3"-4" underground so with a bit of look they'll bang their crown on the lower boards and go elsewhere...............

[Yasminh14]

Seems like rodents are the likely culprits then. So far I've been pretty lucky. I know there are plenty of mice, shrews and voles around as we've often seen and heard them. We have a hazel growing near one side of our veg patch and just this morning I could hear gnawing coming from a pile of cut twigs underneath it. Think they are starting to stockpile the nuts. I have noticed a couple of courgettes in that area munched in the last few days in a way that suggests rodents. But to be honest that's been about all over 2 years, so I suppose I should just accept a bit of damage now and then!

We don't have a cat, but luckily our next-door neighbour has 2 good hunters who virtually live in our garden, so maybe that's why I've gotten away with it until now!