Steve - that is great. I remember seeing my first pileated wooodpecker about 10 years ago and watched it in awe as it ripped 12-18 chunks of wood per "peck" out of a rotting tree looking for grubs, etc. I had see pics and was not prepaired for the real size of this bird.

The late fall application of castor oil does not seem to be an "iffy" way to prevent vole damage to my hosta gardens. The application is pretty simple for an age struggling hostaholic like me. I can do that.

I am sure you remembered that, in my opinion I have felt castor oil is a very viable treatment against voles, without having any really solid reason for it besides logic. Thanks for diving into the search for knowledge.

I am going to work with this application of combating voles and will publish my findings as they become,in my opinion, valid.

Les

I see a pileated woodpecker once in a year so it seems. One time just as I talked to a repair man outside, that bird started working on a dieing tree, what a show. Another time I saw it working on trees in neighbor's back yard and I kept staring at it to not miss anything, except the neighbors were showing their house for sale just that moment and made remarks about that crazy hosta guy staring into their yard without noticing them, and they did not see the bird.

About rodents. It seems to me when using that Castor oil you displace the rodents, they go elsewhere, continue to grow exponentially in their population. That means to prevent invasion into other parts of your property, you need to spray your whole property whenever needed. They will be waiting to invade again when you miss a beat!
Good luck!
Bernd

l don't agree with the exponential theory. If you condense an eco-environment for a species it reduces its reproduction. That being said, it is not a major issue IMO. No big thing, bernd. Think of reducing its successful zone over and over again and soon it will be a non-factor.

The Pileated Woodpecker seemed to me to resemble an ancient species. I visualized it in a paleo-whatever environment with dinosaurs and huge dragonflies in a monstrous fern forest. It s truly a rare and treasurable sight to behold. Unfortunately there is no way that we can ensure its successful survival since it is dependent upon the critters in dead trees for its food. I would stop watching the Black Hawks (I have been an addicted fan since 1959 and am a big fan of "Big Buf" from Minnesota) if I saw a pileated woodpecker in a maple tree in my yard.

Les

We have seen them more than once in Yosemite.

-Babka

{{gwi:1096177}}

What a sight!!! My DH was out doing repairs to the edges of the roof this week, and there was a big round hole just beneath the gutters. He measured, but will have to come measure again, because I saw what was digging a hole there. It was the small red-headed woodpecker, very dedicated.

But the remedy for voles might be just what DH needs. I've watched the really ugly spread of little caved in tunnels in some of the flower beds, and by springtime it will be devastated. Great information to pass along to DH.

Thank you, Steve, for this post. I had an extensive hosta damage this year, so I immediately applied formula the same day you posted it. I used castor oil from the laxatives shelf in CVS store. I want to treat differ. areas of my garden and was searching the web for cheap Castor Oil.
http://www.baar.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=751M&Category_Code=
The link above offers special formula of Castor Oil for lawn and gardens, and they claim that other types of Castor Oil will not work. Checked the New Hampshire Hostas video and Richard Merritt didn't mention what kind of CO shoul be used.
What do you think?
Thanks

Danis,

That sounds like a good find. I think I'll order some as well. Sounds like you have an experiment going. Half your garden was done with CVS castor oil and half with the stuff from Baar. I think NH Hostas got theirs from the Internet. Probably Amazon. I know it was in gallon containers because they had so many Hostas to treat.

Steve

Thanks for the link to Baar. They write that Castor oil is against other rodents too, like mice, moles and chipmunks. I have not seen voles and their damage, but seem to have field mice. Now I am getting interested, chipmunks are cute but become a nuisance. I guess it would be not appropriate to spray it on the soil in a vegetable garden.
Bernd

Bernd-

Field mice = voles. Sorry for the bad news.

-Babka

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia Voles

So I wrote wrong, sorry, I saw HOUSE mice, those with the white belly, see the link below. Two were dead, from my pellets I hope. I have no rodent eating hosta roots, therefore I assume that I do not have voles (= field mice). When I had hostas diminish severely, I now believe it was crown rot, because smaller size leaves appeared lateron and those plants survived. Other larger holes I think are from chipmunks, saw them use these.
Babka, thanks for the comment.
Bernd

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia - House mouse

Just went outside to clean up the bed (yes, the one that was treated with castor oil)for the first time after the snowstorm, and found out that my huge S&S was left with one tiny root, and the Rainbow's End was eaten to the point that it can't be saved! What a disappointment! I now think that plant hostas in wire baskets and a vole poison are still the best methods to continue gardening.

Okay. This is spring of 2016 in CO (got hit with some snow storms already). Anyway, I had vole infestation in 2014-2015 winter. I noticed the google maps of streets (runways) on my backyard in Spring of 2015 after snow cover had disappeared on my north facing backyard. Thought that some pipes had burst, only to see a small pipe running around in the runway. Then I found out what a vole was. Being softy and all, I didn't want to kill them. So I happened on this webpage and waited for Fall 2015.

I applied castor oil (from laxatives at walmart) along with dish soap, 2-3 times on a weekly basis. Hoping that these critters would go away and I'll have a good lawn in 2016 spring. Here we are. 2016 spring and I have more runways than last year.

So it definitely didn't work for me. I'm gonna man up and Kaput the heck out of these guys in fall 2016 now. These guys need to die.

I was actually at NH Hostas last week and picked up the recipe for the Castor oil vole deterrent. Please note that it is emphasized to NOT use UNscented castor oil. i.e., Use SCENTED castor oil. perhaps this is why this recipe didn’t work for some people?? Just a thought.