mice snacking on my plants, help!

[RiverMan]

I am a fisheries habitat biologist in the state of Oregon. We work with private landowners interested in reestablishing native vegetation. To do this, we lay all large weed barrier tarps in which we plant into. The plants are growing unbelievably well, but the mice are killing a good portion of them by girdling the stems near the ground.

I am wondering if anyone knows of an effective repellent that can be used to stop this from happening. Please realize that I have literally thousands of plants to protect so something very labor intensive is not an option for us. Thank you for any suggestions!

RM

[Puckdropper]

"RiverMan" wrote in news:1125004289.108905.50980 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

For a mice/mole/rodent problem, I must recommend a good young cat. In fact, for something as large as your area you may want a couple. Treat the cats nice and shelter them, so they know they're home, and you'll probably have your mouse problem disappear.

Never had a problem with rodents in my garden... Even helped the cat go after a mole once.

Puckdropper

[simy1]

it is an excellent situation for the voles, having the food right into their cover. If you can't get a bunch of snakes, who will go under the tarp to get them, you should get human urine by the gallon. It is an excellent repellent, though it works best to prevent colonization of a virgin place. You should also dig where a dead plant is, find the tunnel with your fingers, drop a piece of rat poison, and close.

[~patches~]

We have voles and field mice. I can't say they've ever really bothered the gardens but I have raised beds so maybe that's why. We had a couple of mice in the house a few years ago. One of our neighbours was bothered with mice on a continual basis so they got 3 young cats. Problem solved :)

[OmManiPadmeOmelet]

Moth balls......

and mouse poison bait around the periphery.

Or get a good barn cat. ;-)