Voles

[catman529]

Last fall when I was helping everyone clean up the community garden at a church (not my church) where we were growing vegetables....they were digging up some massive sweet taters and a big old vole came out of the ground with 4 babies attached. Everyone wanted me to get rid of them and said "throw them in the river" so I just went and chucked them in the freezing water and of course they could swim.

But I wish I had been more humane and just dropped a big rock on them. Oh well...I will next time. Just gotta get pests out of the garden sometime. Last spring right after they tilled, mole tunnels popped up everywhere. Kill em when you see em cause you aren't going to see them often, just their damage.

 

[stickler]

at my grandmas house they are everywhere. Seems like every step you take the ground is soft where they have been through

 

[WestTn Huntin man]

Moles are actually very good for the soil and don't do much damage to a garden.They eat the grub worms and areate the soil.
Voles on the other hand will eat plant roots and are destructive.
Most people don't realize the moles are always there in very deep tunnels. We just see them when we've had alot of rain and thier lower tunnels are flooded.

 

[catman529]

Yeah the voles had chewed parts out of the sweet taters. Moles do eat grubs and stuff but they make a mess of the soil surface with their tunnels. It's a choice between a nice garden bed or fewer grubs I guess.