Your 2025 Garden

[R2elk]

I'll look for some. I think they killed a young cherry tree. If I remember correctly they will eat tender roots.

Ditrac All-Weather Blox Bell Labs Rat Poison/Bait

They will eat roots, bulbs, taters, beets, carrots, tomatoes, etc. During the winter of 2022-2023, I had snow cover all winter. They ate the bark off of tender young trees, girdling and killing many trees for me. They particularly went for the young cherry and apricot trees.

I found these traps to be very effective for voles.

Kat Sense Covered Rat & Chipmunk Traps

 

[Nomadicus]

Ditrac All-Weather Blox Bell Labs Rat Poison/Bait

They will eat roots, bulbs, taters, beets, carrots, tomatoes, etc. During the winter of 2022-2023, I had snow cover all winter. They ate the bark off of tender young trees, girdling and killing many trees for me. They particularly went for the young cherry and apricot trees.

I found these traps to be very effective for voles.

Kat Sense Covered Rat & Chipmunk Traps

Thanks for the info.

 

[NanaK]

Ditrac All-Weather Blox Bell Labs Rat Poison/Bait

They will eat roots, bulbs, taters, beets, carrots, tomatoes, etc. During the winter of 2022-2023, I had snow cover all winter. They ate the bark off of tender young trees, girdling and killing many trees for me. They particularly went for the young cherry and apricot trees.

I found these traps to be very effective for voles.

Kat Sense Covered Rat & Chipmunk Traps

Thanks for this info.
I need to do something to thin out the voles here too.
Last year they ate half my carrots. They didn't touch to garlic and onions nearby.

A few years ago I was growing out a pecan in a large nursury pot. They chewed up the pot and ate the entire root off the plant.

They tunneled under the concrete pavers that are the floor to my greenhouse. What a mess!

I use the old style snap traps but they are hard to set when my hands are cold. These traps look much easier to use.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks for this info.
I need to do something to thin out the voles here too.
Last year they ate half my carrots. They didn't touch to garlic and onions nearby.

A few years ago I was growing out a pecan in a large nursury pot. They chewed up the pot and ate the entire root off the plant.

They tunneled under the concrete pavers that are the floor to my greenhouse. What a mess!

I use the old style snap traps but they are hard to set when my hands are cold. These traps look much easier to use.

My vole population reached a peak in the spring of 2023. Since then I am sure I have killed hundreds with the poison.

I started using the traps during 2023. Since then I have trapped 93 as of December 2024. Twenty-seven were caught in the garden. I only caught 5 during the 2024 garden season compared to the 22 caught there in 2023.

I first started using peanut butter as the bait. It worked fine at first until they figured how to get the bait without tripping the trap. Now I add a little poison in the bait cup then the peanut butter and dip then in more poison. Even if they get the bait without tripping the trap, they still die.

 

[NanaK]

Sounds like you have thinned them out. I know more can move in and they reproduce so quickly. But continued effort should at least control their numbers.

I have not thought of adding the poison to the peanut butter on the traps. Great idea!

We have a few barns. 2 are far from my chicken coops. I do use poison in those 2 barns. Another shed/shelter and my greenhouse are beside my coops. I worry about 2nd hand poisoning of my hens in this area so have only used snap or bucket traps here.

By 2nd hand poisoning, I mean a chicken eats a vole that ate the poison.

What is your opinion of 2nd hand poisoning?
Do you know if that is a risk with this particular bait?

 

[R2elk]

Sounds like you have thinned them out. I know more can move in and they reproduce so quickly. But continued effort should at least control their numbers.

I have not thought of adding the poison to the peanut butter on the traps. Great idea!

We have a few barns. 2 are far from my chicken coops. I do use poison in those 2 barns. Another shed/shelter and my greenhouse are beside my coops. I worry about 2nd hand poisoning of my hens in this area so have only used snap or bucket traps here.

By 2nd hand poisoning, I mean a chicken eats a vole that ate the poison.

What is your opinion of 2nd hand poisoning?
Do you know if that is a risk with this particular bait?

I use bait blox in my coop. I do not put the blox where they can be accessed by the poultry. On occasion I find dead mice. When I find them they are normally dried out and the poultry show no interest in eating them.

Whenever I find dead mice, I remove them. I have not had any hens die from 2nd hand poison.

When I had Light Brahmas, they actively hunted and ate mice. I did not use poison back then because they kept the mouse population in check.

If you have a mouse problem in a dry area, I can recommend the electronic traps that electrocute mice that enter them. They do work.

 

[NanaK]

I'm not had issues in the coop and run since I started picking up feeders at night a few years ago.
Just a random one every so often.

The do get in my greenhouse and the small shed nearby and of course the garden.

I don't have electricity ran to the greenhouse or the small shed. It's on the "to do" list.

Are the electronic ones battery powered?
Can they catch multiple mice or voles without needing to be reset?
I've never used an electronic one before.

 

[Nomadicus]

Electric or 4C size batteries it says
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Ele...sprefix=electric+m,lawngarden,133&sr=1-9&th=1

 

[R2elk]

Are the electronic ones battery powered?
Can they catch multiple mice or voles without needing to be reset?
I've never used an electronic one before.

Most are battery operated.

I don't know if they can do multiple once a dead one is in there but suspect not because they go into an alert mode (different color flashing light) when there is a dead mouse in there.

My neighbor is tickled pink with his. He had a bad mouse problem in his barn. Put out an electric one and got 27 mice the first two weeks.

 

[R2elk]

I don't have electricity ran to the greenhouse or the small shed. It's on the "to do" list.

I have never found any evidence of mice in my greenhouse but it is on my deck.