I'm sorry to hear about the voles destroying your garden, I don't have voles where I live in Texas but I do sympathize with you, it is discouraging to work so hard to make your garden beautiful and a place if enjoyment only to have to fight the critters from destroying it! I hope other posters chime in and give you some good advice on how to manage. Good luck!

The voles are def the worst thing I've had to battle. I've tried the stuff you spray the beds with and traps but the only thing that seems to have worked was poison. I know it kills moles to but after so many plants get eaten you lose your mind. We do have dogs so I would put some tomcat poison down the vole hole and put rock on top. Must be working because I've not had any trouble the last two years. Interested to hear what others use for success. Take care and good luck. Judy

It may make a difference which kind of vole you have. Meadow voles run on the surface and leave paths in grass foliage that look like tunnels. Here, in sandy soil in south/central Indiana, we have pine voles. They are almost totally underground. You do see their holes, but without the pushed up soil around the entrance like moles. They have almost no ears...meadow voles have little external ears.

The pine voles are terrible here....we have planted a potted daylily in full bloom, to have it fall over two days later, eaten from underground with NO root left. The cats do their best, but we do use rat pellets that are waterproof so they don't disintegrate when they're moist. I pour them down the holes. I have no proof they eat them, but they do seem to lessen the population.

I have also read that many pine voles, especially the babies, drown in periods of high rain. Sometimes I go through the garden with the hose and shove it down the holes, fill them good, and tromp them shut. I rarely see activity there anytime soon.

We have to be vigilant year-round. When the garden is winding down in the fall, the voles seem to be moving into new holes. If you don't find them in November or December, they will have settled down in a nice hole under your favorite plant and they'll munch the roots all winter long and you'll have no plant in the spring.

I think if you have meadow voles you may be able to use rat bait, but you'll have to protect it from being eaten by any pets (cats ignore it, but dogs will eat it). You'll likely need to put it in the trails around the plants.

Voles are truly the bane of the garden! Good luck with hunting them down. Bob

Thank you, kindly Bob and others, for the advice. I have the voles that leave the raised tunnels in the soil.

I have blown them out with the hose pushed down in the tunnels, but the next morning, new tunnels have surfaced nearby. Last spring, I used some d-con and stopped, but last night I was out placing some down in their holes again. With the mulch in the beds, in which they love, I can see slightly raised runnels in which I follow them, turn the soil with my hand trowel, and push back down soil next to plants where it has been excavated!! Grrrr. I have too many beds/plants to do this all season though. They don't really mess with my larger shrubs, deciduous azaleas, peonies, established roses and other plants that I have collected over the years, but I do watch new roses that have gone in this past season and other perennials.

This fall, I am thinking of condensing some beds as I am a little too spread out for the maintenance that needs to be done. I have a small 3 acre farm in which there is much planted throughout from veggie garden beds, fruit orchard and my flowering gardens all around the house. I have the joy of being a volunteer at Duke Gardens and obtain some very nice treasures to bring home over the years. Hard to turn away these lovely plants as we all know so dearly! So, over the years, my garden collection has grown and have OGRs, etc that has been with me for over 30 years. I am so thankful for the beauty they have provided me throughout.

Thank you to those who have advised and I, too, hope that others can deal with these voles. I am thankful for having gardening forums to come to when we are low and can share and receive encouragement at any time from fellow gardening friends. Always something and my wishes go out to the folks in CA who are hard pressed for water for their gardens.

A cat, nature's own varmint police. Since you have a small farm, you could give a home to a "barn cat," one who is used to living mostly outside. Most such cats are good hunters.

> I have 3 cats who get a few once in a while.....

All 3 of mine are outside cats. There are feral cats in the area as well as we see them, but our cats and the feral cats usually keep their distance from each other. It is very well known when the two clans get too close to each other! [ :

Thank you for the suggestion.