What comes out of these holes?

[bazzaboy]

What comes out of these holes (see photos)? The holes are about the size of a 50p piece. Presumably a rodent of some sort… No secondary food in this area (no bird-table, fat balls etc) mainly veg and some fruit e.g. stalks in entrance of burrow 1 are from a nearby prunus tree (cherry variety). Photo 1 is in an asparagus bed (that doesn’t do any too well), Photo 2 in an area just cleared of weeds and undergrowth. There’s a lot of these holes (20+ !)

What are they likely to be? And best recommended solutions, please.

What comes out of these holes?

[zazen999]

I think they are vole holes.

[veggiechicken]

As Zaz says ^^^^^. I have lots of them in the garden. Regard them as giant earth worms, aerating your soil!!

[Nicos]

We have loads of them too.
Little blighters will munch your veg from underneath

Answer ? cat....most deffo a cat!

[Peas'n'Kews]

I am a mole (well a vole) and I live in a hole!!!

[bazzaboy]

Thanks Zazen and colleagues, I wouldn’t know a vole if one knocked on the front door and said “Hi-de-hi, I’m a vole” (which they virtually have!) but a quick check on Wiki confirms every aspect, I think I’m heading for a plague…. Basic info:

VOLE: mouse-like rodent, excellent burrowing and tunnelling, builds burrows with many exit holes, will eat dead animals but can live on almost any nut or fruit, thrives on small plants, will target plants including small trees, will also eat succulent root systems and bulbs, likes to dine out posh on bazzaboy’s asparagus roots (I added that bit), likes adjacent ground cover as protection from owls.

Hmmm, all that fits as does “exponential growth in a very short time period”: 5–10 litters per year, gestation 3 weeks, sexual maturity in one month, each litter 5–10 young, one female can result in a hundred or more active voles in her lifetime. Geesh!

Short life-span, rarely more than a year, for many only weeks… but even so!

Additional info: most species monogamous with the male assisting with pup rearing and staying faithful to one female (so cute… unknown if the females welcome this tendency or regard it as possessive control freakery).

OK, sorry voles, time to be moving on…. So what do I do about it and how do I not poison the neighbour’s cat (which is clearly not doing a very good job at the moment….)? Perhaps mole scarers and scented pellets? Ammonia? Pet owl? Any suggestions?

[Two_Sheds]

As with any unwanted (rat, mouse, ant) : keep disturbing their nest sights, don't leave out food for them (that might mean netting their fave crops). Most of all, don't allow them to set up home on your plot

Here's one of mine, now moved on since the long grass has been strimmed down


They're good food for owls: no voles, no owls

[veggiechicken]

I find them cute. They scuttle along the wall and pick up all the bits of bird nuts that fall from the feeder.
Had to stop doing that though when the rats took over!! Voles and mice = good, Rats = bad.
I have bank voles and wood mice and they all live together in the hedgebank, surrounded by empty hazel kernels. There's an interesting website somewhere that lets you identify what has eaten a hazel nut, by the shape of the hole in the shell and the tooth marks. I was hoping for dormice but it was woodmice.
Doesn't help you, I know!

[Peas'n'Kews]

Hmmm.... Lilly the cat, who is an excellent mouser (we only ever see the "remains" - ususally the gall bladder) will catch voles but not eat them.

So we are very familiar with what a vole looks like ... sorta like a cute mouse with a short tail!

Get a cat!

[bazzaboy]

lol, thanks for comments.... I've protected what I can from instant gnawing and investigated various suggestions that are slightly less troublesome than moving house. The irony of suggestions to get a cat is that a couple of local cats were beginning to use the asparagus patch as a loo so I took action to prevent that.... whereupon of course it's become Adventure Ranch for Voles.... Now I come to think about it I am supplying the ideal environment for them: veg, fruit, ground cover, mulch, it's a choice whether I seek to remove them or set up a Vole Holiday Home and charge admission so i can buy asparagus from Tesco. I have set a few traps (the books say a minimum of 20 and preferably 50... yikes, how many of them are there?:-) Although eating Bazzaboy's asparagus is obviously a heinous crime of vast proportions I'm not sure it really merits the Death Penalty, seems a bit harsh and medieval, maybe thumb-screws and a week's Boot Camp in Aberystwyth (for example) would be more fitting? Anyway I have now acquired noise makers and smells to suggest they move on... But where they going to move to, under the wall? other side of the hedge? I know how to be popular with neighbours... VC seems to like 'em but it's a long way for them to tunnel....

To be continued.

[Mato]

I have never seen or heard of a vole before. Moles, we definitely have in the US, and they are a pain. Are voles specific to the UK only?

[bazzaboy]

You do have voles in the US, Mato, and one set of advice I've been following is produced by University of California who record six species in California.... see:
www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PDF/PESTNOTES/pnvoles.pdf

But maybe you know them as "meadow mice"? bb.

[bazzaboy]

Following 2S’s wise advice to cause disturbance and move them on, the attached gadget will hopefully help (50p piece shows scale)– it makes a noise like a rattle snake and sends out vibrations every 25 seconds day and night…. Driving that in the soil felt more like hunting vampires than voles but all in a day’s gardening… I assume it leads to sleeplessness and them arguing with one another “It was YOU that wanted to move here!” etc. "Now it's keeping the kids awake, we can't stay here, Vol, help me pack the bags!" Given that the patch is nearer my neighbour’s house than mine it’s probably touch and go who moves out first, the voles or the neighbours….

[dominic10]

My cat used to bring the voles into our old house - alive - it was almost as bad as having a dog who probably wouldn't have let a burglar in unless they tickled him first.