Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Grubbypaws on June 14, 2019, 11:27
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I have just gone and had a guddle in my potato bags but something has been there before me :(
There are small burrows with half eaten spuds scattered around :ohmy:
I am presuming that it is mice or voles that are doing this. It has never happened before; is there anything that I can do to stop it?
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Are the potatoes growing in bags or are they in storage for use as food? I guess you are growing them?
Not sure what you mean so not really able to try to come up with a solution to the mystery. :(
It also depends very much on what the chunks taken out of the potatoes look like. Alsorts of things enjoy a nibble at potatoes.
Mice will go for stored potatoes and, if they are near to the surface they may well chew growing ones. Had you considered that it might be slug damage? Unusual if the potatoes are underground growing.
Just had a second read - "Small burrows" … so I guess its mice or voles. :(
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They are in grow bags. There are tunnels down through the mulch and soil. Some of the potatoes have been half eaten in situ, others have been pulled up to the surface. They have had quite a chewing so it is definitely not slugs. I am now hoping that it is mice or voles as the husband has suggested rats :ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy:
We have had a problem with rats since the neighbour put up decking. I have had to stop feeding the birds after I found a rat inside a guardian fat feeder; you know the one with the small holes to prevent anything except small birds getting through!!! We do also have field mice and voles.
I have harvested all the Lady Christl but they are eating my Jazzy too.
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i would think rodents not sure how big!
put some traps done and wait and see!
I have had a little trouble in the past with spuds close to the surface outdoors being eaten but have left them to it as the number affected were small.
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Rats? Hope not.
I had hu-mungus sized rats living under my dad's old allotment shed. They fed well from a local take-away outlet but preferred the country-life. Being well fed they weren't bothered with my crops so nothing suffered apart from the shed floor which provided a door into a cosy warm, extension for them. (until I dismantled the shed and dug up the oil drum - sent in the bailiffs).
My suggestions:
Look around for places where they might be nesting... and more importantly feeding.
Inform site manager / warden (if on an allotment)
Inform neighbours (if home plot) and then contact local council for advice & help
Ask around - maybe someone else has the problem and will join you in seeking a solution.
Rats can get very big - so use the holes around your potatoes as a guide to what vermin it might be. With luck it's no more than field mice or voles... little fluffy things.. not such a problem I think.
PS - Take-away closed - rats moved with the help of the foxes who moved in ::)