I had never seen anything like it – a mouse size brown blur zipping between the house and the flowers growing along its edge. And then we saw one again, another near blur disappearing into the Pachysandra.

Soon our Hostas began to die. Something was eating them; not their leaves, but their bulbs. Our gardens are shaded by neighbors’ shrubs and trees about half the day and when we designed our gardens, the different color Hostas were the framing plants.

To have them dying, then, was bordering on catastrophic for our little gardens. But what was responsible?

We soon found out.

Voles!

I had never heard of these little rascals before. They look like stubby tailed mice, but that’s where the resemblance stops, because they are not fearful, frightened, or hesitant – they seize the day and devour bulbs.

These scoundrels are part mole and part super mouse. They tunnel underground to munch on our bulbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then pop up and speed faster than the Road Runner into foliage around our home.

So how do we send these scalawags packing? I tried some organic spray that smelled like the bait barrel; we have tried pellets mainly made up of castor oil; live catch mouse traps – we caught one frightened mouse – and lately bought 15” hollow cylinders loaded with four D batteries. These darn things emit a buzz about once every 15 seconds – you sink them in the ground and they are supposed to drive away these pesky critters.

We’ll see.