Gently getting rid of the voles

I have learned something important about moles and voles: Only one of them is damaging my perennial flower beds. 

The eastern mole is insectivorous and eats grubs, earthworms and other insects. The meadow vole eats plants, seeds and tubers. It is especially fond of some of the native wildflowers I have been assiduously establishing for more than 15 years in my gardens. I’ve been falsely accusing the mole of the vole’s handiwork.

The voles spent the winter under the leaves and snow that covered my ephemeral wildflower garden, gorging themselves on the tubers of bloodroot, trillium, Dutchman’s breeches and about half the stalks of a clump of yellow ladyslipper that I first introduced in 2005 and which had expanded to more than a dozen flower-producing stalks. Now there is half that number: an expensive snack for an unwelcome guest. Interestingly, the wild leek bed was untouched, suggesting an allium avoidance in the vole palate.

In another area I saw that a mature lupine plant failed to emerge this year, and I unwisely replaced it with a cardinal flower right next to a tell-tale vole hole. The next day the entire plant, root and leaf, had been sucked underground in much the same way that Bugs Bunny used to harvest carrots from Elmer Fudd’s vegetable patch.

I am not a ruthless killer of creatures that find suitable habitat in my home and garden. I capture and relocate the mice that set up home behind the kitchen stove — and perhaps also inside it — and while I work hard to prevent invasive species from establishing themselves on my 1/4 acre lot, I do not use herbicides. As a result, there is a remarkable diversity of plants and animals that occupy my garden, but there is also the need to convince the voles to move on to other pastures.

Voles do most of their destructive feeding and tunneling during the dormant season, so next fall, after I rake the leaves and before the ground freezes, I’m going to try a diluted solution of castor oil and dish soap and give the entire yard and garden a good soaking. A gallon of water every 300 square feet is the recommended saturation level. It is a pet-safe, organic repellent, and appeals to my sense of whimsy as well. With or without a spoonful of sugar, if it was good enough to repel Edwardian children it is good enough for my meadow voles. I’ll have a report for you next spring.

Tim Abbott is program director of Housatonic Valley Association’s Litchfield Hills Greenprint. His blog is at www.greensleeves.typepad.com.