Sounds like a really cool title for a children's book. I'd say you have VOLES, my dear. When you water or it rains, they will tunnel through the soft earth, munching on your plant's roots. Moles and gophers and shrews (and snakes of all kinds), use their nifty tunnels to get around your yard subteranean - like a handy-dandy animal subways. Crickets use them, earthworms, and slugs, too, and lots of other critters. Some good for your garden and some that don't seem to be so good. I've lost tuberose salvias and my favorite tea roses; tulips and petunias, even cactus roots. If its edible, they will eat it! I've tried various things, like tarpaper collars around my roses and concrete or rock barriers, even strips of sheet metal buried around them. The tarpaper worked pretty good until it disentigrated, but eventually, mice burrowed through it and then it rotted to dirt. Flooding does no good, as those tunnels are hundreds of feet long. Those holes will never fill completely up. I've tried it. :) If you have a serious vole (or other rodent) problem, like I do, your yard may be completely undermined with tunnels that links with your neighbor's, and their neighbor's, and so on...hence you may find a flower in your yard (or weed) that you didn't plant or never saw before. Birds can bring carry them in or deposit them in your garden, via their poop, that's true, but so can rodents. Rodents carry seeds back and forth through those tunnels to and from your place. Keeping things in balance with Nature is what works best for me. If we can stop fighting all the elements of nature and work with it, we will get better results and enjoy gardening even more. I sink bottomless buckets in the ground for barriers for my big lilies, around berry bushes and roses, and even some of my garden plants, like my tomatoes, and that works really great. For shallow rooted plants that send out roots horizontally, these don't work so well. Planting daffodils, irises, liriope (Monkey grass), garlic, zinnias and stinky marigolds around the borders of my flower beds and/or around blueberry bushes, roses and strawberry beds, even apple trees, is about the only things I've done that works relatively well for an indefinite period of time, without killing the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil and harming animals like shrews and earthworms and preditory insects and snakes. Garlic really does a great job warding off rodents from my roses and they both mutually benefit from one another. Daffodils, irises, and liriope are poisonous so rodents just don't dig 'em. I think we gardeners and farmers will always have our challenges, but isn't that what makes our successes so awesome! ~ SweetAnnie4u

Christine, I don't personally condone trapping anything. It's unfortunate that it's even in anyone's vocabulary, unless you are a fur trapper...in which case you're about 150 years too late. Some gardeners can be such hypocrites. "I love nature....as long as it obeys my terms." Learn to adapt to and appreciate the native species around you. Anyways, my preaching aside, I have chipmunks and hostas and they coexist peacefully. The chipmunks do burrow in a few places, but that's what chipmunks do. I would be surprised if they are your hosta munchers though. As for the shrews, they have voracious appetites and many also burrow, but I don't know if hostas are on the menu or not. However, they are not rodents (not even closely related) and are actually relatively intelligent species for their size. I say live and let live. Maybe find out which hostas are getting eaten and which aren't and try to figure out why. Or look at it this way. You have apparently created a great wildlife habitat. Good for you.

They can use it to make you feel like they are on you when in fact they aren't. They will get on you as well though. 3 go to work with me in a factory which is full of rodents. Buffet to them. One night when leaving I noticed one in my bag as I left. I dumped it out but it got to my car before I did. They spray their venom at you which burns your skin. They can make it extremely warm and potent or a weaker variety depending on mood. Next night I was heading to clock out and they scurried up my pantlegs. They force themselves on you.. Spray you from light fixtures, baseboards, cracks in ceiling. Caulk them you say, foam, flex seal? They urinate in it while wet, on it while dry until it is mush. Then punish you for trying to seal them out. They scent mark me daily. At work I get scent marked by every rodent there. The shrews feast. I have tried to kill them every way possible. When anyone else is around, they are non-existent. All attempts at taking a pic are distorted. Look cartoonish. Due to echolocation. Used a mirror and captured sound waves. Clouds of venom. Clearest video I can get is using a second phone to film screen of 1st. It's horrifying. Isolates you because people will think you are nuts. I assure you she was spot on.Dont believe me? Please come get these and find out. They like to spray your food. Throw parasites on you. Keep you awake. Chew through couch, car seat, whatever to try to bite your butt. The intense focused use of echo is new. Not sure how much damage it can cause. Hurts kidneys. Makes head throb. Gives tightness in chest. These were born in my car pretty recently. I believe I killed their mother in track of driver's seat. Just brought 2 out of work in coveralls. One above pedals burning up my feet already while one is making me feel touched lightly around neck. A third using echo on my lumbar spine from inside my seat. I sit on 3 layered towels as not to get bit by the bold one in the seat. Again, please come take. Free car included. Oh, yes they are killing machines. They appear as streaks of light as they take out mice. Just re itself

Dear friends, thank you so much for your continued, kind and thoughtful support. Still giving thought to the fence idea, my husband does not want to make such a fast decision on this. But he does see my plight. We are kind of helpless if these animals keep coming mercilessly by night and by day. I was going into a panic buying mode and thanks to your differing and experienced input I am going about it more circumspectly. One of the areas I am growing will not be fence-ble and I will have to find an alternate method for that zone. bcomplx and exmar: Thank you! I looked up the sprinkler system. It looks like a very good idea. Some say it is a little flimsy and a lot of additional plumbing (washers, gaskets) is necessary to secure leaks. Did you find this to be true? Would I need to do that? There is another brand, orbit : http://www.amazon.com/Orbit-62100-Enforcer-Activated-Sprinkler/dp/B009F1R0GC/ref=pd_sim_86_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KH10HRMMNPYZMFQ6493 Some say the orbit is a little sturdier and comes with a built in timer. This should work too right? And at what height would you stand it for skunks and raccoons? I wouldn't want water to miss them. I will return the above gizmos, I think they won't work. Thanks for that advice. Lot of you are trapping the animals. I wouldn't know how to that. And even if I learned, what would I do if I caught any???? We are not allowed to kill anything other than mice and rats where I am. And this morning I see squirrels have started going for the eggplants and few remaining peppers. WHAT do I DO?? Thanks, K.