Vegetables and Rodents

[GlendaleGuy]

Originally Posted by maff

Wandered if they have ant vegeable favorites ?

My vegetable garden has a healthy population of short-tailed voles. Their favourite vegetable is parsley. They gnaw it off at soil level, then carry off the whole branch (like giant umbrellas) and drag them into their holes.

They even tunnel underneath them and I've actually stood there watching as a huge parsley plant was sucked into the ground, stem-by-stem, like a scene from Primeval.

If there is parsley, they will by-pass all other vegetables to get to it.

The only answer is to bait mouse-traps with chocolate and then cover the trap with 2L milk bottles with a side cut off. I trapped over a dozen in my polytunnel in a fortnight.

We have a family of stoats living in the garden now, so I don't have much trouble outdoors any more. The stoats are brilliant at eating voles. It's just in the polytunnel I have a problem now.

[ron1863]

I think you have created a lovely wildlife haven - fruit and veg for the wildlife to eat and all covered in fleece that voles, birds etc can use for bedding - well done. Now what about your own needs.