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Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: Digeroo on December 12, 2011, 21:45:57

Title: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Digeroo on December 12, 2011, 21:45:57
First they eat my peas which were drying. 

Now they are tucking into my parsnips.  I really do not know why there are not as fat as houses.  Everyday another large parsnip completely disappears.  All they leave is a large hole.

Any suggestions please on how to stop them.  They do not even seem to notice netting.   They seem almost tame. 

The farm cat and the kestral are doing their best.

Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on December 12, 2011, 23:02:07
Rat poison? If they're field voles, they have a known tendency for the population to explode every few years. Predators respond by breeding faster, bring the numbers down, and you get a period with few voles until numbers start building up again.
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Palustris on December 13, 2011, 10:12:00
I thought that voles were insectivores, so parsnips etc. would not be to their taste. Or have I got it wrong? Certainly here it is field mice which invade after the corn/wheat is cut and eat our stored fruit rather than voles or shrews. At least that is what we find in the traps.
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: pumkinlover on December 13, 2011, 10:14:09
Rat poison? If they're field voles, they have a known tendency for the population to explode every few years. Predators respond by breeding faster, bring the numbers down, and you get a period with few voles until numbers start building up again.



If you poison them and did not remove the carcass, wouldn't any other predator or scavenger be poisoned too?
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: pansy potter on December 13, 2011, 10:20:36
I was thinking the same thing
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Palustris on December 13, 2011, 12:05:24
Just been checking up, what we call voles are really shrews and what I call field mice are actually voles. It is a strange world.
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Digeroo on December 13, 2011, 12:27:48
These are certainly not insect eaters.  They are rather attractive little creature which look not unlike a hamster.  Flat wide body very short tail.  Love dried peas,  dried broad beans, the odd strawberry, and now parsnips and carrots.   So tame they will run across your feet.  

Up to now the damage has been small, but the disappearance of whole huge parsnips is unacceptable.   The biggest problem is compost bins, as soon as you start one then in move the voles out of the way of attack from the cats and kestrels.

Poison is certainly out of the question.  I suppose to some extent it is the price I pay for being in an idyllic spot with nature reserves on three sites of the site and farm land on the fourth.  My allotment has two side which are only about a couple of metres from the boundary.

I love wildlife I should not complain when there is too much of it.  But they are particularly good parsnips.



Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: alexE on December 13, 2011, 12:41:46
are you sure it's voles taking your parsnips? i don't know how big the parsnips are but isn't a vole too small to pull one out and entirely consume it?

if you do nothing this year then next year there will be a larger kestral/buzzard/fox/feral-farm cat (insert predetor here) population and things will start going back to normal. it's just whether you want to wait

Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Digeroo on December 13, 2011, 13:05:22
They do not pull them up.  They completely disappear maybe the top ring left leaving a large parsnips sized hole.  I wonder whether they are chewing them up and storing them somewhere.  I am expecting to dig up a pile of parsnips shavings.

Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: gazza1960 on December 13, 2011, 19:00:57
Harry the Ham had had enough of spinning on his wheel,
To entertain the children wasn’t really such a good deal.
So with gusto he ran faster, his legs a blur created friction,
Till the connecting wires they suddenly “snapped”
He’d completed his “Free me addiction”!!!!!!!!!!

A quick scurry across the carpet, his feet met with wheel spin generated clawing
Oh no, he’d accelerated much too quickly and ice danced across the shiny vinyl flooring,
Careering this way, then that way, he was heading for the cats dish,
But quick thinking Hammy sat on his bum, although it did kinda bruise his star fish !!!!!

Though freedom was only a cat’s flap away, his empty tummy did echo with pangs
But food was the least of his worries as he’d caught the attention of Fangs,
The burly Ginger tom leapt forth, it was easy meat Rodent shopping.
A mid afternoon snack was well on the cards he’d soon scoff this furry mouse dropping.

But miracles happen at Christmas, our Hammy rolled over playing dead
So our confused red haired feline just stood over his prey tapping lightly at Hammys small head,
Incisors sprang forth meeting paw pad ,Ol Ginger didn’t know where he was at
Yes he turned swift of foot and just legged it, like the proverbial used “scolded cat”.

Our Hammy was a proud Cricetidae, as Hamstern in German means “to hoard”
He thought im offski to get some refreshment, and take some sustenance on board.
So,enter stage left our Digeroo ,whos parsnips he fancied on sight
But the kestrels were a daylight annoyance, so he’d plan his attack overnight.

His nocturnal strategic advancement meant compost bin training to see
If he could sneak in and out with a parsnip,he,d grab an old carrot and flee.
Looks good he squeaked to himself and with Digeroo gone out of sight
He plundered the Parsnips a plenty wearing a Vole pantomime costume all night.

Throw the scent off yaself said our Hammy,Digeroos  thoughts clearly foster
Images not of our Hamster,the escapee Cotswold imposter.
So when checking the rodents that run amock,from compost bins to your hessian  sack
Look closely as it may be our Hammy, youll know….as he has a zip on his back.

Gazza

 

Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on December 13, 2011, 19:55:46
Voles actually do eat insects; they're rodents and primarily vegetarian, but they won't pass over a nice parcel of protein when they get hold of one!
Title: Re: Voles sending me mad
Post by: gazza1960 on December 14, 2011, 23:32:48
made me think, looking at the hamster cage add at the page bottom,as I stayed with a mate overnight before going boat fishing from weymouth one time.
I put my rods in his hallway and inadvertantly leant the rod bags against the hammy cage,all bluddy night I could hear the little so and so,s running around not realising they had been "busy",as I picked up the rodbags in the morning there was a bloomin great hole in each one and the fabric was neatly stacked in the corner of the cage
resembling a nice new blue bed......little munchin gits !!!!!!

Gazza
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