All's Fair

It's war! This picture is what a perfectly beautiful carrot looks like after being munched by a vole. Voles are basically large field mice. There have always been many of them out in the prairie living in their little holes. We've pretty much ignored them. But this summer they decided to venture beyond the prairie toward the vegetable garden. We noticed a couple of them earlier in the summer, running into holes they'd dug under the railroad ties that divide the grass area from the river rock around the house. We didn't think much of it. Then we began to notice that things were being munched in the garden, mostly green beans, strawberries, and, especially, the carrots. And it got worse. Every morning we'd find carrot tops lying on the ground and the carrots themselves eaten down. The carrot crop was being decimated! There was a telltale vole run going into the carrot bed and the vole sightings became more frequent. In fact, we couldn't walk out there without them scattering here and there.

We found out that voles are very prolific little rodents. They are able to conceive at ONE MONTH and the gestation period is only three weeks. So, theoretically, one pregnant vole at the beginning of the summer could become nearly one hundred voles by the fall. YIKES!

So we had to declare war. (If you are one who would rather not read about the elimination of rodents, stop reading now.) We couldn't use poison because of the wildlife around here that eats voles to say nothing of Gracie, the border collie, who loves to catch and chomp them. Funny how dozens running around the garden didn't interest her, however. So we bought mouse traps. We set about 10 of them out around the garden beds baited with peanut butter and little pieces of carrot. And Paul, aka Dead-Eye Smith, took up residence in a chair at the edge of the garden where all those vole holes are along the railroad ties. Between the traps and the BB gun, we've dispatched nearly 30 voles in three days! (May they be reborn as lions.) There are still a few about but we don't see them every time we look out the window now. We remain vigilant, however.

I did have to dig up the rest of the carrot crop to save what I could. I have never had such gardening challenges as this year but I am determined. I would warn you not to be reborn as a vole in our vegetable patch!