Voledemort -- Vole de Mort... the Vole of Death. In choosing
this name for the arch villain in the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
reveals her understanding of the trials and tribulations of farmers and gardeners. Is it any wonder that this series is such a huge hit? The Vole of Death, indeed... strikes shivers right through you, doesn't it?We came to better understand the destructive force of the common eastern vole, too, as we harvested part of our potato crop due to the appearance of late blight in some of the plants (an earlier post on this problem here). At first, an entire row of plants were utterly wilted -- gnawed off just below the soil line it turns out. And as we dug, we had very uneven results: a combination of numerous lovely potatoes, NO yield whatsoever, surprisingly small numbers of good-sized potatoes, and groups of potatoes with many bites taken out of them (see photo above). As we pulled the piled mulch back, there were tunnels and holes in the earth around the potatoes.
Voles are the villains here -- as distinct from moles, which are not to blame. Looking around online to learn more about voles, the first article I clicked on was highly informative, covering a great deal of exactly the type of information I wanted to know. Not pausing to read the byline, I saw about half-way down, "Every vole I see around our house in the woods of Concord..." Concord?! Goodness, this gem was written by our own good townswoman, Susan Clark! (Find the full article here.)
The true horror of the situation is this, and she states it unflinchingly: "Massachusetts Audubon estimates prime, natural vole territory supports more than 300 [voles] per acre!" Imagine our supplying them with scores of pounds of developing potatoes -- why, they're liable to scurry over to our place in droves! They'll buy all-expense-paid vacations to dine at our garden table. What's a homo sapien to do? Well, what is there one can do? Voles are voracious eaters that must consume enormous amounts of plant food every day. They are active day and night year 'round -- and do they reproduce! The Smithsonian Natural History Museum headily states that "Meadow Voles [Microtus pennsylvanicus, one of the two most common species here in Concord] have a remarkable reproductive output: they are the world's most prolific mammals. Females can breed when they are a month old and produce litters of 3-10 pups every three weeks for the rest of their lives. A captive female produced 17 litters in one year." Be. Still. My. Heart.
What do we humans have on our side to help even the score? There are always cats, who love to catch voles. And we do have a house cat, but she thinks that live rodents are a form of passive entertainment to quietly watched from afar. Local owls, hawks, and others' kitties can take up some of the slack.
And don't forget that we have our wits to help us: our HUGE human brains -- with egos to match. Is there anything more sad and prideful than a human being trying to best an unending stream of insistent rodents? We often see this battle engaged locally with squirrels -- think of how many new bird feeder designs have been created to try to defeat those little thieves, and you'll realize that due to the sheer number, adaptability and determination of a herds of rodents with tiny brains, we are no match for them. Oh, sure: we can make a dent in the population by trapping and killing them, but who are we fooling? I doubt we can hope for even as much as a downward blip in their numbers.
It's only the vole's mysterious population cycles which ebb and flow drastically over the years that will either give us relief, or even deeper pain. So, what first began as a premature potato harvest in response to the late blight, ended up claiming what was left for us by the voles, preventing further loses. Perhaps this is be the best we can do right now.
Photos: Top - ©2009 Rich Stevenson, Local Color Images. Above right - courtesy WikiCommon.
