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  • From: Paul Cross <charybda@newmex.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Moles, Voles and Gophers and Deer
  • Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:13:03 -0600

I've concluded that deer are only fully deterred by physical barriers. You can cage or wrap individual trees. Or you can fence an entire field, but it has to be higher than they will jump, and they sure can jump high! Here I make the fences 7.5'/2.3m tall. I have not had success with shorter baited electric fences, allegedly deer resistant plantings, or deterring scents. I'm not sure if keeping dogs is cheaper than fencing, but a couple of dogs will keep deer away most of the time.

For those subterranean critters, I am sorry to say that trapping and poisoning are all that has worked here.

In organic certified areas, we use "Black Hole" traps baited with peanut butter. It is a lot of work finding the main tunnels, setting up traps, checking the traps, etc. But it is effective. The black hole traps are easily located by an internet search so you can see what they look like. They last for years.

You can trench and fence around an area to discourage burrowing animals from crossing over the area. A trench 2'/60cm deep with wire mesh on one side will give two means of protection. First, when the pest digs out to find an open trench their instinct is to plug the hole and turn around. Next they would not get through the wire mesh if they tried. I have not tried this technique.

In non-organic areas I got licensed to use aluminum phosphide (aka Fumitoxin.) But I have yet to actually use it. It is a dangerous substance (hence the need for training and licensing) but has the advantage of having little to no danger of a secondary poisoning if another animal were to find and eat the carcass of the dead rodent. You have to be careful not to use it where there are burrowing owls using an abandoned hole. That is easy to see because there will be owl scat around the burrow. You should also be aware of ferrets it there are ferrets in your area. You want to keep the ferrets and owls.

Cats, owls, coyotes, and dogs are all a little bit helpful in reducing voles and gophers. But I have zero tolerance for these pests in any perennial area. I've lost thousands of dollars due to killed fruit trees until I decided to trap. I make 100% of my living through growing and cannot afford to have such losses that those pests can create. I do have wild areas where those pests are allowed to exist, but they cannot be tolerated in production areas.

Paul Cross




  • Re: [permaculture] Moles, Voles and Gophers and Deer, Paul Cross, 11/01/2010

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