permaculture

["Golden Love" <goldenlove@cruzio.com>]

I catch mice in live traps and move them to a wild area several blocks away.

For moles, I use a product called Chase (mostly Castor Oil) that I spray on
the affected area and it moves moles and sometimes gophers to new locations.
You can also buy Repellex granules on Amazon.com that you can spread on the
area for seasonal control.

For gophers, I pour undeodorized fish emulsion in the burrows and they leave
the area. You can also put dead fish in the burrows for extreme cases. It
fertilizes the garden too. There are also Repellex tablets that work well to
move the gophers and moles to other areas.

These solutions have worked well for me in many situations.

Golden

Golden Love
Love's Gardens
Creating and Maintaining Sustainable Urban Landscapes
California Licensed Contractor C27 363672
127 National St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone  (831) 471-9100
Fax  ( 831) 471-9200
goldenlove@cruzio.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of kevin s
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 5:21 AM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] mice, voles, rodents, oh my!

hi folks,

here in NYS we are approaching the end of our second season growing 
for our CSA primarily using mulchbeds.  we have grown so far in three 
different locations, each with very different soil conditions, and 
very different wider ecological conditions, and the systems have 
proven themselves to be very productive means of growing.

pests, unfortunately, are another issue. particularly the fact that 
mulch beds provide wonderful habitat for rodents.  (and we won't even 
get into slugs, and other overwintering pests here)

though we have seen consistently good yield, our losses to pests are 
often unacceptable under the circumstances, and as a CSA and market 
farming operation we have an obligation to provide produce of a 
certain quality, or we will simply not make it financially.   while 
we can eat food damaged by rodents chewmarks, we can't pass it off on 
our members if we want them to stick around.

we want to continue moving no-till fwd, and continue promoting it 
both in our own communities, and in the wider farming community, but 
we can't do that if it just doesn't work to provide an economically 
viable yield.

so, i am earnestly seeking advice and help out there.  though i hate 
to do it, i am thinking about some rounds of poisons over the coming 
months, and again in the spring to knock down the population, and 
then some limited change in cultural practices to try to minimize 
breeding sites, but just by observing the scale of our problem, i 
don't have high confidence in the success of any of this.

of course each area that we grow in has vastly different existing 
ecologies and concurrent opportunities for IPM strategies, and that 
is where we get the real benefits ie- more snakes=less mice.  this 
isn't always something that can be created quickly, or even at all in 
some circumstances depending on the growing area and what is around 
it etc

eager for help (and feeling anxiety in advance of flippant advice 
from armchair permies like "get yourself some ducks mate! duck love 
mice...." etc)


thanks
  kevin
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