Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony_Toronto
Last year I built a caged-off area to protect lettuce and kale from rabbits. And what showed up? VOLES! All of my Boston lettuce from seed ruined. Every Kale ruined pea plants ruined. Something also bit through my cucumber plants about 6-inches up the stem, without eating the plant...just chewed through (not cutworms, definitely voles or rabbits). How can I prevent and kill these little jerks?
And on another note I put my tomato plants in a few weeks early, dodged a bullet with a frosty night, and everything is 3-4 weeks ahead of last year's horrid weather...but already seeing signs of foliage disease...ugh. Maybe I should just get out the lawn mower and use that on the garden and forget about the whole thing.
|
Anthony,
I lost three gardens this spring before I finally figured out my problem is voles too. Some members here helped me out a lot. I now have everything surrounded by 1/4" landscaping fabric (made out of wire). I also have the landscaping fabric covered by a netting to keep out the squirrels. I'm using a bait station with poison that I move around every few days.
According to my university extension, the vole population can expand and contract. At its highest population, there can be 500 voles per 1/4 acre. Ick!
When I thought I had everything secure, I just put out one plant as an experiment to see if the voles would be excluded before I replanted the whole thing. Now my garden is growing and nothing has been eaten.....yet.
Good luck!
Holly