The hardware cloth idea would certainly help but, in your situation, I'd give the Repellex tablets a try.

It's going to be a lot of work to dig all that out & install the hdwe. cloth, plus the expense. Repellex isn't cheap but it's easy. I've not used it so can't testify to the effectiveness.

In the meantime, get some ordinary mousetraps and bait them with peanut butter...interspersed among the plants in the bed. That way you'll know when you've eliminated some of the problem!

Here is a link that might be useful: Repellex

or-

"The Recipe For Organic Vole & Mouse Control
Large Area Applications Using A Hose-End Sprayer

1 - 2 Oz Castor Oil
1 - 2 Oz Dish Detergent

Add the mixture to the jar of the hose end sprayer. Then fill the jar with water. Attach to your hose and thoroughly water every location that you want to deter the pests from. If your hose-end sprayer has a dial, set it to the highest setting.

Small Area Application Using A Watering Can

1 teaspoon Castor Oil
1 teaspoon Dish Detergent

Add this mixture to 1 gallon of water and thoroughly water the area to be protected.

How To Apply The Organic Vole Control
You want to water the ground, not spray it. You should thoroughly wet the soil so that the mixture penetrates a few inches into the soil. It is hard to say how much lawn and garden area the solution will cover. You just want to make sure you get the mixture into the soil.

You Do Not Have To Re-Apply After A Rain
You may want to re-apply in spring if you have damage during the growing season. Some people do and some don't. Mostly vole and mole damage is just a winter issue as the pests are desperate for a food source.

When To Apply The Organic Vole Control
You want to apply the mixture before the ground freezes and after you have cleaned away all the leaves from your garden. This is typically after a few frost's.

This Castor Oil solution is organic and will not harm wildlife or pets. It just makes those garden pests move out of your gardens!"

Here is a link that might be useful: Vole control

I love the dollar tree wastebasket idea! I only have 7 hosta in that area at the moment - so that is very cheap! Do I need to worry about the fact that they are open on top? This should make it easier to move the babies when they get large enough to move into the garden, and the protection can move along with them!

I will try the rodenticide too. I didn't realize mouse traps would work for voles, I will certainly give that a shot too.

Thanks!
BettyLu

In respect to mouse traps on voles, I read a university study saying that traps work on small populations, but on large populations voles will multiply faster than you can trap them, then only poisons work. In respect to Castor oil, it seems that you would only bring the voles to live outside the sprayed area, meaning that they will invade the moment you stop spraying Castor oil, you did not eliminate that threat.
Bernd

"In respect to Castor oil, it seems that you would only bring the voles to live outside the sprayed area, meaning that they will invade the moment you stop spraying Castor oil, you did not eliminate that threat."
Bernd

Accoding to NH Hostas one castor oil treatment is all that is needed. They apply it in the Fall after a couple of freezes and claim no vole damage.

In their words-

"You Do Not Have To Re-Apply After A Rain
You may want to re-apply in spring if you have damage during the growing season. Some people do and some don't. Mostly vole and mole damage is just a winter issue as the pests are desperate for a food source."

...and you cannot rid the world of voles, so any treatment allows voles to re-invade your property. Nothing will change that fact. I used castor oil last winter and had no vole damage. It is safe for pets, kids, plants and the environment. It is inexpensive and based on the report by NH Hostas and my very limited experience; it works.

Jon

I don't know where the idea comes from that voles are just a winter issue. I hope no one believes that and gets raided in the summer because they didn't take action or precautions. Last summer I'd lost every one of my acorn squash to voles. They looked great from above until I went to pick and found they were empty hulls with vole holes directly under them. I had no apparent vole damage tomy hostas last year.

Didn't get any winter squash in this year because of my spring rehab from surgery and this summer they are ravaging my hostas. Just two weeks ago I lifted what had been a beautiful Wide Brim for years. I thought the drought was getting to it and the neighboring Francee until I saw the vole hole under the remaining leaves right behind the crown. All I managed to pot up were three small divisions. If anyone doesn't believe me I can post pics of the new little ones. Wow-I had one Wide Brim and now I have three. Is that progress - or what!

If planting a couple of seeds in spring for acorn squash helps keep them from eating my hostas, it may be a bonus in vole damage control. You can always eat what they don't :)

Voles, if you live in an a habitat that supports them, should be treated as they are; a year around hazard. If you don't have a year around problem where you live, you need to at least be conscious that they do present a problem in the summer elsewhere.

I gave in and bought four traps last week and baited them with peanut butter. The next morning two were sprung and the peanut butter gone, and two went completely missing. Not a dead vole in sight. Maybe some other critter dragged the traps off to eat the peanut butter in safety. Naturally I don't put much faith into running a trap-line for voles. I figure the score is voles 4 - Les nothing, and out the cost of 2 really nice mouse traps. lol

So much for a "winter issue"! Two more daily high temp records were broken the days it happened. Now we have new records of 92F and 93F. I actually saw one the other day duck into its hole in one of my hosta beds as I approached. I'm going for the castor oil and maybe some bait if there is no danger to my German Shorthair Pointer.

I don't think they do well in very rocky or hardpan soil. I never had them in the AR Ozarks and Sandy in MO Ozarks said she doesn't either. So maybe it is not a summer problem in your biosystem.

Les

The way castor oil works is (hope you have had your breakfast) it contaminates vole prey and they either won't eat it or if they do irritates their stomaches and causes diarrhea. Either result (or combination) will cause them to move out of their nests in the area.

It is still sold in pharmacies for stool softening and was commonly used as a children's medicine(and is occassionally used today for children and adults). I had it once as a child and it is really bitter tasting.

Les, as the directions state, some people have to, or wish to, use the treatment in the Fall and Spring. If your problem is that bad, then this is certainly worth a try. It is inexpensive, widely reported to be effective and ecologically safe. Commercial vole repellents use castor beans in their formulations.

I think I am going to add some castor oil to my egg, cajun pepper, oil, dishwashing soap spray as a rabbit and deer repellent. It will surely smell bad to them and if they nibble it, then it should make them sick. Sounds as if it should help.

Jon

So far this summer, I've caught four voles in my 'chipmunk traps'--rat traps baited with peanut butter. Quite a several instances of the rat traps being robbed of bait & either sprung or unsprung so I'm figuring those are ones that got away. (Accidents since rat traps are way too big for the variety of voles around here.)

A fox has reappeared in the neighborhood and seems to have taken care of a lot of the surplus rabbit population. Maybe he'll be snacking on some voles.

Our Labrador is a pretty good vole hunter, too. He gets several every winter--the hosta bed next to the foundation of my shop being a prime hunting ground. The dirt next to the foundation pretty much stays unfrozen & I don't care about the hostas planted there...just plain 'green ones' planted to help keep dirt from splashing up on the siding. Maybe the unfrozen earth attracts the voles? (I'm Zone 4 so the ground freezes way deep.)

Les, with the missing traps, there's a chance that you caught a critter & a predator made off with the vole and trap. Try attaching a short length chain to the traps and pinning the chain to the ground with a long spike of some sort.

I think trapping voles is an exercise in futility. I had about 8-10 holes on the side of my house this summer. In all but one they quickly filled with water and I think this detered whatever was in them (chipmunks?). The last hole showed no signs of filling up after 1/2 hour with a hose flushing it full blast.

In desperation I took some castor oil and dribbled it down the hole and it quickly became abandoned with no sign of occupancy after the Castor Oil treatment. I don't know what was in the hole, but they obviously had a huge tunnel system or a drain that I could never find anywhere. They obviously didn't like Castor Oil either. I don't blame them, it is disgusting tasting.

ci_lantro, I think that the unfrozen area around your foundation would be an excellent spot to try some castor oil as you could have it seep into the ground at any time during the winter.

Jon

Hmmm, voles and moles.

Moles eat bugs, good!, Like mealy worm bug larvae. Good.

Voles eat plant roots and BAD!

Voles, reportedly, use Mole tunnels, so, go figure.

We've only been doing the Hosta thing for about 15 years, but it seems clear that CATS are the best, easiest solution. Young, hungry, hunter, at least daytime outdoor cats, again, keep them hungry during daytime.

Besides, they are cute, beautiful, cuddly,

Now you must ignore the fact that they also kill snakes, frogs, birds,

anyway, after a session of Hosta loss from voles, we returned to young aggressive hunting cats and have had no further vole Hosta losses.

And each and every year since then we still have birds, snakes, toads, frogs, tree frogs, and so forth, so the balance seems to be working.

fwiw,

hh

I have a major Vole infestation in both my front and back yard. Backyard isn't as big of a concern right this moment, but my Hosta garden is The Last Straw! This means WAR!! I pulled back the mulch, removed the weed preventing matting and have put Animal Repellent all over the garden, in any holes in the front yard and all around the perimeter on the front and side as my new Rose Bush became breakfast for someone Tuesday, eating off the blossoms that hadn't even fully opened yet. I have poison, but it won't stop raining long enough, plus I am confused about where to start as no part of my yard is clear of these rotten little creatures!! I have threatened to set the lawn on fire, but I don't think the city would go for that. I am just at a loss. They are destroying everything I have worked so hard on :-(

Lucky One,

Your message will get buried at the bottom of this thread. You should start a new thread with pictures of the damage (if you can get them).

What makes you think you have a major vole infestation? Have you seen voles? Do you see tunnels? When you said something was eating your rose bush, do you mean the roots of that bush? Can you show pictures? Don't put any poison down until you know what you are dealing with.

Steve

Voles only hungry in winter....not at my house. We went on vacation and came back with massive tunnels all over my flower bed. I set out 3 traps with peanut butter but the next morning one went missing. Some other critter is carrying it around. So then I took a fake hollow rock and put it over a trap..no success. I have constructed the downspout trap with traps on either side of the hole as well but have not yet caught anything. A neighbor told me to use bird seed which I have seen them eat in the winter when I saw that "cute mouse" (hadn't heard of a vole before) ....crawling out of a snow hole under my bird feeder. Still waiting to see a dead body. We had so many voles by the time I realized what the enemy was, I could hear them sqeeking under the soil at night. I have reduced the numbers by putting poison down the holes. I use my hand spade to see where they are tunneling (it sinks in), find the hole and drop it in. Hopefully, it is away from any other critters. But this is labor intensive and you have to keep looking not to mention we have 18 flower beds. I am now using hardware cloth around my plants (initially labor intensive) about 6" down and 2" out. No one mentions having to clip the curves of the 2" in order to lay it flat. It leaves open spaces. Any ideas on this. Also wanted to know if anyone knows if hardwire cloth will stunt the growth of the plant

I don't have a vole problem where I just plant directly into the rocky soil here, sometimes just digging a hole and removing enough rocks to put in topsoil to plant in.

The hostas may not grow as fast in the rocky soil, but they catch up in the end.

HOWEVER, if I build a raised bed, or dig out the rocks and put in nice soft composted soil, then I do have a problem.

Can't use traps, my cats hunt the voles, and I wouldn't want to hurt one of them. Ditto poison. I get a vole or two every week as a present. And yes, they are here all year long but the damage seems to occur mostly in the winter.

Luckily there are plenty of snakes, black, king and garter, and the raptors have come back after being missing for 2 years following the Joplin tornado. I didn't have much of a problem at all when the raptors (hawks, owls, eagles) were here before so I expect there won't be much of a problem now that they are back. Foxes help too, and we have them around.

I might try the castor oil treatment on my raised bed areas this fall. Can't hurt.

Sandy