voles or moles?

[Scott Vergara]

Brian,
Moles are carnivorous and feed on grubs, earthworms and the like, perhaps
even cicada larvae.  They can damage small plants by disturbing the
rootsystem while they are tunneling, foraging for food but do not to my best
knowledge feed on any plant tissue.  In fact they can be very useful as
macroturbators of the soil, aerating and loosening it up.

The tunnels they dig however often are used by other animals, such as mice
and voles which do eat plant roots, bulbs, tubers etc.  Voles are also
capable of making their own tunnels especially under flats sitting on the
soil or in areas where grass is heavily matted down on the soil surface.
Voles are herbivores and are exceptionally destructive in the garden or
nursery and have expensive tastes, having eaten Arisaema, Pleoine,
Cypripedium, Trillium and Erythronium and other desirable genera in my
gardens over the years.  As such they should be dealt with aggressively.

One simple non poisonous method that has worked for many years for me is to
find the tunnel entrances/exits that are used by the voles.  Typically a
round hole, 1 to 1.5 inches (2.5 to about 4 cm) in diameter usually with
little to no soil piled up around it, is where I can trap the voles.  Use
unbatied or baited (chunky peanut butter that has been allowed to dry on the
treadle works fine) standard mouse traps available in many grocery stores or
nurseries.  Place two traps, cocked and ready to snap,  one on each side of
the hole( two work better than just one) and then cover the traps and hole
with two large pots turned so the bottom/side holes do not line up or a
light proof bucket or even a box weighted down.  Point is to exclude light.
The vole or mouse pokes its nose up, feels safe since it is "dark" out and
trips the traps.  From a single hole I caught 2 voles and a mouse in single
day, and over a three or four day period trapped out 3 voles and 4 mice out
of the same hole.

The reason I choose not to use poison bait, which can be effective
especially for orchardists, is the secondary poisoning the dead animals pose
to pets and other wild life.

Happy Hunting,
Scott Vergara
Portland, Oregon




----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Williams" <pugturd at ALLTEL.NET>
To: <ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 1:46 PM
Subject: voles or moles?


> I am growing a hand full of Arisaema here in Louisville KY. We own a
> large landscape nursery and just expanded around 5 acres. In the far
> areas of our new land is a valley like area leading to a creek in a
> forested area. I recently planted many species of Ariseama out and have
> found that something seems to be eating them now. It looks to me to be
> moles but a friend has called them voles? Is their a way to rid my self
> of this destructive monster or will I have to relocate the whole group
> to a better area? Will casto beans rid me of them or yuccas? I have
> heard they could help prevent them. Any good ideas would be appreciated.
> THANKS
>