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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Urine against voles?

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Urine against voles?
  • Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:29:29 -0500

Dieter, I have no experience dealing with this problem.

Have you any experience with terriers? It strikes me that you need something with a good nose.

I lived for while on Amherst Island in Lake Ontario which was overrun with voles and had been for many years. It struck me that the island seemed to lack large snakes, which are well known as enemies of voles, possibly because it had been heavily cultivated and populated in the past.

I have known an apple grower to use a sudden abundance of medium sized snakes (garter snakes) as an indication that he needed to do something about his vole population. Snakes need winter shelter from frost among other things.

Chickens are great mulch sifters and enemies of voles. Baby mice are tiny and helpless, ideal chicken snacks.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Dieter Brand wrote:
Hi,
Does anybody know whether urine is effective for
repelling voles? Voles are supposed to have a very
sensitive sense of smell and seem to avoid anything
with a human odour on it.
At what ratio is urine diluted when used in the garden?
Is it used immediately or do I a let it sit for a while?
For how long is the repellent effect likely to last, if there is one?
This is rather urgent, the buggers finish off one salad after the other before I get a chance to harvest
any. In the summer they destroyed almost all of my
sweet potatoes. I bought 10 sweet potatoes to grow more than 100 seedlings. When I harvested last week, all I got was 5 sweet potatoes. At this rate I might as well give up or use poison.
Dieter Brand
Portugal
PS: I use no-till with mulch, which doesn't help in
detecting the voles.





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