We have some sort of rodent in the garden that is thriving, particularly near the compost piles. When we had an inch of snow, there were many trails hollowed out under the snow that were easily observed. I think they are voles, but need to catch one to be sure. They are moving a lot of dirt around. I'm going to try to make a live trap to ID whatever they are.
sounds like rats to me if you are up after midnight shine a flashlight around to see what is running around . I like Victor traps use peanut butter on a piece of cloth on the trigger of the trap if trap keeps getting sprung with no catches or the peanut butter is gone without the trap sprung it is mice or voles .
I hope it's not rats. We had a family move in last year and I was able to exterminate all but one, and he seemed to move along. It's possible, we'll see. How do rats know it's after midnight?
they are most active at night , I had an invasion of them this fall . I studied up on them too much to list here . I picked the traps up each morning then back out at sundown did not get 1 squirrel or chipmonk kept the wife happy lol
Little mystery here too. Kiddo and Daddy dug a snow cave in a big drift in the back yard a weekend or two ago, they were back out in it today and there is a deep 4"+ tunnel, perfectly cylindrical that goes deep on the other side of the drift. What could it be? No rats here, prairie dogs, cottontails, snow hares and hybrid jack rabbit/snow hares. Stray cats, skunks and racoons, and field mice. The girls said the hole was stinky.
I think you are referring to the giant rat traps? They scare me, pretty sure they'd break a finger. How many traps did you set out? I ask, because when mice find their way into the house, I set out a dozen mouse traps and catch as many at once as possible, so the survivors don't have time to figure out to avoid the traps. I had all 12 filled the first night I set them last year, and only a few stragglers on subsequent nights.
Smoke them out. Smoke bombs or old 2 stroke weed whacker, extra oil in the gas, attach a pipe to exhaust and into tunnel. Leave running for a few hours.
I tried something sort of like this with a hornet's nest last summer. First, tied the handle on my push lawn mower so it would stay running, and parked it over the entrance to the nest. Let it run for about 10 minutes. That didn't drive them off, and only killed a few, got stung 13 times. Then, a day or two later shovelled some coals from a bonfire at night onto the nest, and that didn't work, a few more stings. Then, a day or two later poured a little diesel into the entrance an lit it, again at night. A few more stings. That got most of them, and eventually they figured out it wasn't a good spot for them. Not my finest hour.
We have moles and voles . Pretty sure they both leave the little pushed up tunnel trails in the snow. Voles eat roots and got all my carrots that I leave in the ground in the Winter last Winter. Moles eat grubs and worms. Compost piles can be a rich resource of worms.
I'm happy to leave the moles alone, I want to evict the voles. I think we have both as well. There are plenty of worms to share, I want the veggies.
Your veggies taste funny that year? I just started a compost bin last fall so I’m here to learn. I’ll probably encounter the same thing.
Under the bird feeder. I'm a dead shot with the air rifle at 5 feet. Don't know if these are the rodents in the garden. Haven't caught anything in the rat zapper that I have in the one compost bin.
Original post would indicate voles. I have them rather bad here. I have been looking at bait stations. You can buy them pre-made but there are youtube videos on making them from PVC pipe. I need to get some made and placed around the gardens. When I was blowing leaves off the flower beds, I was finding holes everywhere. They don't like exposure so that is why you saw all the tracks under the snow; leaves are the same, they will travel under the leaves. They eat the roots of plants. They can griddle trees as well just below the soil line. Voles look like mice but they have a hairy tail unlike mice. They breed like mad and the maturity time is quick. so one litter is ready to start breeding in short time.
Raw bacon is great at luring rats, just use wire ties to hold it to the trap to get more than one attempt per snap. As far as wasps and hornets, had a yellow jacket nest under the siding on my house. Since they return to the nest at night I sprayed a bunch of wasp killer in the shop vac and put the nozzle next to the opening before the sun came up one day and left the vac run a few hours. Pretty soon there were no more wasps going in and out of the nest. Sprayed more into the nozzle after I moved it from the nest just to make sure they were all dead. Opened the vac and there were hundreds of dead wasps.
I am making an owl box and going to put it up in our back lot on a 10 foot pole. I have seen owls in the forest around me. I read that they have a voracious appetite for gophers, voles, mice, rats, etc. I took old bark that has fallen off from my firewood stacks and put on the outside to hopefully make it feel more like a tree to owls...we will see.
