The Hortisexual

#@**%8!!# voles!

Casualty count: two-thirds of the 350 Darwin tulips planted last October.

Collateral damage: two nearby shrub roses; roots gnawed to pencil points by vole incisors.

Planting spring-flowering bulbs is a gardener’s most hopeful act. We tuck them beneath autumn-cooled soil, and wait faithfully four dreary winter months for their resplendent spring awakening.

And so it was all through last winter. I didn't see any telltale signs of vole activity: no entry or exit holes in the tulip beds, no surface zig-zags from underground tunneling.

In March the tulip foliage poked through the soil right on schedule.

By the start of April the stems were several inches tall.

But each morning, backing out of the driveway I noticed a small “bald spot” among the stems. So subtle was the gradual expansion of the bare patch, I thought at first it was time to update my eyeglass prescription.

On closer examination I found tulips either pulled under ground or stems being supported only by a collar of surrounding soil -- the bulbs devoured. View image

I’ve come to accept the fact that total extermination of the voles is not gonna happen. I’ll just have to learn to co-exist in the same garden space with the vermin. Kinda like tolerating Mets fans at Citizens Bank Ballpark. You know they’ll be in the stands whenever the NY nine come to Philly, so we put up with them while enjoying the game.

BTW, if you don’t know the difference between moles and voles (and a lot of folks don’t), moles munch on bugs in the lawn and soil; voles are vegan. To get rid of moles simply eliminate their favorite cuisine. Apply the same logic to voles and you have to eliminate the garden.

Voles are such prolific reproducers they could make a bunny blush. Females mature to mating stage within a few weeks. A single female can put out five litters a year, averaging three to five offspring a pop. My postage stamp-sized yard may have as many as two dozen voles inhabiting it.

So here’s my three-part plan for keeping the upper hand this gardening season: traps, poison, and barriers.

Traps: Peanut butter applied to the bait trigger of a common mouse trap is all the tech you need. Place traps under a clay pot next to active vole holes (they think they are still in the tunnel). Drizzle a bit of peanut butter down the hole to draw them out.

Tip: Don’t set the trigger on the trap for the first week so they get comfortable taking the bait. This will boost your kill rate.

Poison: Supplement trapping by lacing peanut butter with anticoagulants such as mouse or rat poison. That's because the little suckers somehow manage to swipe the peanut butter without getting caught about a third of the time.

More potent stuff is available, but should only be applied by a licensed professional, and in a bait trap device to protect pets and kids. One of the most commonly used single-dose toxicants
for vole control is zinc phosphide. Zinc phosphide is a Registered Use Pesticide available as
a concentrate, or in pelleted or grain bait applications. As a Registered Use Pesticide, application must be done by a certified pesticide applicator.

Hardware cloth barriers: For new plantings, shape baskets of ¼ inch wire mesh to protect roots. View image

Make hardware cloth baskets large enough to create an amply wide barrier; feeder roots will grow through the openings in the mesh while the major roots stay beyond the reach of voles.

As for my tulips, next October I'm going to wrap every bulb in a little hardware cloth sleeve . . . even if it takes me a month to complete the job!