Mice & Bugs

[bigdummy]

The photo is my potato patch this past summer.

The white is cut both ways with a paper shreader, copy & typing paper, six to eight inches deep. The green things are the potato plants.

I wanted as much potato seed as possible, but I have had heavy deer predation on the true potato seed berries, in years past. I had three tomato type circles of wire that i put around three of the most (berrie) promissing plants. These three potato plants never had a potato bug on them all season. I had a lot of Colorado potato bugs this season and they were pratically the only plants that were not touched. Anyone see this in their potato patch?

I hilled once but relied on the deep mulch to protect the upper most potatoes from the sun. What I did not realize is I built a home for mice. Any potatoes that protuted from the ground, but still under the mulch were eaten away by the mice. A hugh loss of spuds. Is this common with mulched potatoes?

I have so many mice now I have to run a trap line in the house twice a day.

I am in zone three and we always have mice coming into the house in fall & winter, but this is like the lemmings march to the sea.

Big Dummy