Burrowing Bandits: Evicting Garden Invaders

By Tessie Walters | The Gardens on Spring Creek Horticulturist

When gardeners think of pesky intruders, rabbits often steal the spotlight. But another, less conspicuous culprit might be wreaking havoc underfoot: voles. These tiny, burrowing rodents can cause significant damage. Their secretive habits make them difficult to detect until the damage is done. Thankfully, a mix of thoughtful strategies can help keep these “burrowing bandits” in check without upsetting the natural balance.

Creating Habitat: A Double-Edged Sword

Gardeners often strive to create lush, diverse habitats to attract wildlife. However, abundant vegetation also provides shelter for pests like voles. These rodents are particularly attracted to scented shrubs and tend to establish burrows beneath protective plant cover. To minimize vole-friendly environments, it’s important to understand how gardening practices influence their habitat.

Monitoring: Spotting Trails and Clearing Vegetation

Voles leave telltale signs, such as narrow trails and tiny burrow openings. Regularly monitoring your garden for these signs, especially in the fall and winter, can help you stay ahead of an infestation. Clearing herbaceous vegetation along trails during colder months can expose these passageways, making voles more vulnerable to predators like hawks and owls.

Mechanical Control: A Clean Garden is Key

Voles thrive in gardens with dense plant cover, which provides them with both food and protection. Keeping plant cover low and clearing debris around your yard reduces their hiding spots. Installing wire barriers around the base of young woody plants can also protect roots and stems from gnawing voles during winter.

Biological Control: Let Nature Lend a Hand

Encouraging natural predators is an effective way to keep vole populations in check. Birds of prey, such as hawks and owls, are particularly adept at hunting voles. Adding hawk perches or owl boxes to your garden infrastructure can help attract these valuable allies. Similarly, predators like foxes and coyotes play a role in maintaining balance. Some gardeners also use deterrents like coyote urine or blood meal, although their effectiveness can vary.

At The Gardens on Spring Creek efforts are underway to implement bird-of-prey infrastructure to encourage hawks, owls, and even bats (for mosquito control) to frequent the area. Given The Gardens’ proximity to natural areas like the Spring Creek Trail, it’s critical to work with, not against, nature.

Trapping and Why Poison Is Not an Option

For severe infestations, winter trapping can help reduce vole populations. However, poisons should be avoided due to the risk they pose to non-target species, including predators and pets.

Protective Precautions: Vole-Proofing Young Plants

Voles don’t burrow deeply, except for their nesting chamber, making it possible to use wire barriers to protect the roots and trunks of vulnerable plants. A vegetation-free buffer zone around young plants can also act as a deterrent.

Finding Balance

While a vole-free garden might be an unrealistic goal, the best approach is to seek balance by inviting nature to help. Exposing vole paths, fostering predators, and maintaining cleanliness are steps toward a more harmonious coexistence with these garden invaders.

By working with nature, gardeners can turn these “burrowing bandits” from a full-blown nuisance into a manageable part of the ecosystem.

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