fall prep for diggers?

Is there anything we can do to stop little voles and garden diggers from choosing certain areas for their winter home? They seem to like the soft dirt of my garden or the warm area next to my home. I want to discourage them but not sure how. I have voles, rabbits, and something larger. . . possibly chipmunk or rat. Any suggestions??????

Good day! Yep, me too. Anyone who has watched any of my posts hears me cursing the darn things. What I am going to try, thanks to many others' posts, is to try the wasabi powder and cayenne pepper. You could do a search on wasabi - I gave up on my new bed this summer due to voles/gophers/whatever eating everything in sight. Also, just recently, I read that areas previously infested were no longer infested after using the alfala tea. I'm trying that too!!!

Good luck to you. Maybe next spring we'll both be on here with the results of our attempts!

Sanna

I hate to say this folks but I have tried just about everything, except for the latest remedy I have heard about which is chocolate flavored chewable ex-lax. I hear that gophers can't resist it and needless to say they are then taken care of. I went to a farm show last year and found the "Rodenator" which was invented and is manufactured in Idaho. This is an Oxygen / Propane system that blasts the entire tunnel system, gopher and all. It gets rid of your problem. Although this is an expensive remedy we had no choice. We have 7 acres of prime soft soil that the gophers had taken over. We coudn't step outside our home without sinking to our knees. We want to do some elaborate landscaping on part of the property and utilize the rest with a lavender farm and herb demonstration garden. Just can't have those gophers hanging around. The cost of the "Rodenator" is about $1700.00 but well worth it if you have enough acerage to warrant the cost. Fresno State University Ag Program reports a 95% reduction in burrowing rodent problems on their farms. The only thing I would recommend is that you do use it with EXTREME caution in the summer with a spray pump w/ water handy in case of fire. Sometimes there is the slightest spark from the ignitor. It is a great tool though and so much fun to use!

Yeah.... I'm not holding out too much hope for the home remedies, tho' it helps to have a little of it! The Rodenator sounds pretty nifty! I think I will do some digging up of last year's bed, lay down some heavy gauge hardware cloth (screen) and hope for the best.

I'm letting my roddent killing dog do most of the work this spring. LOL. He's a little less expensive than the "Rodenator" but the name can apply to him too.

We're rototilling in the spring and hopefully, I'll dig up a few then. We have a few "natural areas" that I'm going to rearange and I hope that will help as well. Soon I'll be able to see the little tunnel paths that they put under the grass. So I guess you could say, the hunt is on. I hope that heavy gauge hardware cloth works. I'll cross my fingers for ya.