We all know the vole is the biggest problem in Kansas for growing sweet potato, peanuts, apple trees etc. .The vole eats off what is below the ground but also browses and chews on what is above ground also. Apple is a voles favorite. They have even eaten jeruselm artichokes and irish potato from my garden! Sometimes they eat our seed we planted! There is little if anything that is not on their menu. My thorny heirloom blackberries are attacked frequently in the winter and girdled.
i have a doz of those around my property. i only load them just before the 1st big snow so as not to kill untargeted animals. works great. they are all empty by spring.
The bait blocks I buy have a hole in the center. I hang them on a piece of wire with a 90 degree bend on the end. Gravity keeps them dropping as the one below gets consumed. Easy peasy
Did the PVC like that using mostly zinc phosphide pellets in the blueberry patch. Now my bushes are finally growing again. Voles were seriously chewing the roots
You have to keep filling them with bait until the bait stops being eaten; only then do you know they are gone
It take several ingestions and time to kill them so keep checking the bait stations and restock when it is empty otherwise they are not effective
I have cut PVC pipe and installed peanut butter flavored rat/vole poisonā¦ no real need for any kind of fancy contraption that i sawā¦ that was before i really took a deeper look at what i was trying to accomplish. Yes they ate about 4lbs of ābaitā.
I have found that by not mowing during the summer and allowing my natural predators such as snakes/hawks/owls etc that i can see very little sign of any voles currently. Even my dogs have dug up many of my rows looking for and probably eating them.
So i do not want to kill my predators nor poison my dogsā¦ so i will no longer use ābaitā.
I think a common black snake eats something like 200 mice/voles etc per yearā¦ no clue what the other snakes eat or how many.
So for now i do not want to spend monies nor time and effort to remove somethingā¦ that something eats/wants to eat 24/7ā¦ and in turn has babies that also will eat the same thing.
YMMV and you may not want predators, nor snakes, nor grass that isnt mowedā¦ nor have dogs or cats. I think either choice is a lifetime choiceā¦ and voles cannot be totally eradicated.
Voles are 45 percent of a Barn Owlās dietā¦ im relaxing and enjoying life or asleep while they get their nourishment.
So perhaps by ābaitingā you are removing a predators food source? Or perhaps poisoning them? No matter how you look at itā¦ by removing some voles you are are in a way creating more work for yourself and loss of monies if you plan on a long term orchard.
Do whats best for your orchardā¦but perhaps think things through before ābaitingā. Perhaps you may not need toā¦or want to.
Perhaps buy some garter snakes instead? Maybe it will be cheaper in the long run?
the problem is we dont have predators here. im surrounded with houses with the west part of the property a abandoned field and to the north a swampy brush covered area. perfect breeding grounds for voles. ive had chickens for 10 yrs here and havent had anything try to get them, where my neighbor, at the end of my street thatās up against the woods, gave up keeping chickens because the foxes get them. i cant grow anything if i donāt at least control,. thier numbers. my neighbor to the n.w of me lost 8 mature blueberry bushes to them 2 years ago. now he baits as well. Iāve left the predators alone, yet they refuse to come down here. its too busy for them, i guess.
i would except they are buried in 5ft of snow by Feb.
Not much snake predation on anything here from late September thru early May. That same time period is when voles raise hell
i figured at least dogs and cats would live in Maine.
Yes its very easy to eradicate natural predators by poisoning their food source. I know some hunters around here that lace hamburger meat with rat poison to rid of coyotes. Same thing is effective for just about everythingā¦ just poison some mice/voles/rats and the predators go away.
Garter snakes are the most common reptile in Maineā¦ and a female often has up to 40 youngā¦ Not sure the math on that over time but i would think that it would be somewhat significantā¦or at least some help.
Anywaysā¦ in lieu of natural predatorsā¦ there are still some predators that humans allow to coexist. that actually enjoy what they were put on earth to doā¦ Maybe in the late September thru early May time period when voles are raising hellā¦ would be a good time toā¦let the dogs outside.
Every time I mow my orchards I see Garter snakes. Every morning I walk I see redtail and marsh hawks. At least a handful of days each week I hear barred owls saying āwho cooks for youā. Every time I pull SD cards from my trailcams I get at least a few coyote and bobcat pics. Every year I get a dozen or so pics of black bears. Every few years I see wolf tracks in the winter.
Yet, unprotected fruit trees and young evergreens can suffer from and/or die due to vole and bunny damage.
I will continue to run poison bait stations in my orchards. There are literally thousands of contiguous acres around me where the voles can live as they choose. On my couple acres of orchards they are not welcome.
i poison under the snow to protect the predators and my dogs and cat. come spring ive never seen a dead vole on the surface. they die in their burrows. thereās just not enough feeding on them to control their numbers otherwise i wouldnt put out bait. those bastards have girdled as high as 4ft off the ground by climbing the trunks of the trees under the snow. was so bad 2 springs ago you drove around in the woods and there were many hardwood saplings girdled that high. i canāt grow anything reliably without controlling their population. the fact that the bait stations are empty come spring tells me some survive so im not completely wiping them out. just controlling them.
I made a few of these then realized I could buy the locking Tomcat stations for about the same cost of PVC.
This year Iām trying to stay on top of herbicide around trees and will try injecting Zinc Phosphate into the burrows with the Yard butler. I donāt know how well that will work if the ground is wet.
Thanks for sharing the PVC bait block stations.
Is rat poison toxic to reptiles? Nevermind, I Googled it. Apparently, yes. Iāve only seen one garter snake here in the past 15 years though, so Iām not sure how many are actually around.
We do have a couple of whatever type of owl lives in this area and likes to make sure you know that owls live in the area. I wouldnāt harm those on purpose though, and have two cats I donāt want eating poison/poisoned critters either.
Garter Snakes primarily eat frogs, worms, and insects. Constrictors such as Rat Snakes and Kingsnakes are more likely to eat rodents including voles.
Just be very careful with zinc phosphide
I have put some thought into rodenticides. I tried to weigh Lable compliance, Enviromental impact of lingering reside in soil, Risk to non-target wildlife, Risk of human poisoning. There are not many products labeled for use in the field. Most rodenticide labels Mandaite they only be used around buildings. Unlike the anticoagulant formula of most rodentcides, Zinc Phosphate is an acute poison creating toxic phosphine gas. It quickly breaks down into inert, probably beneficial Zinc and phosphate in the soil. The label allows it to be broadcast over a field. I plan to inject it directly into tunnels going into winter so that off target, accidental poisoning is very unlikely. It sours and breaks down pretty quick when exposed to moister so, Iām not sure how effective this will be. I understand that itās an acute poison if ingested and respect it. I got a chemical applicators license specifically to purchase Zinc Phosphate. If an accidental poisoning were to occur, I would like to be able to say It was applied per label in the most responsible way possible.
Thatās a shame, king snakes are my best friends. I battle all sorts of critters in the Deep South. Try and take away one and another one pops up and causes you more problems except for king snakes. Raccoons drive me crazy they are so smart and strong. They will clean entire trees in one night. So far, itās just trying to deter them and relocate so that another group of Racoons can take their place .
we have garter snakes here. big ones too. if i see one in the road, ill pick it up and put it in the ditch it was headed for. voles are too big for them but they will eat field mice and slugs. when thinking voles, think of apocalyptic numbers in the 1000s per acre or more in bad years. people that have battled them know what Iām talking about. when food is plentiful even with a high predator load , they still overpopulate and eat everything they can reach. they make a huge burrow system so they can move from food source to food source in relative safety. ermine and mink are about the only things that can get them in their burrows, and Iāve never seen them around here.