Having just moved to a new house in early winter i am now starting to get spring fever and making new borders. We have four cats and they have started to catch VOLES sometimes 2 or three a day (should add we do have fields and woodland behind the house) and even greater joy they bring them in the house and let them go, On researching voles I have dicovered they are not a gardeners friend as they eat seeds ,bulbs, and more, does anyone know how to deter or eliminate them, the cats dont seem to eat them as they do with mice just use them as something to play with, but they often end up dead.
Hello Stu It sounds as though the cats will win in the end! Ours did the same...bringing rodents in to play with, then losing interest and wandering off! Over the years, though, the mouse, shrew and vole populations have decreased to the point where they hardly bring any home now. It helps if the pussies aren't overfed...that sharpens up their appetites
Sorry but dont agree with cats destroying the wildlife. I quite like cats but they are killers and destroyers of all small animals and birds.
I can honestly say that mine have let loose far more than they've ever killed. That's why I've got humane traps all over the place. I don't agree with stone martens wiping out my chickens but hey, that's nature for you.....
The old chickens thing, . If you have pets it's up to you to look after them, nobody likes to see their pets slaughtered, but if you lived next to a motorway would you let your cat wander? same thing in a way, but I hate to see anything killed needlessly or for fun but I do realise some domestic animals still have the wild instincts, and when we introduce those domestic animals, to wildlife, we should really do it in a controlled way.
I do agree but humans are the worst destroying our planet and making some animal species extinct just for there own financial gain
Plus as yet nobody has come with an answer to my question which was how to deter the voles I have heard via an American garden site castor oil ,they don’t like I wanted to deter them to stop the cats catching them have tried traps and caught some mice but zero voles .So as yet the cats are doing the best job
Two ideas from a French perspective...don't know if these products are available in UK, or could perhaps be fabricated at home. 1st is pulverised Ricinus, 2nd is a decoction of elder.
