Putting voles in the crosshairs - with gum

Gardening season in the Flathead is still a couple of months away, but I already have anxiety about what I’m predicting to be a banner season for those pesky subterranean dwellers called voles.

I’m basing my anxiety on the scores of surface tunnels runways across our lawn that were revealed when the snow melted. Those unwanted critters have been busier than ever, and it seems like the problem has been getting worse each year.

Last fall I harvested an entire bed of half-eaten carrots. Not to be confused with moles, these voles, or field mice as they’re also called, never met a root or vegetable they didn’t delight in devouring. Strawberries, tomatoes — you name it, they’ll eat it.

We’ve tried commercial vole repellent and spraying a red-pepper slurry on plants, but to no avail. I was commiserating with a co-worker the other day and he told me he just learned at a gardening workshop staged by local gardener extraordinaire Bill Clanton that Juicy Fruit gum can counter voles. Apparently they’re lured to the fruity-smelling gum, eat it and cannot digest it.

I did a little more research online and landed on a gardening blog called Dave’s Garden. He, too, has found Juicy Fruit gum to be an effective, non-chemical deterrent, though he said it doesn’t completely get rid of voles. A note of caution if you decide to gum up your voles: Those in the know say you need to handle the Juicy Fruit with gloves on or they won’t eat it. Dave said he’s using four packs of gum a day.

One co-worker recently tried the Juicy Fruit treatment and found the gum disappeared from the vole holes. Whether that takes care of the critters remains to be seen.

The problem with these rodents is their proclivity to procreate. Voles breed quickly. A female vole can have a litter of 10 young up to 10 times a year, according to a wildlife education resource website. At this rate of reproduction, a vole infestation can manifest itself in a very short amount of time. 

Mouse snap traps can be placed strategically inside or near active tunnels, too, though caution is suggested if you have other pets running around the yard.

According to everything I’ve read, you can’t buy over-the-counter poison to kill the varmints. Only a licensed professional can buy and use vole poison.

I’ve said before that gardening in the Flathead is not for the weak. An 8-foot-high fence keeps the deer out, and I suppose we could put netting over the top to keep the birds out, though we haven’t done that yet. Slugs — and voles — get in no matter what.

So let the games begin. I’m stocking up on Juicy Fruit. This is all-out war.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.