Author Topic: How do I get rid of moles and voles. (Read 6349 times)

Digeroo · « **on:** July 09, 2015, 19:58:25 »

Thought I had had every pest but now I have a mole.

And the voles are eating my broccoli. They have never done this before.

Do the mole repellents work. They do not have many stars on Amazon.

galina · « **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2015, 22:59:57 »

The moles make tunnels which disturb plants, even unearth them, then the voles use these underground tunnels to lead them to the nicest potatoes, which they devour. I wish I had a remedy, both do so much damages. I sympathise

peanuts · « **Reply #2 on:** July 10, 2015, 07:29:41 »

When we first arrived here (a rural area in SW France), we had a big problem with moles. And clearly, looking at fields around, they are everywhere. We tried all the inexpensive products on the market, and also tried the various old local methods, none of which worked at all, or were too difficult so we quickly gave up.
There was one product the garden suppliers sold, which we rejected simply because it was too expensive - "Le détauper" (taupe being the French word for mole). I think it costs about £50. But we were assured it was the only method that really worked. We still refused to listen! Finally we were persuaded by an irishman (!) living locally that it worked, and we dug into our pockets. That was five years ago, and we have never had a problem since. It works, it works every time. From time to time we see a mole hill, and immediately take action. Success. How do we know? Well, be warned, it is an explosive, and I'm afraid to say it kills the mole.
The first box gives you enough for five. After that you just have to buy the replacement detonators, which are less expensiive.

gray1720 · « **Reply #3 on:** July 10, 2015, 11:42:00 »

Not a hugely helpful response, but voles boom and bust on a four year cycle, so the next three years should be OK. Kestrels and kites love 'em, but you'd need a lot of kestrels and kites to really keep them down. Foxes also love them, but can make an almighty mess digging them out (guess how I know). You may have to resort to mousetraps...

Adrian

Digeroo · « **Reply #4 on:** July 10, 2015, 13:50:40 »

Do not mention Kestrels because it gets me going about Red kites. We used to have Kestrals which perched on the bean poles and kept the voles under control. Now we have red kites and they simply eat birds no use catching voles. They nevfer touch the ground, just take birds from the trees.

I keep finding plants dieing and when I investigate there is a huge hole underneath. Grrrrr.

As anyone tried on of the electronic things.

Voles been booming here for years. I think I might try the hamster bucket/watering can trick with the voles. Will not cost anything. What is their favourite food? Perhaps some dried broad beans.

ancellsfarmer · « **Reply #5 on:** July 11, 2015, 18:32:15 »

Nipper rat traps with peanut bait, they are in no way protected, and be persistant. Cover the trap with a 3 litre plant pot. to prevent avian tragedies and check night and morning
Voles are 24/7 operators and do not scare easily. They will sit and watch where you plant your peas!
Moles do not like to know you are about and can be driven away(to your neighbours plot!) by vibrations and sounds of activity. I have found that inserting a bamboo cane in the molehill with an empty plastic bottle on top, to rattle with the wind ,seems to disturb them, so that no more molehills appear in that area but can be seen 30-40 yards away amongst the neighbours.... Do not tell them what you have done!

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2015, 22:27:41 »

We don't have red kites in Birmingham, but the kestrels almost disappeared a few years ago. I've no idea why, and they seem to be recovering again now. Their disappearance wasn't necessarily anything to do with the kites.

squeezyjohn · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2015, 23:21:21 »

We've had Kites here for a very long time (we're fairly close to the original re-introduced population) and if anything we have more kestrels around here now than we did back when kites were scarce ... so i wouldn't be too quick to jump to conclusions.

It's a really really bad year for voles on my plot ... it was fairly bad last year but they're getting worse. Hopefully they will bust next year leaving me with the chance of eating a few of my own strawberries!

galina · « **Reply #8 on:** July 13, 2015, 07:25:14 »

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on July 12, 2015, 22:27:41

We don't have red kites in Birmingham, but the kestrels almost disappeared a few years ago. I've no idea why, and they seem to be recovering again now. Their disappearance wasn't necessarily anything to do with the kites.

Well, the Red Kites have got to here from where they were first released and artificially fed in the Chilterns. As they have made it to Northamptonshire (right at the border to Bedfordshire), it is only a matter of time before they will be spotted in the Birmingham area too, or at least in the rural areas around Brum.

I have never noticed the voles cycle, if would be nice to have one in four years off. It is tedious to plant all beans and peas with a cut off bottle on top or risk heavy losses, but at the moment 'needs must' and short beans that can't have a bottle are very prone to being bitten through by the blighters. Too bad.

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #9 on:** July 13, 2015, 19:51:19 »

Field voles have a population sycle over a few years as predator populations build up, then crash as vole numbers fall. As far as I know, bank voles don't follow the same pattern. Kites will undoubtedly reach Birmingham eventually, but they're taking their time about it. They must be pretty sedentary given the number I see on the last section of motorway going into London.

Digeroo · « **Reply #10 on:** July 13, 2015, 20:57:04 »

They arrived here a couple of years ago and now there are very few other birds of prey. The kestrels and buzzards have gone.

I see the all the time now, but have never seen one on the ground. The road kill is the domain of the crows and magpies now.

I do not think they will take much longer to reach Birmingham. Saw one near Warwick a few weeks ago.

They are magnificent flyers but I still hate them with a vengeance. They were wiped out for a reason.

I suggest you do bird counts now. Then when the kites arrive you will have a record of what you loose.

squeezyjohn · « **Reply #11 on:** July 13, 2015, 21:54:09 »

Hmmmmm ... well if people can just wipe out animals they take a dislike to we might as well start hunting foxes again ... and why not cull the badgers - it might work ... hedgehogs will be next on my list too - the prickly blighters - I never liked them!

Digeroo · « **Reply #12 on:** July 13, 2015, 22:32:29 »

They were reintroduced without proper analysis.

How many birds did you see today in your garden? Will you see the same number once the kites arrive?

I mole has now put a huge mole hill right in the middle of my climbling French beans.

squeezyjohn · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2015, 23:59:50 »

We've had Kites here since about 2005 and the decline in garden birds in our area has been in keeping with the national average ... it has a lot more to do with brainless people ripping out their garden and replacing them with the kind of horrible vulgar things you see on TV gardening shows and farmers reducing the amount of hedges to get better returns on their crops than it has to do with relatively few large birds of prey!

As I said - we're up on kestrels in the past few years from what I've seen and there are still plenty of buzzards and owls - and we've had lapwings and larks in the field behind our house for the first time in ages this year. The only bird that has been going down and down is the sparrow - and that's apparently due to the loss of habitat and some horrible bird virus. The majority of times I've seen kites with prey in their talons it's been small mammals, not birds.

If I see some scientific evidence that shows that they are definitely putting other bird species in danger then maybe I'll rethink my stance - but I haven't seen any.

Silverleaf · « **Reply #14 on:** July 14, 2015, 04:17:42 »

It would be a very poor evolutionary strategy for a native predator to hunt its prey down to such low numbers that the prey species were in trouble. Any predator that did that would soon die out itself as it ran out of food.

There's really only one species that drives others extinct - humans.

Silverleaf · « **Reply #15 on:** July 14, 2015, 04:29:05 »

Apparently lots of people get very upset and call the RSPB if they see a sparrowhawk in their garden. Understandably they don't want the precious songbirds that they feed and enjoy watching to get killed, and they think that the sprawks will decimate their songbird population.

But really, you'll only get sparrowhawks if you have plenty of songbirds in the first place, because hawks won't live in a place where there isn't enough sustainable food.

Things I think _are_ having a significant adverse effect on bird numbers: domestic cats, habitat loss, pesticides/herbicides/etc, egg collectors/vandals, changes in farming methods (like winter sowing grains, removing hedges, monoculture), introduction of non-native species, disease, climate change.

gray1720 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:00:52 »

This spring I was in a garden in Wales. Locally they have ravens (nesting about a hundred yards away, in fact), a goshawk, buzzards (one sat in a tree twenty yards away), and kites. Not forgetting sparrowhawks. Their garden was heaving with small birds - tits of all sorts, sparrows, woodpeckers, you name it. Every now and then a sparrowhawk would come stomping through, usually miss everything, and retire to sulk. Apparently it's been like that for years. The secret is that the small birds have enough cover that they are only a few yards away from a thick bush of some sort where the sparrowhawk will have great difficulty in chasing them down.

Similarly my out-law's garden is a jungle, heaving with small birds, I reckon it has most of Oxford's sparrows. Yes, the sparrowhawk visits, but it's hard for it to catch anything because there are so many obstacles. Give the small birds cover, and they can dodge the sprawks. You'll lose the odd one, but that's nature - (a) it's called mother for a reason and (b) what does most of nature eat? Other nature!

Meanwhile our allotment has reed bunting, linnet, starlings by the thousand, sparrows house and tree, resident kestrel, visiting sprawks. I've flushed a snipe off it in a wet winter, seen golden plover, swifts, swallows, martins house and sand, from it and yes, kites.

So no, it's not just the kites. I don't believe for one minute that you saw a kite take a kestrel (now a goshawk taking one, that would be a different matter), and won't ever believe it until I see it myself.

Adrian

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #17 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:25:29 »

Kites are carrion feeders in the main; they take small ground prey as well, including insects and worms, but they're not agile enough in the air to take birds on any regular basis. They were almost exterminated because of a general prejudice against birds of prey which still exists on some shooting estates.

squeezyjohn · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:29:36 »

I wish the kites would take all my voles though!

Ellen K · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2015, 10:39:10 »

Around here it's magpies that destroy nests who have reduced the small bird population. The sparrowhawk gets a few fledglings but nothing like those taken by domestic cats. Will await arrival of kites. On the allotment, a young crow pair are protecting their single offspring by seeing off other birds in their airspace (I've seen them take on a sparrowhawk and a heron).

I know that a wilderness hides nests but the magpies are pretty persistent and they take birds the day they fledge if they can't get to the nest. The only chance is for a late nest to survive at the end of the magpie breeding season.

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Author Topic: How do I get rid of moles and voles. (Read 6349 times)