I have seen several snakes this season and this must explain why my lilies are doing so well! This area has a problem with voles.
Voles are a cousin of moles but lead a very different life!
Voles eat plants while moles eat bugs and worms. Voles live above ground making tunnels through mulch and grass to reach the stems and roots which they eat. Moles dig tunnels underground but are looking for worms. They don’t hurt your plants but their tunnels are not attractive.
When I first moved to this house I brought many cast iron plants from another house and planted many hostas but the voles ate them one by one over that first Summer. They only eat the root so that you would think the plant was only leaning strangely but when you tried to straighten it up the plant would come out of the ground with no roots! Ugg.
They love lily bulbs, too! I love tiger lilies. I must have planted tons of bulbs when I moved here. They were all eaten with in a season or two.
Rabbits are another animal that are plentiful in my garden, too! They don’t do much damage with the exception of chewing some plants here and there. They frighten me sometimes because they will sit motionless while I am pulling weeds then take off suddenly when I get to close. They are cute, thought!
The one below was in the garden along the patio today.
One time I was pulling English Ivy seedlings under a large Formosa Indica azalea when I saw, out the corner of my eye, a few hanging dead leaves. As I reached over to pick them I turned my head to get a better look at the leaves.
I froze. I realized the leaves were actually three small brown bats! They didn’t seemed upset. They just continued licking themselves. They reminded me of mice, but with wings. I slowly backed out from under that azalea!
In my neighbor I have also seen foxes, Red-tailed hawks, deer, nutria, and I am pretty sure I saw a few coyotes walking down the street one night!
There must be plenty of wildlife in the wildflowers along the street for the hawks and such.
Many spiders, as well! This is an egg sack on the post light by the driveway.
These lights are on all night so I assume the spiders like to build webs here because of the endless supply of moths.
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Arthur in the Garden! 
Did you notice how much our gravatar’s look alike?? Ha.
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True blue!
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Hi Arthur – thanks for visiting and following my blog. I see that unlike me with my small time balcony world worries of powdery mildew and ants you are in a different league with voles and moles and rabbits. I cannot imagine how frustrating it must be to straighten a plant and have it come out of the ground. On the other hand – bats, and rabbits, deer and spider egg sacks, sounds like you live in nature-lovers paradise lucky you. I look forward to reading your posts and learning more. Polianthus
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Thanks. Its a strange piece of land here that time has seem to have forgotten and all of the growth of Raleigh is all around us! I didn’t expect so much wildlife when I purchased the house!
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You truly have an abundance of wildlife in your garden! Hares and squirrels frequent mine (I sometimes wish they wouldn’t, although they are awfully cute!). 🙂
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Squirrels! Bane of my existence! They seem to watch me plant them come right behind me and dig everything up looking for food!
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We have no moles or snakes but too many voles and rabbits. I would love to have coyotes (they are in the metro area) to take care of the aforementioned rodents. We have hawks,owls,opossums, and many songbirds. All the critters help keep the garden interesting.
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Love your bunny picture. All my rabbits have disappeared and I believe it is coyotes that got them. The coyote population has grown in our area too. But on the other hand, my plants are not being eaten.
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Coyotes are moving in to the Piedmont and Coastal areas of North Carolina and are so common that they are usually along the interstates in the morning eating road kill. In some areas they have taken to eating pet cats and dogs so Vets are warning owners. There is a niche and they are just filling it.
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Yes, we have had many cats in the neighborhood “disappear”.
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Love that you live near so much nature. 🙂
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Me, too! It the major reason I purchased this half-an-acre only three miles from downtown!
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My mother told me the story of once watching a prized lily slowly vanish into the ground, getting shorter and shorter…. She pulled back, but the vole had vanished with its bulb.
Voles are the only reason I sort of tolerate our feral cats (our neighbours feed them, and people keep dropping them off because obviously a farm wants them!). I like indoor cats, and they are mandatory in this house, but I hate outdoor cats. The cats have destroyed both the snake and bird population (and the vegetable garden is apparently The Ideal litter box), but once in awhile they do catch mice and voles. The cats aren’t eaten by the coyotes, because the other neighbours shot the coyotes….maybe the bears will eat them…
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Yes, I have the same love/hate relationship with wild cats. They eat the birds I love but they also control rodents, who I do not love!
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We have a few voles around, but they haven’t done too much damage. One got into our next door neighbor’s house, and their cat cornered it! We have tons of rabbits, and can’t grow pansies because of them – they eat them! And the squirrels cause havoc, too.
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Squirrels!
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