I don't know about skinks, but I lost three of my antique roses to voles. I put out bait stations with poison and I sprinkled rat poison around the roots of the iris they were attacking. They left the iris then, and the other roses seem to be okay, but I have to be very vigilant since they come back.

They burrow under ground and eat roots. the rat poison might work well around your rose roots.
kay

I think I found out yesterday what was making the holes! Toads! I stuck my gloved finger down a hole and hit something squishy and out popped a toad! I talked to the master gardener at ACE who has 35 years experience in horiculture and asked if it could actually be the holes causing air pockets that is causing the damage and eventual death the the plants and she said oh yes, that could very well cause it. So I think I am going to try flooding the holes with water and see if what ever is making them will move on. :o) ~Meghan

In case it is voles I found a great way to get rid of them or at least control them. Check out this youtube video!
~Meghan

Here is a link that might be useful: cheap and easy vole control

Skinks don't bother plants at all. They eat the bad insects in your garden. Toads will not bother plants either, and also eat bad bugs. People try to attract these creatures to their gardens by putting out toad houses and building habitat for lizards. It is most likely that these creatures moved into holes they found that were already excavated by rodents.

I would be suspicious of advice from anyone who works for a big box store garden center, 35 years experience or not. You are much more likely to get good advice here.

Your idea that it might be voles is probably right on. I would work with that hypothesis if I were you.
Good luck getting rid of your varmints.
Renee

Renee, I now know that skinks don't eat roots and I know that toads don't. They do however make holes and I do know that air pockets in your soil are not good for the plants roots. These holes are numerous and destroy soil stucture. At first I thought maybe whatever it was was eating the roots but I no longer think that. I think the actual holes could in fact be causing damage. I don't consider ACE a big box store at all. These are small buisnesses and they do hire people who actually know what they are talking about which is why I like to shop there verses Lowes or Walmart and I would never ask those people advise on plants cause they know squat! This women is a master gardener with 35 years experience and knows what she is talking about (everything she says line up with things I have read). I also come to these forums as well (use to be on here a lot more at one time) in fact I have a link on my blog for this and the antique rose forum because there are so many wonderful people from all over to get there opinion or advice from and I think it's great. Very helpful people on the Garden Web!

I have a bad feeling now though that is may in fact be voles as I dug up one of my antique roses that hadn't been doing good (with 2 holes near it) and it roots didn't look right. So I am going to try this method and see what I come up with. Easy and cheap without waasting money on traps and bait or having to buy harmful bait to gget rid of them. Wish me luck! ~Meghan

Good luck, Meghan. I hope it's not a rodent problem because they can be so hard to get rid of. I have a serious pocket gopher and ground squirrel problem here. I have finally mastered the gopher trap, though, so I might make some headway against them this year.
Renee

I had a skink once that I caught and put in a 10 gal. fish tank (with out the water). He was so enjoyable to watch. I fed him crickets that I got from the bate and tackle shop. One Christmas Eve, I found him all dried and stiff. Too bad, he was a fine little guy.

Matthew
Indiana.Matt