THE BATTLE OF THE VOLES

Why is it that cats feel no guilt when they have not done their job? You would think that with three cats in my family that I would never have a rodent problem! My vole problem must have started last winter as I snuggled up in front of the fire with a good book. I was blissfully unaware that under the cover of snow little voles were tunneling about finding a good source of food. In the spring I sauntered into my garden, still relatively ignorant, I noticed a little path that led to my garden in that cute wiggly way that voles are prone to make. At the time I didn't really know the differences between voles and moles and mistakenly thought a mole had made the path. I saw that the path led to the area where my asparagus grows. That was the first time that my heart sank. Holes all around my asparagus patch! Fortunately, it wasn't too long before I found that the asparagus was still alive. The relief I felt only lulled me into a sense of feeling all was right with the world...or at least my world. That sense of calm continued until I noticed that my pea seeds had very sporadic germination. Then I noticed a shallow tunnel leading down the row where my peas should have been. My heart sank again. Whatever was making those tunnels LOVED to eat seeds. I began what was to become a summer of research on voles.

At least they didn't seem to enjoy potatoes since I saw that the potato plants were thriving. I didn't know how wrong I was! I think they just didn't care for seed potatoes. As the potatoes began to grow beneath the soil, the voles came and worked their way through. My first indication that something was amiss was one wilted potato plant. I grabbed hold of it to see what was wrong and it immediately came out of the soil. Not a bit of root left! After they ate two more plants I decided to harvest the potatoes and we had a small but tasty crop.

As usual, this summer I had been behind in planting seeds and I began to realize that these rodents were going to be a major problem. They were already forming a community in the spot I had planned for beans. It was beginning to look like a prairie dog town! I knew that they would love it if I provided them with tasty bean seeds so I decided to try to eradicate them first. If I had known then what I know now I wouldn't have bothered. What I know now is that once you kill off the stupid voles only the smart ones remain and it becomes impossible to kill them. They then have offspring that become the Einsteins of the vole world.

I read about voles until I was exhausted. I learned that sometimes you can place mouse traps in their tunnels and they simple run over them and get trapped. Hooray it worked! This was also when I learned that voles will eat each other...ugh. Nothing like a trapped and killed vole that provides a meal for his buddies. I caught and killed less than ten voles this way. I must say I was thrilled about my success but then I started to find that the tunnels caved in on the traps...or so I thought. After awhile I realized that the tunnels were not caving in, the voles were burying the traps as soon as I set them. All I had succeeded in doing was to weed out the weak minded voles leaving me with a garden full of geniuses. I tried some above ground traps baited with peanut butter and although they were more complex and cost more, I didn't catch one vole in them. No, castor oil does not work either. All it does is lull you into believing that it is working as a vole repellent. As I was inside celebrating, the voles were outside laughing and munching down on more roots. Yes, that is what they do, they go underground and eat the roots of your plants so you don't know what is happening until your plants shrivel and die. This is one underground railroad that needs to be stopped!

I continued to put off planting any seed but I did start some zucchini plants inside. Unfortunately, since I was so preoccupied with solving the vole problem I waited too long and although some plants survived the voles, I was only able to harvest three zucchinis by the end of the summer.

As far as my cats, I did save a lot of money on cat food over the summer. My cats will kill AND eat wildlife and this summer voles were abundant. I knew my cats were having their fill since often times their dried food was left unfinished. Apparently three cats are not enough to keep up with a vole population explosion. After a summer of unsuccessful attempts at thwarting their damage, I have come to the conclusion I will have to wait for them to die out naturally. In my extensive research I have learned that vole population explosions are cyclic. Every three to five years there is a sudden increase in population. What ends up happening is they die out naturally. People will try all sort of remedies and when the vole population drops off, people tend to think "aha! it worked!" to whatever they tried. In reality they have just died off naturally.

I will remember this summer as "The Great Vole Depression of 2011." Eventually I couldn't even go into the garden without feeling depressed. I had a few plants that survived but I was so behind that all I was able to harvest were those three zucchinis. My garden became a jungle that I rarely entered. Over Thanksgiving weekend I got out my machete and whacked my way through. Just joking. I got a couple of rakes and enlisted the help of my son to start cleaning up. It had rained so much this summer that I felt like I was trying to clear cut a rain forest! My plan was to get rid of everything that provided a vole habitat. I would like to report that there was a natural decline in vole activity but that has not happened. I am hoping that a miracle will happen over the winter. I still have a bit more cleaning up to do but mostly I am just relying on the cyclic nature of vole population explosions. I don't think I can stand another summer of vole nightmares!