I have been losing rose bushes, bulbs and other plants at an alarming rate. A seemingly perfectly healthy plant will wither and die from no apparent cause. They just up and die one day. I was bewildered to say the least. What was killing my gardens? Was there some evil-doer out to deracinate every plant I so lovingly placed in the yard? I had no answers for this dilemma. Then, as I was watering the blueberry bushes one afternoon, the water suddenly gushed down into the ground. Huh? I inspected the area and found that the water had suddenly found a hole about the size of a golf ball! I thought to myself...MOLES! Sure enough, there was a tunnel that obviously went for some length since the water just kept pouring into it. Oh, wait...the water was exiting into the bean garden! It was spurting up like "Old Faithful"! I had a mini geyser in the beans! Now this would never do! I pulled back the hose..I had planned on watering the beans but not quite in that fashion. Those goofy moles had dug a tunnel under the blueberry bushes..under the fence..and into the beans. Now, I knew what was killing my bushes! MOLES! I was proud of myself for determining the cause of my plants' demise. MOLES.....wait a minute..why would moles cause a plant to die? They do not eat plants..sure they might chew through a few roots now and again as they tunnel around but moles eat worms. These tiny mammals are carnivores. They eat worms, grubs, larvae, beetles and any insect that happens to be crawling around underground. Dad always controlled the moles in his yard with castor beans. Supposedly if you drop the beans in existing tunnels and smash the tunnel just a bit, the mole will chew the bean to clean its run. The castor bean is highly toxic so poor Mr. Mole would expire and be interred in his own hole. Personally, before this tunnel discovery, I had never worried about moles. Since they do eat so many critters, I figured they were on my side. They were allies of the gardener! Well..if they are going to eat my plants..then this is war! I would have to find a ready source of castor beans! Although..somewhere in the deep, dark depths of my mind, I do recall that moles do not like peppermint! Or was that mothballs? Or maybe..well anyway..I needed to do something.
A few days later, I was talking to a friend who said that the voles were tearing up her yard. Voles? Was this a slip of the tongue? I had never heard of a vole. After researching just what a vole is...(Son said it might be a venomous mole!) I have discovered that perhaps my villains might be voles. I had been seeing what I assumed were field mice scampering around in the yard in the late evenings and early mornings. I would also find..ummm...headless, half-eaten "field mice" at my doorstep quite often, compliments of Ms Put. (She always leaves a share for me! How lucky am I!) Maybe my field mice were not field mice..maybe they were voles. I looked up a picture of a vole. Yep..definitely a resemblance there! Of course..these little guys hardly ever sit still long enough for me to eye them closely, so I could be mistaken. But now that I have a tentative identification..what do I do about voles in the garden?? According to all I read, the best attack is to kill them. These little rascals multiply at a humongous rate! It only takes them twenty-one days to mature enough to reproduce and each female can have up to thirty little ones every year. When that is taken into consideration it is easy to see how they can take over a place in a matter of months! I read on...ahh..here we are..Natural Extermination! Now we are talking! It seems that the best attack is a natural attack via hawks, owls, cats and snakes. Hey..I live on a bayou..I have all of those, so why in the world do I still have this problem? Granted Ms Put is getting quite old and may not run as fast as she once could, but she does still hunt. The owls, hawks and snakes must be getting lazy! And what about the fox? Shouldn't they be feasting on vole? I suppose I will have to get a few traps and attempt removal myself. I am not looking forward to vehemently vanquishing voles any more than I would just moderately maiming moles..I just do not want any more horrible holes in my garden!!!
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