crying the blues

ladies and gents,
my heart is crying this spring. i've lost a minimum of 75% of my lilies to voles over the winter months. yep...........and i am crying the blues. i'm soooooooooo very sad and i just want to scream whenever i look in the garden beds and see the plant markers there all by themselves with no lilies. i don't have the heart to pull them out, even though i know they are gone. so almost all the ones i bought in aknapp's fall bulb co-op are gone and i think only one orienpet 'saraband' is left of the ones i've gotten from brenda's, lily garden co-op's. i didn't even get to see those in bloom. that doesn't even figure in the other 100 or so..............
it is enough to make you cry to see a patch of earth with two little single bulbett leafs where there were a dozen old orientals and numerous year and two year stalks last year.
i had a dozen muscadet, about 6 other orientals and 8 or so trumpets in a front garden bed. the only thing left is one trumpet they missed.
we hate voles.
debi & franklin (next life i'm coming back as a rodent hunting dog so i can help my momma)

So sorry, Debi. That really stinks.

I feel for you, Debi. Trying to fight critters can make you crazy. I've never seen a vole but the rabbits are putting me over the edge.

I have had the same problem - I planted over 200 lilies only to have a scattering of maybe 20. should any one find a way to fight these critters - please post!!!

I am so sorry .... hope next you will have lots of....
Kaleem

Too late for now but what about hardware cloth to line your bed. If you have your lilies in a border, then you could make hardware cloth boxes for each one. When the stem comes through the soil, you have to go down very carefully with a pair of wire cutters to cut a decent space forthe stem. That is the only way I've ever found that works.

Hardware cloth is a royal pain to work with but can't think fo any other way to save your bulbs. Voles demolish hostas too.

Here we have bunnies galore. Dill Pickle has spent meg bucks fencing off her garden, as have others here. Bunnies just LOVE lily shoots.

Inanda who really feels for you.

I did the hardware cloth (1/4" mesh) made 12" cubes with open top....left approx 2-3" out of the ground and used the 'volebloc' (gravelly, expanded slate) to layer the top. The lilies are coming up through the gravel nicely, though a few have tried to go through the mesh at the side of the box (I just bent the wire out of the way. I tried some with just a tube shape (12" deep and approx 12" diameter) and the vole bloc 2" layer at depth and on the surface. Those are coming up as well (much less work than the complete box) So far so good! A few (ok 2) managed to survive the vole munch of the fall of 2004 and are poking up out of the bare ground! don't know if they will last.
Voles are NOT my friends!

Get a cat or two.

Yes, it's more than sad, it's heartbreaking.

What is vole blocker please??
Inanda

It is a brand name of a gravel like 'expanded shale' that is sold as a permanent soil amendment to increase aeration as well as to be used when planting to literally surround the bulb with a layer of rocks that repel voles (scratches their tummies or something like that)... so far it has seemed to work...bulbs are coming up through it no problem....I will reserve judgement as to how good it really is until they make it to next year without being eaten...

Ah. Vole blocker. Very interesting. In Victoria BC we used to surround bulbs with sharp sand to keep slugs away. In fact, many people there grow their lilies in pots so they can control slugs better.

Will have to get a handful of vole blocker next time I go to US to see what we can find up here in Canada.
Inanda

Debi,
I'm feeling soooo sorry for you.Darn Voles,moles,ect.
I think I have a lily virus and have to pull/dig up several.
I'll have to post some photo's and
let the experts let me knoe for sure,
I think I know how you feel.
We can cry together!!!!!!
I didn't even know lilies got a virus.
Live and learn.
Jody

Have any of you who have vole problems ever tried MOLEMAX? I don't have the problem but this product is advertised on Ralph Snodsmith's Garden Hotline and Ralph said, in person, he uses it for all small critters like voles and moles, etc. Just type it into your search engine and you should find it. It's sold as a granular product. They have two sizes.

For bunnies I still swear by blood meal. I spread it after they ate 20 newly planted orientals right down to the ground three years ago. I thought it wasn't possible for them to grow because they hadn't absorbed enough sunlight through the stems and leaves they had before the big bunny attack but they did come up last year and I spread it heavily. Also spread it heavily around my 500 Asiatics and not one was distrubed. The bunnies never even returned this year but I have it and should spread it just in case they do return.

I just googled 'Solar Moler' Go have a look. Lynnette at Valley K mentioned it.

Inanda
Northern Horizons - NALS 2005 - July 13/17th in Winnipeg

This message was edited May 23, 2005 7:23 PM