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Observations of a Naturalist Online Articles about nature - by Boyd Shaffer, artist /naturalist
This Article: Trouble with Voles - damage under the snow.
Voles can cause major damage to your lawn and bulb gardens in the winter. They love to tunnel along under the snow and eat grass and rhizomes. As they eat their way along the lawn, they build a succession of nests made up of dead grass. When springtime comes you have a lot of missing grass along their trails, often down to bare earth.          Voles love lily corms and bulbs, including tulips and daffodils. They aren't happy eating them where they are, but carry them away and stockpile them in a larder. When spring arrives you might find almost all of your bulbs intact, piled beneath a bush or some other garden hideaway. Replant the whole ones and they should grow.          Several winters ago in our home in Kenai Alaska, I saw eight weasels at one time dashing around on the snow covered lawn. It had been evident that voles were there in large numbers. I thought the weasels would take care of the problem. Surprise! When spring breakup arrived, there were hundreds of voles running between snow patches. The weasels didn't seem to eat that many of them. Owls were no help because the voles wintered under the snow.          The only way that I can think of to prevent winter damage to bulbs is to dig them up and store them in the garage in the winter and not leave them in the ground, or you would have to total encase them in hardware cloth, an almost impossible task.          - End OBSERVATIONS INDEX

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