Mice/voles

Oh how I sympathise! That is what has happened to our whole beetroot crop too, as well as some of our carrots. We are surrounded by farmland and a water meadow

I use snap-traps but find the flimsy ones next to useless. I bought some from Amazon and also Ebay called The Big Cheese, which are pre-baited. The ants carried away the bait pretty quickly so I use peanut butter, and so far, as of yesterday, I am up to 20 mice from those beds. (about £3.50 for two) They go out on the verge and Red Tailed Kites enjoy a snack. I have just bought more as they work so well.

I regularly push down the soil around plants using my fist and flood out tunnels too where I can. I wouldn't be able to grow any brassicas otherwise! They are pretty persistent though and I have to stay on it.

Also, I think I inadvertently provided lots of cover for them by growing beetroot quite close together, with a nice row of dwarf calendula alongside, so there was plenty of cover. Next year I shall be growing them far more "exposed" to try to avoid this problem. I have recently sown a single row of beetroot in an "open" bed, rather than th double row I usually grow, so I shall soon find out if this helps. I shall be sowing rows of carrots further apart too

However, this seems to be one of those population explosion years for small rodents, so hopefully they will crash next year. This has happened before, so fingers crossed!

I hope that helps a bit. I shall be interested to see what others do about this

I feel your pain! They've been the bane of my vegetable growing life these past two years. Like you, no chemicals (although I'm not even sure if they exist for voles?)

I've also been told that there are cycles of population explosion years and then they can suddenly disappear - or maybe just move on. My fingers are crossed for that to happen next season.

I could let you have 2 cats to help with the problem? I'm still trying to rehome them☹️

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep them on the plots 

Quote from: snowdrops on August 07, 2017, 21:32

I could let you have 2 cats to help with the problem? I'm still trying to rehome them☹️

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep them on the plots 

Could you not train them to follow you down there & back lol