Chicken Wire Bed Covers

I made chicken wire covers for our strawberry bed that is still "in
ground". They seemed to work well for a while but now something small is
getting into the beds and stealing
our strawberries.

Since our strawberries are still in the ground, I can't rule out the
under the ground approach but
I am thinking that it might be mice getting through the poultry
netting. I looked around the strawberry plants and didn't notice any
tunnels.

Would a mouse or a vole enter from above and just fit through the
poultry netting? I need to make some more covers and want to make sure
that they work better then the ones I already made.

I'd have to check, but I had pet rats and even those chunkers could flatten out and squeeze ANYWHERE!

Rats... (or do I mean, Drats). I hadn't thought about rats! I was thinking it had to be something smaller.

I know there are rats in our back yard as I have seen signs of them from time to time... one running along a fence, and droppings in the wood pile. However, it never occurred to me that they could get through the chicken wire. I guess if they can make it, mice and voles certainly can. My 11 year old daughter happens to have three pet rats. I guess I could test them to see if they could get through a "chicken wire" hole but I believe you are right.

I looked on the web and they say as long as a rat or mouse can get their skull through, they can get their entire body to squeeze through. I wonder if my daughters rats would hold still while I measured their heads.

I guess I need to build different frames to keep them out. Drats (or do I mean Rats!)

Has anyone else had problems with Rats, Mice or Voles getting through the chicken wire and taking crops?

From another post, it looks like voles (or meadow mice) might be the cause of my berry troubles. They would definitely be small enough to get through chicken wire covers.

Do voles climb into boxes or are they mostly "in ground" pests? Also, just noticed today that something ate some of our green tomatoes. No wonder none have ripened!

I think we all need motion sensor cameras in our backyards. Maybe a nanny cam to keep track of what is happening - the secret life of gardens.

They have a bird cam at the local nursery. It takes a snap shot every so often. I need something with a little more teeth in it -- like a mean out door cat or mountain lion!

I measured a hole a few inches away from my berry patch and it is about 1 1/2" across. Sounds like mice (or voles as I guess they are called in some parts of the country). Now I need to do a research project on the life a a vole and figure out how to lock down the veggies even more then I already have.

Gosh, I think that any small critter could get in there. I mean, there's really only so much we can do, right? My peas were a good example. The squirrels were snapping off my shoots, and right at the base after 2 or 3 feet of vine would come out. I fenced the gardens and it stopped and my peas are doing amazingly well. Anyway, all of a sudden two days ago, one of my 5 foot vines was snapped off again, and there was a dug hole in one of the squares. Who did it? How? I dunno. Maybe they can and do climb up and down the trellis now? They certainly couldn't support themselves on the flexible, thin, plastic netting/fencing I have up, and just pulled taught around some stakes. They'd fall into the garden and mash everything up. It's mysterious. Nature just finds it's way to get what it wants.