permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Voles used to be my biggest problem.  There were years when I had losses of 
50 to 80 % for some vegetables.  Especially artichokes, sweet potatoes, 
potatoes and most other root vegetables, except for radishes, were badly 
affected.  Of the 100 artichokes I planted 5 years ago, not a single one 
survived the second year.  They also like the roots of salads, parsley, etc. 
bamboo shoots and much more.

I tried most deterrent plants without any effect whatsoever.  I even found 
vole tunnels directly under garlic and onions which they are supposed to 
dislike.  There is a sound emitting device that does have some effect if you 
leave it in the ground all year round.  But the cost of batteries is 
prohibitive.  I tried half a dozen different traps with very little effect.  
I think in all those years, I didn’t catch more than two or three voles.  
There was one trap that did work at first, but after the first catches they 
started to tunnel underneath the trap.  When I set the trap deeper, they 
would again tunnel deeper.  They are intelligent enough not to go into any 
manmade thing.

When I started to harvest my sweet potatoes with a heavy heart a couple of 
weeks ago, I couldn’t believe my eyes, there wasn’t any vole damage at all.  
I think what might have happened is that some animal from the surrounding 
forest has come into the garden at night to dig them out of the ground.  I 
used to keep our dog outside in the past because of the wild boars, but I 
have kept her inside recently because the boar problem has solved itself.  I 
think it is that which might have encouraged the animal, whatever it is, to 
come closer to where we live.

The farmers around here just put little bags with poison in the soil.  That’s 
why any don’t eat anything they grow.

I used to have a tom cat which was very good at catching voles.  Normally 
female cats are the better hunters, but he was just amazing, he would sleep 
all day and when it would get dark in the evening, he would watch the ground, 
and when there was any movement and a vole would come near the surface, he 
would catch it in no time at all.  I have seen him catch 3 voles in less than 
half an hour that way.  Now we have 7 cats from a different line, they will 
catch everything that’s above the ground, but the notion that there could be 
something edible below ground seems to be completely elude them.

Dieter Brand
Portugal