Preventing Vole damage

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Last year it was tomatoes near the ground getting eaten with lots of little gnaw marks. Now it is strawberries.

Getting strawberries far enough off the ground may be a taller task than adequately staking tomatoes. For the future, I was thinking of a raised bed with a hardware cloth "fence" around the top of the box perimeter. As they do not climb up into the tomatoes to gnaw, I doubt they would venture up and over a raised bed with a HW cloth fence. Cats are also a distinct possibility.

Anyone have similar problems? Is it a mulch habitat that emboldens them to move around at will?

It has been suggested to me to set widemouth pop cans with DCON around the garden. This would allow them to enter, but no other bigger animals could stumble upon it and eat it. I may try that now. I am a bit concerned of having DCON pellets hoarded around the garden by the critters or having dead voles laying around with the hemorrhaging agent still present in their bodies. ANy thoughts?

-- Mike O (olsonmr@yahoo.com), August 18, 2000

Answers

Peanut butter, or apple, or half-eaten strawberries on a mouse trap. Put the trap near their little holes, and cover with a bucket. Snap, no more problems. (Of course you have to tend the traps...) Good hunting. A.D.

-- Action Dude (theactiondude@yahoo.com), March 12, 2001.

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