Finally a vole eating predator makes a serious impact in my garden!

This spring I was surprised by the very few voles that were present.  Normally I see them as I work in the garden, darting or hopping or otherwise moving very quickly out of my way and into their huge network of tunnels in my permanent raised beds.  This spring, and as summer progressed, I hardly saw any.  I had a sneaking suspicion that I had gained a very efficient predator, and I figured that it was a small one, like a weasel that could get under the snow and hit them in the winter domain.  

Today as I was turning my massive compost heap, I was visited by the likely culprit, a tiny extremely fast moving weasel.  He spent about ten minutes darting around me, stopping occasionally to have a long look at me in a head tilting manner that seemed to say that he was curious about me. I kept stopping and talking to him, and then he would dive into a tunnel in my equally massive hay stack that is right beside where I was working and then pop up out of another hole and then run so fast in my peripheral vision that I thought it was a bird in flight.  He had no fear of me, probably because I'm the only one around that he has seen, I don't act aggressively around him, and he's so dang fast.  Pretty freakin cool.  And very welcome.  

That's very cool.  They are moderately smart.  It would be great if your new friend got comfortable with you and hung out.

Nice! I have a bunch running around my place at the moment. Saw a couple young coyotes trying to catch them but not having much luck. I hope a weasel shows up at my place!

How long have you been having vole problems?

The raised bed garden has been in effect for 4 years, but the first year there was no serious vole issue.  It was only after they discovered the heavy mulch, and the loose soil no doubt, that they really took off.  I have seen a weasel (with the same curious nature) up in other parts of my property (where I have a lot of stuff stored up on pallets-creating a great habitat for him), but I'm guessing there was enough mice and voles and such for it there that it took a while for him to exhaust that area's food sources.  Or this is another weasel who arrived from another locale and has a similar curious nature.  

I hope I get a predator to take care of my mouse problem.  I didn't think about the issues of ringing a hugel mound with logs.  I have a mouse condo going.  It's amazing how much damage mice and small rats can make.  Maybe I will get a weasel in the house.  

Where my brother lives in Mexico, people harass and kill the snakes. He has piles of debris where snakes are welcome. The neighbors deal with plagues of underground rodents. Snakes migrate into my brother's place and rodents are either eaten or they migrate out.

My hugel mounds have become the wintering grounds for many snakes. They can be seen lying on the south face shortly after the sun comes up. I've never seen a rodent in this area.

Snakes migrate into my brother's place and rodents are either eaten or they migrate out.

I too have snakes... and owls, and foxes, and coyotes, and all of these and others eat voles, mice, and other rodents, but they don't set up house and stay in my garden and deal with the bigger problem.  They all seem alright with eating a bit and then letting the population explode to fill it's own void again, and then eating a bit more.  The weasel has a whole other strategy.  From what I understand, they hang out and eat themselves out of an area, and then move on, and by the time it returns, some time in the distant future, the population is able to sustain it's crazy metabolism again.  Hopefully, it wont' get that bad next time around. The weasel looks really healthy!      

Maybe I will get a weasel in the house.  

hunting ferets were suggested to me to deal with my 'gopher' issue. These are actually Rocky Mountain Ground Squirrels, but everyone calls them gophers around here.

Weasels will absolutely eat the ground squirrels, but they are murder on chickens. They will kill them for fun. Little ones are fine, we had some bigger ones that were problematic in that way.

Dale Hodgins wrote:Where my brother lives in Mexico, people harass and kill the snakes. He has piles of debris where snakes are welcome. The neighbors deal with plagues of underground rodents. Snakes migrate into my brother's place and rodents are either eaten or they migrate out.

My hugel mounds have become the wintering grounds for many snakes. They can be seen lying on the south face shortly after the sun comes up. I've never seen a rodent in this area.

Snakes would be nice.  Whenever I dig a hole I use the rocks to build cairns.  No snakes yet, maybe next year.  I am seeing little tree frogs so maybe snakes are next.  I have dogs that will dig a hole to China so that may be an issue.

We've had our worst year yet for vole activity and damage. I have lots of footpaths that I keep shoveled free of snow and there were several times that I scooped up a vole in my shovel. I've stood quietly beside snow-covered garden beds and heard them talking to each other or themselves as they tunnel about just below the snow surface. Seeing them at any time of year is a daily occurrence. I've nearly stepped on them, and one walked over my boot while I was standing still once. I don't know how this ranks in terms of infestation.

With the snow finally leaving last week (before returning yesterday), we were able to survey the gardens, fruit trees and bushes for damage. About a dozen trees and shrubs have been dined on. Two of our oldest little apple trees were badly chewed--one fatally, the other one is probably a goner too. We use plastic spiral protectors or hardware cloth as protection, depending on the circumstances. Where we used a hardware cloth perimeter barrier, the voles tunneled under and chewed away. Our gardens look like there had been an earthworks project going on all winter under the snow.

I've read that predators are not going to put a noticeable dent in the population, so I'm looking to other possible deterrents. I'm thinking of putting down a layer of fine crushed rock to disrupt their tunneling. It makes sense to me but has anyone tried it?

I'm also thinking about cutting hardware cloth squares with a slit to the center so that I can lay a piece of it on the ground, with the slit parted in order to go around the trunk. This, plus the trunk protection should be an improvement, I think.  

Finally, now that I'm getting familiar with their behaviour, I plan to build brush piles away from my trees and gardens. I noticed that several poplar branches that had been laying on the ground under the snow were chewed completely. If I gave them more of this food, plus a protected habitat, maybe they would leave my stuff alone. Or would I just be encouraging even more of them?

Michael Helmersson wrote:We've had our worst year yet for vole activity and damage. I have lots of footpaths that I keep shoveled free of snow and there were several times that I scooped up a vole in my shovel. I've stood quietly beside snow-covered garden beds and heard them talking to each other or themselves as they tunnel about just below the snow surface. Seeing them at any time of year is a daily occurrence. I've nearly stepped on them, and one walked over my boot while I was standing still once. I don't know how this ranks in terms of infestation.

With the snow finally leaving last week (before returning yesterday), we were able to survey the gardens, fruit trees and bushes for damage. About a dozen trees and shrubs have been dined on. Two of our oldest little apple trees were badly chewed--one fatally, the other one is probably a goner too. We use plastic spiral protectors or hardware cloth as protection, depending on the circumstances. Where we used a hardware cloth perimeter barrier, the voles tunneled under and chewed away. Our gardens look like there had been an earthworks project going on all winter under the snow.

I've read that predators are not going to put a noticeable dent in the population, so I'm looking to other possible deterrents. I'm thinking of putting down a layer of fine crushed rock to disrupt their tunneling. It makes sense to me but has anyone tried it?

I'm also thinking about cutting hardware cloth squares with a slit to the center so that I can lay a piece of it on the ground, with the slit parted in order to go around the trunk. This, plus the trunk protection should be an improvement, I think.  

Finally, now that I'm getting familiar with their behaviour, I plan to build brush piles away from my trees and gardens. I noticed that several poplar branches that had been laying on the ground under the snow were chewed completely. If I gave them more of this food, plus a protected habitat, maybe they would leave my stuff alone. Or would I just be encouraging even more of them?

Yeah you're never going to get rid of them in my experience. We had a weasel. We have bull snakes. We recently acquired cats. We still have voles like crazy. I also think that while protecting the trunk is important if you take that away they'll just eat the roots. I've had some trees I was able to pick completely up out of the ground because they'd eaten every single root off. I find them in the decorative rocks we have next to the driveway. I find them everywhere. Even where I don't have brush piles, they're just everywhere. My husband keeps saying we should try the propane explosion method but we haven't. Maybe....

We had a terrible year for voles last summer - the garden was just a maze of little runs and holes. We lost whole tomato plants - the stalks were nibbled all the way through at the base! This winter my wife and I decided to try and deal with them, so we launched Operation Crimp. We got a dozen cheap mouse traps, and a jar of peanut butter. We competed to see who could catch the most vermin (I have a healthy lead). Together though, we caught 10 voles, and 56 mice. There were a few unintended casualties, like a few small birds and half a dozen shrews. After trapping an area pretty hard, we would seal up all the visible tunnels. Now, the garden appears to be back under control. We have moved the traps to the perimeter now as a sort of zone-defense. The key is to keep checking and rebaiting the traps. Ants, slugs and other insects also like peanut butter. By keeping the pressure on, I am cautiously optimistic that we can keep them out.

elle sagenev wrote: My husband keeps saying we should try the propane explosion method but we haven't. Maybe....

Is this a variation of "Scorched Earth Policy"? I'm interested.

Our previous property developed a serious vole infestation until a kestrel (AKA "weapons of mouse destruction") showed up with a mate and started a family. A year later, there were kestrels on continuous sentry duty atop the trees and the vole population withered away. We helped out by keeping weeds and grass mowed short in the garden area to deny surface cover. Afterwards, the hornets decided that the abandoned vole mounds were ideal places to construct ground nests, but that's a different story.

Dc Stewart wrote:Our previous property developed a serious vole infestation until a kestrel (AKA "weapons of mouse destruction") showed up with a mate and started a family. A year later, there were kestrels on continuous sentry duty atop the trees and the vole population withered away. We helped out by keeping weeds and grass mowed short in the garden area to deny surface cover. Afterwards, the hornets decided that the abandoned vole mounds were ideal places to construct ground nests, but that's a different story.

That's encouraging. My neighbour has seen them at his place. I need to figure out a way to invite them to our land. Thank you for this.

Kestrel nesting box plans

A few of these are now on my to-do list. Thank you Dc Stewart for the idea.