Dear Deborah, I am an spanish scientist working with common vole plagues in NW Spain. It has been a surprise for me hearing that you may have problems in Galicia with this especies (Microtus arvalis), since it is considered as a rare species there. So, please, I would greatly appreciate any additional information about how are you sure it is this species (there are many other vole species in Spain, and common vole is not blind, real moles are instead). If you are completely sure of its taxonomical identification, more information about the locality where your garden is would be great. I would make a specific sampling trip to trap some individuals, scientifically confirming their identity. My proffessional e-mail address if you would like to communicate more directly: javier. vinuela@uclm.es. My name is Javier Viñuela, you can find me in Research Gate or in the web, associated to research with birds and other species or to the word “topillos”, just for you to confirm I am not one of those freakies around in internet.
Common vole is very common in Castilla y Léon, the region to the SE of Galicia’s western border, where they can become a plague in some areas and years, showing cyclic outbreaks as in France or Germany, It has colonized this agricultural area over the last 40 years, so it would not be rare that could be expanding to Galicia too.
We are working on sustainable ecological control of these plagues since many year ago (trying to reduce the use of rodenticide and fire as control techniques highly harmful for the environment), and can propose you some things for your case of a small orchard:
– Setting up some nest-boxes for barn owls and kestrels in the trees or poles in the borders of to the garden. They can work nicely in small cultivated areas as yours. 2000 have been installed in Castilla y León over the last 10 years.
– Take care of 2-3 cats and do not keep them fat with artificial food, but hunting voles.
– Flood the burrows (I guess no problem with water availability in Galicia) in the garden and, if possible, in the nearby fields, and kill the voles as they flee out of burrows (and you will kill many offspring too with water).
– Avoid inmigration (highly possible if you have pasturelands around, a common use in Galicia and typical habitat for common voles), by setting a buried fence (50 cm down, 70 cm or more high, small size mesh, hard steel rodent gnawing-resistent) around the garden.
– Use traps baited wit carrot of apple, Sherman traps work good, for example.
– Use water traps (a hole with a large plastic glass inside, the bottom of Coke plastic bottles or something similar, filled with water about half the capacity. Remove animals as you find them drowned. It works really great too for arvalis.
Best wishes
Javier
