digging for small animals

[Jennifer Yow]

My Red Setter starts to sniff the ground, and then gets a stance over the ground. He starts to dig, and you have to drag him away. I know he has a high prey drive. Any ideas on getting ride of field mice, moles, gophers etc.. My yard will be destroyed between Red and the little critters. Thanks

[Sherry Miller]

Jennifer posted an answer to you under the blog section about what we did here.  Good luck ( collapsing their tunnels works wonders also but start from the one in middle or most into your yard and work backwards...after a good rain is a great time to see the tunnels).  They also do have traps for them but I have never used one....also finding out what insect they are finding in your yard might help...and working to eliminate it.  That one I do not do as we are pretty slow to use an insecticide here due to Molly.  If we have to use a spray at all we do it right before we go on vacation so Molly is never near it.  Good Luck.

[Rose Muffett]

Yikes!  We too had this problem!  I didn't want to use poison of course so I contacted the feral cat people who trap, spay and neuter feral cats.  By rule, they must release the cats where they trap them if this can be done safely.  Every so often they trap cats that cannot be released where they were captured for various reasons.  They arranged to meet us and to inspect our property.  All went well, they approved us for 10 cats ...  I decided that 4 cats would work well, 10 seemed to be too many for us here.  The cats really cut back on the Vole problem.  They also turned out to be pretty good barn cats too.  They aren't real tame, but they do let come to their food dish when we feed them every day.  When it's time for their vaccinations, the feral cat people come out and trap them again so they can receive vaccines and worming. 

[Sherry Miller]

Wish I had that option of adding a cat to our family but between rules here for cats being kept inside....and one with an allergy it just would not work...plus not sure how adding a cat inside would work with Molly as she is not a puppy....know she has stare down game going with the one cat we encounter a lot on our daily walk....this cat is used to dogs but Molly is unsure just what it is I think.:) Hope that helps your problem Rose and for Jennifer if you go that route the other thing you do need to know about ferral cats is that they are neutered and spayed before being re released. Good luck.

   I am happy to say that to our knowledge Molly has not caught any of the underground critters here so at least I have not had to worry about her eating them.  She seems able to turn them back around by smashing the tunnels as they come under the fence........think they do not wish to be dug out of their tunnels by her. Just hope she keeps turning them around for us!

[Ilona & Gina]

The same problem here. They dig up mice and eat them, yuk. And then I get the problem with fleas - as mice a infested with them. The thing is, when you don't have them in the garden, they'll pick them up on their walks.

[Jennifer Yow]

We were told the day we picked up Red from the humane society that he had 
"an incident with a cat". Don't think cats are an option with Red. Lol!

 

[Bridget Simpson]

Hello Jennifer,

Yes, my Irish also get insanely interested in the underworld!  We have huge Golden Moles in the Cape and they will stand watching the mole hill rise and then pounce and dig frantically!  Fortunately they seldom catch the vermin which is just as well as I have had two dogs bitten on the nose resulting in nasty infected wounds. We have a cat, Mr. Tigs, but even he refrains from tackling these monsters!

As you can imagine the garden lawn can quicky become a minefield!  I've found that if you bury the dog droppings in the holes this discourages both the mole and the dogs.  You could also try puting hot ash from your fire into the holes as the smoke in the tunnel makes the vermin take off for safer places.  Hope this helps you.