Does anyone know a good vole bait? We have been using peanut butter on mouse traps, but are only catching shrews. We like the shrews since they eat the grubs and baby voles. The voles make a terrible mess by eating our potted plants that are over wintered in covered wooden bins. Just a note: we prefer to avoid cats as vole hunters because we avid bird watchers. Any vole (aka: meadow mice) elimination ideas?

-- diane greene (greenwitch@catskillnativenursery.com), March 21, 2002

Answers

Find a cat that doesn't like birds.

-- bruce (niobrara55@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

I don't know about a vole bait, but a friend has a Jack Russell Terrier and he is a vole catcher deluxe. He digs up and kills a couple a day, also moles and other varmits. Also a sweet intelligent little house dog. Mona Lea in S.E. Missouri

-- mona lea (monalea@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

I hired the company of Sammy, Tippy and Norman to take care of rodents here on the property. :-) As a result, I have become slave to these beasts. YIKES!! yes, they are cats. They catch rodents, especially voles, kill them and usually bring them to the door for my approval. They would like to catch birds, but they rarely even come close to catching one.

-- roxie (rbare@gvc.net), March 22, 2002.

They like to make nests in old rotten bales of hay and straw, especially if you place these around the garden. Then if you roll the bales over, the sleepy voles run out and you can hit them with a shovel or what not and kill them. If this sounds like it was unplanned, you're right... It did teach me NOT to leave a lot of mulch laying around he garden iver the winter, at least not to lay it down before it froze hard. We had an awful time with the voles that year. Little jar lids filled with mashed potato flakes will also work well, if you can keep the flakes from getting wet. They will eat their fill, get thirsty, and then go have a drink, and bloat to death. It really works, and shouldn't kill the shrews either. Weasels are also great for killing off the voles.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), March 23, 2002.