“I could use some advice,” writes Jeff in Manassas. In our yard, a mole (or several moles, based on appearances) has made a home. They’ve taken up residence in the grass and flower beds, and we’re at a loss as to how to politely request that they go. Anything you can do to assist would be fantastic!”
Now: Moles (with a M) dig raised tunnels in lawns that you can collapse by stomping on them, but they don’t harm plants in any other way. Voles (with a V) devour underground plant parts like spring bulbs and (particularly) the roots of plants like hostas, creating small runway-like tracks on the surface of lawns.
Moles vs. voles
When someone from Manassas writes in, seeking for help with “moles,” I invariably inquire, “Do you have moles?” Or perhaps voles?
Moles are blind and strange-looking creatures that are rarely seen by humans. They are carnivorous and dwell underground, consuming exclusively beetle grubs, earthworms, and cicada larvae. They don’t eat any plants. However, their enormous tunnels can wreak havoc on a lawn. (True gophers, as depicted in the classic film “Caddyshack,” are possibly the most vexing of such underground pests.) But, thankfully, they don’t exist in our area.)
Voles are shrew-like critters with dark fur that are the size of mice. They have a high fecundity and are occasionally spotted aboveground. Those who suffer from them usually notice their trampled-down tracks in lawns. Their food is likewise underground, like that of moles. However, they are vegetarians, and the voracious bugs prefer spring bulbs such as tulips and perennial roots.
Jeff exclaims, “Oh joy.” “I suppose we have both,” says the narrator. Our spring bulbs and perennials are vanishing because we have so many elevated tunnels throughout the yard.”
Vibrating stakes are just a waste of good batteries
Jeff has both moles and voles in Manassas. “We tried using the stakes that send out a pulse (which didn’t work) and don’t know what to do next,” he writes.
Jeff, your experience is not unusual. From the indoor ones offered to purportedly ward off mice and roaches to your vibrating stakes to the huge ones sold to repel deer, I’ve never seen evidence that any type of “electronic pest repeller” works. They are, nonetheless, all around us. They’re also commonplace.
What is the explanation for this? Liquid and granular herbicides and insecticides (organic or chemical) must have been proven effective to be permitted for sale, according to federal law. Unfortunately, “devices” are exempt from federal regulations and do not need to be proven beneficial; they can be sold for any reason. However, every actual research of these gadgets that I’ve ever seen has failed.
(I had a great time with these things a long time ago.) A wrangler from the local insect zoo carried a giant clear glass tube full of cockroaches to the studio for a local TV reporter. She flipped the tube over, waited a minute for the roaches to spread out, and then put on an electric roach repeller and held it near one end of the tube. The roaches all swarmed to the tube’s far end. It’s a good thing she wasn’t holding the glass tube because it would have turned into one of the most thrilling TV moments ever…)
No ‘worms’ & no gum either
Poison gummy worms designed to be hurled into mole runs are next on the list of things not to attempt. Because moles only consume live, warm food (and because they’re blind, they can’t notice the ingenious disguise), these items are only a threat to little children who may mistake them for candy.
The classic “Juicy Fruit gum down the hole” technique is the same way. Although it was one of my boyhood favorites, right up there with Bazooka Bubble Gum, neither moles nor voles will find the gum appealing. (Not the hard, stale slab that came inside every pack of baseball cards, but the penny candy version with the Bazooka Joe comic and your fortune wrapped around it.) That inedible splinter only served to tarnish and depreciate the value of your 1952 Mickey Mantle.)
Give them a dose of castor oil
Although neither insect is easy to eradicate, the first step should be to spray the afflicted areas with a castor oil-based mole and vole repellent. These repellents, which are available in both liquid and granular form at most garden centers and home stores, are designed to give your subsoil a foul odor. The castor oil will not damage the bugs directly, but it will send them to your neighbor’s grass if you use a strong enough concentration.
Mole and vole repellents based on castor oil are harmless to humans, pets, and other animals. They cannot, however, be replaced with human-grade castor oil. Castor oil has been treated to make it odorless. You want the most powerful subsurface odor imaginable.
This entails purchasing the product with the largest concentration of active component and applying it liberally. Don’t succumb to the temptation to dilute.
Mole and vole elimination
If, like Jeff in Manassas, you have moles digging tunnels in your lawn and voles devouring your spring bulbs and perennial roots, the first line of defense is a castor oil-based mole and vole repellent. Both pests should be sent packing if the concentration is high enough.
Mouse traps baited with peanut butter can then be used to catch any remaining voles. In this case, the newer battery-powered electric traps would be ideal because they pose no hazard to birds. (Here’s an example from an internet vendor.) They’re also available on the shelf at most garden centers, home improvement stores, and hardware stores.)
Mole Zap is a new device designed to put moles to sleep. The name implies that it electrocutes the underground terrors, but it simply floods their tunnels with CO2, putting them to sleep.
Finally, a simple crossbeam positioned 5 to 6 feet above the ground, known as a raptor perch, can attract a remarkable number of owls, the most common predator of voles.
What could be eating my hosta roots?
What causes holes in the leaves of hostas? This is one of the most often asked questions about hosta plants. Slugs or snails are frequently the culprits when it comes to pests eating hostas. These nocturnal foragers, which eat small holes in the leaves, are perhaps the most frequent of the hosta pests. Snail trails of silvery tint can be found around the garden area, indicating their presence. Beer traps may be used to control these slugs, which they crawl into and die in.
The adult black vine weevil is another insect pest that eats hosta leaves. This bug makes uneven notches along the outer edges of leaves as a sign of its presence. Their larvae also cause damage to hosta plants by feeding on the crown and roots, resulting in yellow, wilted foliage.
Nematodes, which are minute roundworms, infect hosta plants in the same way as fungi or bacteria do. They flourish in damp environments, just as fungal infections. Nematodes eat on the leaves, resulting in brown spots between the veins, giving the leaves a striped appearance. This usually happens in the late summer. Plants that have been harmed should be destroyed. Most nematode attacks can be avoided by providing proper distance between plants, using soaker hoses to avoid damp foliage, and removing and destroying all diseased plants.
Do you believe that only bugs consume hostas? Reconsider your position. Hosta plants are frequently eaten by deer and rabbits. Deer, on the other hand, may leave merely stalks where once lovely hosta leaves grew, whilst rabbits prefer to nibble on the young shoots.
What is eating the roots of my plants?
Plant root pests include root maggots, fungus gnat larvae, root aphids, root mealybugs, and root weevils. These bugs, unlike other species of garden pests, do not feed on leaves. Instead, they burrow into the earth and eat through plant roots, causing extensive damage and depriving the plants of water and nutrition.
As a result of root eating bugs, plant health typically deteriorates, resulting in wilting and yellowing leaves, stunted development, and even death.
Root pests can be difficult to eradicate once they’ve infested your garden, so using an integrated pest control plan to keep them away from your plants is the best approach to avoid an infestation.
What animal is eating the roots of my plants?
Voles are a pest that may usually be identified by the signs they leave behind. Here are several signs that you may have a vole infestation:
- In the grass, there are trails. Voles leave 1- to 2-inch-wide runways or ruts in the lawn as they travel the same paths. Following a snowy winter, these runways are most visible. Voles are protected by the snow, which allows them to run through and eat grass throughout winter.
- Cats. Keep an eye out for cats who sit in one location and catch something small over and over. Voles are so plentiful that cats don’t have to go far to find a meal.
- In the dirt, there are holes. Vole tunnels are often hidden behind mulch, shrubs, or spreading plants, with holes ranging from 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter. Near tunnel entrances, look for fresh grass clippings or seeds.
- Soil that is spongy. Some voles burrow and construct a plethora of shallow tunnels, while others dig to a depth of 12 inches. When you walk on the soil, the tunnels give it a spongy effect. Mole and chipmunk tunnels are very popular with voles.
- Plants that have collapsed. Voles eat mostly vegetation. They prefer to eat roots, tubers, and bulbs, putting crops like onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, and beets at jeopardy. Plant tops fall when the roots are removed. Voles also nibble the crowns of plants, causing the tops to tumble over.
- Harvest has been ruined. Seeds and fruits, such as beans, corn, and berries, are also favorites of voles.
- Sighting by sight. Voles skitter across the ground, quickly moving from one refuge to the next. If the grass is long in the summer, you may notice what looks to be a ripple flowing through it. A vole is frequently the source of the ripple (though it may be a snake)
What is digging up my hostas?
Squirrels may dig up hosta roots or young, vulnerable hostas that have recently been planted. Simply move it away from the hosta’s base as the plant matures. You can also build an under-the-soil wire mesh cage by digging a tiny trench around the root base of the hostas.
How do I keep animals from eating my hostas?
Garlic, predatory eggs, and urine all have powerful scents that dissuade deer and other animals from eating your hostas and other garden plants. Just remember to use aroma deterrents on a regular basis to keep them working.
How do I stop slugs eating my hostas?
Slugs aren’t bothered by cornmeal. It is actually fed to the snails that are used to make escargot in France.
-Crush some egg shells and scatter them among the plants. Slugs avoid moving over sharp objects, therefore the egg shells’ edges help keep the slugs at bay. This is a hoax, as evidenced by recordings of slugs traveling freely across smashed shells.
What animal is eating my plants at night?
Rabbits, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, woodchucks, groundhogs, and skunks are among the animals that feed at night. They cause a lot of harm. However, insects do as well. Caterpillars, Mexican bean beetles, flea beetles, Japanese beetles, the tarnished plant bug, and slugs are among the insects that feed at night.
What animal eats Nandina roots?
Your cherished native azalea begins to lean in an unexpected way one day. It appears to be barely attached beneath the surface upon closer investigation. You pull back the mulch to uncover a little quarter-sized hole near the trunk’s base. What the hell is going on here? Your plant has been devoured by a ravenous vole.
If this sounds like a scene you’ve seen before, welcome to the club. Voles are small rodents that range in size from four to six inches in length, have small eyes and ears, and have short feet and tails. They can be found all around the country and have a wide range of environmental preferences. All, on the other hand, enjoy eating plant matter such as roots, bark, and grasses. They can eat a shrub’s or plant’s root system to the point that it can be pulled from the ground, rootless, as in the case of the Nandina plant in the photo above.
Unfortunately, a thick layer of mulch that extends all the way to the plant’s base provides the perfect hiding place for the ravenous vole. They thrive in the dark, where they may dwell, propagate, and eat. This cover also protects them from predators, which helps to reduce their population. Voles are also active all year, not only in terms of the damage they cause, but also in terms of the reproduction of their species.
Leaning, dead or decaying plants, severed foliage, such as hosta leaves, or well worn runways above ground are all signs of vole presence. There may also be evidence of vole droppings.
There are few options for efficiently controlling vole populations. They proliferate at a rate that humans and predators cannot keep up with. They are, however, easy prey for many wildlife hunters since they are so active and move so slowly. Clearing and removing their preferred habitat is the first line of defense. Voles like to hide in weeds, leaf debris, and mulch. Vole activity in the region will be considerably reduced if these are removed from within three feet of plants.
Providing a physical barrier around plants, such as encasing each root location with metal screening or hardware cloth with 1/4 inch spacing to form a perimeter barrier around the root zone, is an effective but impractical way for protecting plants. While this may be worthwhile for some prized plants, it is usually impractical in an existing landscape or on a wider scale.
Habitat alteration, trapping, repellents, and toxicants are some of the other means of management. Habitat alteration is the least environmentally damaging method of dealing with vole population reductions. Voles are less likely to take up residence around your plants if you expose them to predators and remove their breeding locations.
On a small scale, trapping can be effective. Placing mousetraps immediately outside burrow tunnels and baiting them with peanut butter or apple bits can be a fatal strategy. Trapping, on the other hand, is a non-selective form of control, and non-targeted animals may be caught in the trap.
Repellents can be effective for a short time, but they often need to be reapplied if wet circumstances are present. Capsaicin, the compound that makes chilies spicy, is a popular insect repellant. Other repellents include coated marble-sized balls that are inserted into a burrow’s entrance. The repellent’s aroma is intended to drive voles away from the region.
Toxicants should only be used as a last resort. They can be useful, but you should check with your county extension agency to see whether any have been approved for usage in your state. The most often used toxicant to manage voles is zinc phosphide, which is effective with just one treatment. Poison baits, on the other hand, can be dangerous to other creatures, particularly ground-feeding birds. These techniques should only be utilized as a last option. Glue the bait inside a PVC tube several inches long and 11/2 inches in diameter to decrease the possibility of exposure to other animals. This should be placed in the burrow.
Finally, fear tactics or ground-based high-frequency devices have not been demonstrated to be useful in controlling voles and are not suggested.
How do you get rid of root eating pests?
Unless you take actions to eliminate these root-eating insects, they will remain in your garden beds and harm other plants. Root maggot control can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
The first step is to eliminate contaminated plants. Plants that are dying will attract the root maggot fly and should be thrown away or destroyed. They should not be composted. A plant that has been infected cannot be saved, but there are various things you may do to protect the next plants from becoming infected.
Apply a liquid pesticide to your garden bed at the start of the growing season if you want to employ chemicals to control root maggots. Make sure the dirt is well soaked. The vegetable root maggots will be killed as a result of this. Remember that anything else in the treated soil, such as worms, will be killed as well.
What is eating my plant roots UK?
Weevils are a group of many beetle families in the Curculionoidea superfamily, including over 500 species in the UK. All eat plant material, mostly live plants, but some eat dry seeds (grain weevils) or decomposing wood as well. The majority of them do not harm garden plants, and several species are rare.
Vine weevil may feed on a broad variety of plants both indoors and out, but it is particularly harmful to plants cultivated in containers. It is a very common and widespread bug. Adult weevils eat leaves in the spring and summer, but it is the grubs that feed on plant roots in the autumn and winter that can inflict the most harm. Wilting and plant death can occur as a result of this damage.
Vine weevil grubs are most likely to cause significant harm to plants growing in pots and containers, whether outside or under cover. Although extensive grub infestations can occur on strawberries, Primula, polyanthus, Sedum, Heuchera, and young yew plants, plants growing in the open ground are less likely to be affected.
Adult beetles eat the leaves of a variety of herbaceous plants and shrubs, including Rhododendron, evergreen Euonymus, Hydrangea, Epimedium, Bergenia, Primula, and strawberry. Adults rarely inflict enough damage to reduce plant vitality.
The privet weevil Otiorhynchus crataegi and the recently introduced Otiorhynchus armadillo are two more weevil species that are closely related to vine weevil. These other species’ adults inflict similar damage, but they’re usually less bothersome as larvae.