Nature and Gardening

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All things green, outdoors, and nature-y. Whether it's animals in their natural habitat, hiking trails and mountains, or planting a little garden for yourself (and everything in between), you can talk about it here.

See also our Environment community, which is focused on weather, climate, climate change, and stuff like that.

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Managing Moles, Voles, and other Varmints (beehaw.org)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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How are you all managing the varmints in your yard? I've lived in a lot of places in my life and it seems I've found quite the mole and vole hotbed also known as my yard. sighs

My dog is able to catch them, but not without digging up tunnels, grass, and making a mess. My neighbor inserts "worms" (poison) into the tunnels, but I don't do that because of our dog.

I wish I could lay a yellow brick road for them to follow to a happier place, but they don't seem to be the type to understand. I don't actually want to harm any critters and thus the inner turmoil of humankind vs nature. I really don't like this post and I'm the one who wrote it.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My inclination is to recommend building some housing for predators like hawks and owls if you're able and have the space. It's a nice way to address the varmint population while also meeting the need of being good for the local ecosystem, though it works slowly.

Ways we have accidentally concentrated our vole population include

Creating brush piles of wood chips and sticks
Growing nasturtiums
Growing Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus)

But doing a combination of all three intentionally seems to have drawn their attention from the majority of the yard that isn't gardens, and by giving open space between the vole magnet area and our gardens it increases the chances for one of their predators to keep their numbers in check.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Great ideas. Thank you!