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Wouldn’t you know it. I had big plans for those delicious garden grown sweet potatoes. Last year they were the best things ever. Candy from the ground and I had little reason to think I wouldn’t have more of the same delicious tubers again this year. I even saved a sweet potato from last year and sprouted this year’s starts from that saved sweet potato. Continuity!
Alas it was not to be. My sweet potatoes were greatly enjoyed by not by me. The Voles beat me to them. That is Voles not Moles, it’s not a misspelling. Voles and Moles are two completely different creatures and have more differences than the letter “V”. Voles are more mouse-like and will venture above ground. Moles are blind underground rodents that are carnivores. Voles are mostly herbivores which makes all the difference in the garden. As moles are carnivores they are targeting grubs, worms, and insects in the soil but not your plants.
Voles are extremely damaging rodents that chew on roots and tubers for food. Tree roots, garden crops, and turf grasses can all be heavy damaged by voles. In my case sweet potatoes.
Tips to Get Rid of Voles
To get rid of voles reduce any cover around the area. Take out weeds and keep the area open. They don’t like to run around out in the open for fear of predators.
Traps can be utilized but need to be placed near the holes. I have head where gardeners will cover the trap near the hole with a pot so that the voles feel more comfortable right before their impending doom! As for traps a mousetrap* with peanut butter will work well to attract them. Or I suppose sweet potatoes might be good bait as well.
This is where having natural predators around like snakes is a very good thing. King snakes, rat snakes, and garter snakes are very good snakes to have around the garden. They are not venomous and will happily chow down on the voles for dinner.
Hawks and Owls are good to have around but the areas need to be kept clear so the raptors can see the voles and have a clear line of attack! We have a pair of owls in our yard frequently and it makes me wonder if the reason they are here is we have a good food source for them. That is also why I don’t recommend poisons to control the voles since the owls might consume one and be poisoned indirectly through a poisoned vole.
Cats in the garden are a good and bad thing. They will target the voles but will also go after the bird population.
Voles will populate an area very quickly with female voles being able to produce 5 to 10 litters with 3 to 6 babies in each. So management is critical or the vole population will grow extremely quickly. (more info on Voles from UC IPM)
After I cleanup the garden this year the next step is to set up a trapping system of some kind to take care of my sweet potato thieves. I really didn’t plant sweet potatoes this year to feed the voles.
