The mean season

Jason Sandford September 16, 2005

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

come out, come out wherever you are
This is the mole hole.

And this is me getting medieval on said mole’s ass. Why?

OK, here’s the deal. A couple of years ago, some moles moved into my beloved compost pile. Actually, they may have been voles. I’m not sure. Rodents, nontheless. They go to building nests this time of year, and do what they do best – procreate.

I discovered my new neighbors one afternoon as I was pitchforking my good dirt and happened to stick a tine right through one of the little effers. Ever heard a mole/vole scream? I have.

After I put my boot on the unlucky bastard’s head and scraped him off my fork, I noticed three holes at the base of the pile. I bought some rat traps and put them around. I didn’t know what I’d get.

I ended up killing a dirty dozen of the bee-yatches. I’d go out every morning, checking my traps. I had enough pelts to trade.

I don’t want a repeat of that mean season.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Go away

Lance listens

3 Comments

BB September 17, 2005

good work with WLOS, ash; i may actually give them another watch one of these days if this soapbox thing is any indication of future trends. but this mole/vole thing pains me (you knew somebody would take issue). this is almost certainly not a mole problem. moles (are cool animals and) don’t make above-ground nests like you describe. they sleep pretty far beneath the earth and only spend much time near the surface during spring and fall. they also live alone and rarely reproduce. and a single mole’s territory generally takes up one or two yards.

sounds like you’ve got exactly the kind of environment a vole community loves in that compost heap, and if you’ve seen a few, chances are the little guys are everywhere. where rodents and roaches are concerned, as long as the environment they like is available, the masses will be there to take advantage of it. so…i suggest that bashing a few will not take care of the problem (and that creature bashing is better avoided when at all possible). you’d do much better to encircle your heap with 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth or 3-inch diameter Vexar plastic-mesh cylinders. this little gate should project 18 inches above the ground and 3 to 6 inches below the surface. i’ll admit to knowing little about composting (i can only make so many concessions to ashvillea), so hopefully this won’t interfere with the process.
for the record, i don’t know a lot about voles, but i do see that some interesting research is being done on the presence of oxytocin (or something like that) in monogamous (but not polygamous) species of them. apparently that chemical has also been shown to trigger coupley feelings in humans. see, aren’t you lucky to have these cool little guys runnin’ round?!
perhaps wlos could do an inside backyard voles feature.

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Future Daddy September 16, 2005

Way to go Ash!

Kill them little bastards before your neighbors get stupid and request City Council to eliminate backyard compost piles!

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Edgy Mama September 16, 2005

Wanna borrow Rocky and Houdini for a few days? They’d get those bee-yatches for you.

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