I don't deal much with the voles but I've heard you can trap them with a conventional mouse trap, baited with peanut butter. I do have several toads in the garden and once in a while see a snake but not often. You need to give toads shelter from the sun and a water source. You can buy fancy little "toad houses" but I just use terra cotta flower pots turned on their side and burried half way. For water I have a few terra cotta saucers buried to ground level and as a bonus they attract butterflies. I always transport any toads I find in the yard to the garden and some seem to stay. I've caught a few snakes and put them in the garden area but I don't think they take up residence there. Good luck...

There are several species of Duckweed native to Australia and they're not classified as "weeds" anywhere here. Unfortunately some nurseries aren't aware of this and assume that having the word "weed" in their name makes them a weed. You can buy Duckweed online, lots of people who keep fish or turtles buy it to feed to their animals. There's one place here, Aquagreen, that specialises in fish and waterplants and sells a couple of species of Duckweed. They also sell Azolla. Are those "guppies" what's also called "river guppies"? Actually a Gambusia species which was introduced to control mosquitos. Like cane toads they never did the job and have become an ecological disaster. About the only fish I know that would bring them under control would be Barramundi. You'd need a large pond for them once they get a bit older.

What a coincidence, I almost started a toad thread too.. :) Last week I walked out on my front sidewalk at night and what looked like a leaf suddenly hopped into the garden bed when I walked by! It was a big fat toad! I was so excited because he is the first toad I've seen in the yard after living here almost 5 years. I even put a large plant saucer down on the ground last year and fill it with water so the toads would access to water. (The birds drink from it sometimes too.) I think he might be living under the bulb and daylily foliage. Of course I had to run and grab the camera -

Yep, its a nonvenomous common water snake (Nerodia sipedon). The exact subspecies of Nerodia sipedon is probably Nerodia sipedon pleuralis (Midland Water Snake).