I've found that voles don't like the smell of somethings and will stay away from areas that I 've sprinkled with Bayer 2in1 rose food and insecticide granules or moth balls. If you can get some down before the snow cover, it will help.
Pam

I have always envied you guys in Zone 6 because you start one month earlier and your hostas last one month more in the Fall...than me here my zone 5. At this time of the year, the ground here is frozen so hard that any voles could not penetrate underground. Yet I've had so much problem in October with voles you wouldnt believe it. I kept destroying the tunnels until the ground froze. I'll see the effect next spring.

Papou

I am sorry to hear how much damage voles have done for your hostas all. We inherited two barn cats when we bought our home 10 years ago. I had thought of taking them to the SPCA , when they started to leave me gifts of mice & voles each morning YIKES! But one is very old & the other is blind in one eye so I figured this was their home & they wouldn't find another w/ their scraggly looks. So now they look great & healthy and are very loving pets. They still work very hard to protect mommy's hosta,& I have gotten used to praising them for their "gifts " . They sleep in the house in winter & follow me around the gardens in the spring & summer , after meeting these two old lady cats I wouldn't want to ever be cat-less & have voles eating up my gardens. :)~ Dot

somewhere... online.. i saw bait stations.. with long pvc type pipes.... so that they could be filled all winter long ..... even under snow ....

google vole bait stations ... and go to the images page .... and see if you can find it ...

buy cat also ... oops.. someone already said so ....

ken

We don't have a cat, but there are a few in the neighborhood that wander through the yard occasionally. We live in a very wooded area though, so the supply of voles is endless. Any kind of bait trap for us would be like setting a mouse trap in the garden. You get one, but 10 more run by - lol

Bunnycat,
Put them in pots in the ground and enjoy them! It is sooo nice to know that the Hosta that I bought last year will come up without being "volested" this year! I wish I would have done this about 600 Hostas ago! Now I have got some "backtrackin" to do!

Denny

Since the crowns of the plants will still be accessible, putting them in pots won't help that much. Voles don't dig deep, they would just attack the hostas from the surface.
Pam

Pam,
I used to stuff mothballs down the holes, and sprinkle moth flakes on the surface. They just moved on to attack another area. Then came back after the stink had faded. I think it may work if the infestation isn't too bad, but I was under seige last year. Chipmunks, another pest, will shove the mothballs out of their holes as fast as I drop them in. If I put a rock over the hole, they simply dug a new exit nearby. If the damage turns out to be really bad in the spring, I'll probably continue using mouse bait blocks, but sprinkle moth flakes on the surface. It gets so expensive that it's depressing. Money that could be spent on more hostas.
I've read that the vole populations naturally rise and fall periodically, so I'm just in a bad phase right now.

Papou~
Don't envy us. The January thaws have only been happening for the past few years. The gardens used to be frozen solid until the end of March. The freeze/thaw cycles wreak havoc on many plants and shrubs. Right now we again have snow on the ground. Who knows what will happen next week.

Dot~
I do have cats, and used to let them out. I had no rodent problems, and they also cleaned out my neighbors yards too. Once I started keeping them inside, my neighbors noticed they suddenly had voles, moles and chippies doing damage to their lawns and gardens.
One neighbor moved here with children who chased any neighbor's cats with sticks, trying to beat them. They called dogs to them and tried to poke their eyes out through the bordering fences. My cats were kept in as soon as I saw this. In addition to rabbits and deer, we also have possum, raccoons and skunks. Last straw was a fox family moving in. Some of these critters could kill a cat outright. My cats all have their shots, but...If a raccoon or fox had rabies and fought with my cat, the injured animal could come home with rabies saliva on its fur and pass rabies to us while we tended to it. Best to keep my kitties inside, and deal with the voles as best as I can (not well).

Ken~
I am using bait stations, just not the PVC variety. They do definitely help a LOT. It's just hard to completely cover every area, and keep them refilled all of the time. I spend a fortune on mouse bait blocks. Between the bait blocks and the slug bait, I'm going broke. :o(

Denny~
Pam is right. Voles can climb, at least a little. I've had them climb up into smaller pots sitting on the patio and eat the entire hosta crown. I suspect they may be the culprits who went up the drainage holes in my whiskey barrels and ate all of the tulips and crocus I tried planting there one year. I would also think that a pot could restrict the growth of a large or giant variety. A few years ago I transplanted a Frances Williams that had roots at least 2 feet deep. A year or two later I could see fat new roots spreading out sideways along the surface, under the pine bark. They were about 3 feet long, in each direction. I don't have any pots that big.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I've just been depressed and whining, looking for sympathy. Pathetic.

~Bunnycat (Nancy)

Nancy,
I forgot to mention that I sprinkle pea gravel over the top of the hostas that are in pots in the ground. I am no expert, but I do know when I first started planting Hostas in the ground that I would lose at least 15-20 a year and many more would be chewed to a set back point. Since I have been doing the pots I haven't lost a single plant. It's like my mother used to say,"the proof is in the pudding". When a Hosta outgrows the pot that it is in, [a great thing in my opinion] I simply put it in a larger one. It is pretty easy to dig out once the hole has already been dug once before. As for length of roots once you get down 14 inches or more mix a little pea gravel in the existing soil and cut the bootom out of the pot. I have only seen a vole tunnel 10 inches deep maximum at my place. As for 5 to 7 years later just plant like you would normally with some chat mixed in. I have a clump of H.'Royal Standard'that is 4 to 5 feet wide that I took out of a pot two years ago and there hasn't been any vole damage to it. I think once they reach a certain size that the voles can't get at them as much, especially with the grit in the surrounding soil. I can't and do not wish to speak for everyone, I can only share what has worked for me. It has taken the worry out of growing Hostas and to me that is a priceless thing!

Hi Denny, I've done the same with planting in the pots. I found just last week one of the pots (2 Gallon) size that was in the ground 3 years had been attacked by the vole who chewed threw the drainage hole and tunnel up to the crown!!! I've found with others (More mature clumps) that have been attacked that I can salvage most of the plant by cutting it up with a few of the new roots included when I pot it up. I lose about a years worth of growth but still have a plant.I keep it in the pot for several years and then re pot and replant. I've used the PVC pipe bait traps, mouse traps and the vibrating toy stuck in the hole and I still have these pests. I guess I'll get prepared for another season and just live with them, They were here first!!!
John

John,
I put river rock in the bottom of the hole to keep them from doing that. On a 5 gallon pot I cut the bottom out and mix the rocks into the soil. This seems to keep them at bay. You are right. They were here first but if I didn't fight I would lose every Hosta that I have in the ground within a five year period. And I have worked way too hard to surrender to those little monsters!!I have 5 cats, numerous bait stations ,two aluminum tubes that make a pinging sound, a virtual maze of pvc pipe,and plenty of predators that live in the 5 acre woods that I have set aside for them.I am happy to say that they seem to be declining in number in the last couple of years.You are right though ,they are just waiting for me to drop my sword and they will win the battle!

I want to move from this woodsy (total forest) suburban neighborhood to a city neighborhood that isn't "wild". Doubt DH will agree, just to save my hostas and other perennials. Lesson learned...don't buy a house in December when the yard is buried under snow. I have almost white sand. And poison ivy that I'm now severely allergic to. And vicious prickers. And weeds that Round-up doesn't touch. Only kills the moss.
~Bunnycat