It is a small, gray-brown ball of fur, 15 centimeters long and is up to mischief in the earth. The water vole causes considerable damage to the ornamental and useful plants of the garden. The pest targets flower bulbs, vegetables, berry bushes, roses and young trees. The tender roots are mercilessly nibbled on, so that the plants either do not thrive at all or only poorly. A sophisticated strategy is required to get rid of the voracious rodent. Find out here how to successfully fight the water vole in the garden.
Dilapidation for identification
In the run-up to control it must be ensured that it is actually a water vole and not the protected mole. The nature of the piles of earth provides the first information. The mounds of a vole are smaller and mixed with plant debris. The tunnels of a water vole, on the other hand, are significantly higher than those of the mole. To be on the safe side, careful hobby gardeners also carry out the scrambling test. This is how you do it:
- In addition to an earth ejection, scan the ground in a circle with a stick
- If the rod suddenly sinks into the ground, a passage has been hit
- Use a spade to expose the passage over a length of 30 centimeters
- Place a carrot in each of the two cleaned openings
A water vole ravages the open corridor within a short time and gnaws at the carrots. A mole, on the other hand, digs under the open passage and does not touch the carrots.
Falling
Since the water vole does not hibernate, it can be controlled in the garden all year round. Experience has shown that late autumn and early spring have proven to be the most effective time windows, especially for
- Bavarian wire trap
- Classic pincer trap
- Tilt bar latch
- Tube trap
- Patented SuperCat box trap
Since voles have an extremely sensitive sense of smell, the traps must not be touched with bare hands. Ideally, you should touch the construction with old gloves that have previously been rubbed with earth. Metal traps are thoroughly cleaned with odorless curd soap to remove the oil film. Then you put the safety gear in a bucket filled with garden soil for a week. How to set up a trap:
- Use apple or celery pieces, potatoes or carrots as bait
- Uncover the ruined corridor again
- Position the trap at the entrance
- Close light-tight with an upturned black bucket or a wooden board
If you decide to use a box trap with only one entrance, place two specimens in the aisle with entrances facing away from each other. Since the water vole and its offspring create an extensive system of ducts, all active tubes that are discovered are trapped in stages. For an area of 500 square meters, an average of 20 traps are required to stop a water vole plague.
Tip: Since the water vole is not limited to infiltration of a single plot of land, concerted action with neighbors is more effective in combating it.
Fumigation
The different methods of fumigation aim to scare off the water vole in the long run. The following preparations have proven themselves in the home garden:
DELU vole gas
Because chunks of calcium carbide react with the moisture in the ground, an odor that is unbearable for the water vole flows through the passage. The rodents immediately pack their suitcases and leave. What remains is a fertilizer lime that is harmless to both the soil and the plants.
Neudorff vole gas
With the help of a smoke cartridge, a gas based on castor oil spreads in the corridors. There is a separation between the pests and their food sources, with the result that they leave the site. The smoke is particularly effective in sandy soil, as it lingers longer in the earth than pure gas.
Norax vole shock
The preparation is based on the active ingredient combination of clove, garlic and patchouli oil with alcohol. First of all, the tunnels have to be found in order to introduce the granulate with the help of boreholes. This is where the disgusting smell develops after the holes have been closed. These deterrents only develop their optimal effect when the aisles are immediately sealed.
Tip: For environmentally conscious hobby gardeners, deadly food poisons do not come through the garden gate. The risk of harming children, pets and beneficial insects is too great. In addition, due to the large amount of food available, water voles take in too little of the poison bait anyway.
Natural enemies
The water vole faces a large community of natural enemies whom you lure into the garden as a rifle aid. Even a motivated cat can keep the water vole under control. Dogs, on the other hand, prove to be less helpful, because the four-legged friends do not shy away from turning the garden into a crater landscape in the heat of the moment. In rural regions, a natural garden invites the following animal seconds to fight the water vole:
- For weasels pile up piles of stones as a place of retreat
- Offering perches to a buzzard as a lookout
- Owls drill an entrance hole in the barn wall
Where four-legged or winged allies of the afflicted gardener cavort, water vole colonies have no chance in the long run. In this case, complex traps and other control methods are also unnecessary.
Plants with wire baskets
- Dig the planting hole according to the basket dimensions
- Insert the basket and fill one-third with the excavated material
- Spread a layer of sand as drainage between the wire basket and the potting soil in the damp location
- Spread the earth in a conical shape for root plants and horizontally for bulbs and bulbs
- The plant with fan-like spreading roots resp. Insert the bulbs at the correct distance
- Fill in the rest of the soil and press on
If the plant basket has a lid, bend it down onto the substrate until it is close to the plant stem. Bulb flowers will later grow through the wire mesh. So that the wire mesh does not spoil the visual appearance, spread a final layer of substrate or mulch over it. If the plant to be protected is a shrub or tree, no harmful narrowing of the root ball is to be feared even after years. The thin wire mesh initially grows in and is later mechanically disrupted due to the pressure of the roots. At this point in time no water vole dares to nibble on it.
Conclusion
Wherever the water vole threatens to seize a garden, there is an immediate need for action. The earlier you declare war on the pest, the less damage is done to the ornamental and useful plants. If small mounds of earth appear in the bed and lawn, the rooting test brings final certainty whether it is actually a vole. The systematic arrangement of traps or the disgusting fumigation have the best experience in the allotment garden. So that you don't even have to think about such control methods in the first place, a near-natural provides designed garden for the settlement of as dense a population as possible of natural enemies of Voles. If you want to be on the safe side, you should always plant with wire baskets, the practical everywhere water vole stop.