Voles will definitely eat dahlias. It is kind of a problem, because things even sold as "rodent proof" in the trade can be attacked if the vole is hungry enough, or if it just wants to dig through the area, it may not eat it, but just shred it up for nesting material. I found out the hard way when over 100 Allium 'Globemasters' didn't come up this spring. When I dug in there, the area was completely undermined with vole tunnels. Alliums are routinely advertised as being immune from rodent attack, unlike, say, tulips.

I have been battling moles and groundhogs for 3 years. I finally trapped and relocated (secretly to a very large public park that's wooded and safe for these jerky animals without threatening anyone else's garden) two of them with have a heart traps loaded with broccoli and bananas and corn. There is no repellant spray home made or store bought that will get rid of them. The nicer your flower or plant the more then will return to eat that specific root or bloom. Once that's gone they'll go back to your more pedestrian plants because no matter what that's tastier than the drek that just grows wild like grass and weeds and shrubs. The amounts of money i spent on spray pumps, garlic, pepper, marigold oil, natural fatty oil soaps with strong scents like lavender (also good against bugs). I started gagging and coughing just applying the stuff. It all washed off after one rainshower. The cats started sneezing and boogering up. I'd walk around my yard and instead of smelling lilacs and other pretty things I smelled what was like the fumes of an italian kitchen with an indian cook. It was nauseating. AND it did NOTHING to repel the critters. I talked to the groundskeeper at Deep Cut Gardens in Middletown because they have rabbits and groundhogs galore. He said relocation is the only thing and you gotta get them at least 5-7 miles away or they return. He said at his own home he goes to the barber shop and gets human hair. Some people use moth balls. I tried both of those things the hair did nothing and looked gross and the cats were put off a bit. The mothballs were terribly toxic and I realized after i put them everywhere in every flower bed that if my toddler ate one she's as good as dead or at least in hospital. I limited my use of hte mothballs to mole holes and tunnels and under my neighbor's sheds -where all the dens enjoyed a smelly unfettered existence. Because my neighbors flower beds were so exposed the animals went out the back of the sheds into MY back yard where they felt safer and more camoflaged so for as long as I've been here nad probably longer, the critters enjoyed eating thigns off of my yard while my neighbors had lush landscaped gardens and vegetable beds. One neighbor thought I was being horrible going after the cute bunnies and groundhogs. But they weren't throwing money and time out the window on flowers and shrubs that never came to bloom. Their black eyed susans and phlox were fine while mine remained stubs for 2+ years. I even spent at least $100 on shiskebab spikes last year. I made little pungee sticks around my newest blooms to try and save them. It worked with my cat years ago. It had some impact but groundhogs are tough and rabbits are just stupid. The shishkebabs got waterlogged and soon carried all the thread of a pencil eraser. I on the other hand was punctured everywhere EVERY time i went into the garden to weed. My doctor didn't believe me when i told her how i got pricked. I'm sure she thought i was some kind of IV drug user. I bought a spring loaded guillotine type of mole tunnel trap. I put it in 6 different active locations and not ONCE did the mole get impaled. Now it's a $20 piece of rusted material in my back yard. My cat finally got one of the moles but i was clearly still being clobbered by one. I'd eliminated the groundhogs. My cats were great at getting most of the rabbits. The bunnies knew to kick out the mothballs from under the shed they called home unbelievably. But the mole.... To make matters worse. Neighbors on either side of me didn't really cleant he woodsy borders of our properties. Woodsy from years of neglect. I spent all of hte last 3 years clearing hte property lines. Not just because of the debris that becomes mountains for critters to live in, but because midge mosquitoes love to live in rotting plant debris stacked high and wet as things go in this zone. I accomplished all of the clean up...including taking down a massive 15 foot blackberry bramble that had entwined the crappy forsythia cluster next to it.... mountains of trees and rotten leaves and more. Finally cleared it. Then my neighbor got a baby bobcat and pushed all of his weeds into a pile at the back of his (AND MY)yard. That is how they clean up for spring/summer. SO the mole made a new home in his mountain of weeds, and ancient construction rubble. I caved in and tried poison bait. I was worried about my cats but my cats are well fed and pretty smart and the pellets are white and hard. NOthing they'd go near if you handed it to them. I spent all of last spring and summer and this fall dumping poison down the mole's tunnels and holes. I still saw damage and tunnels and holes. Still, the rabbits seemed cut down somewhat and I'd happily unloaded the groundhogs. My yard had a fighting chance. I spent all fall cleaning up -getting rid of the last shiskebab spikes and chicken wire fencing which i also tried... This spring I raked and raked and primed my flower beds and divided things and kept my fingers crossed and my stone pathway that bordered my front yard flower bed...it was a muddy mess. I started yanking and hacking away at crabgrass and broadleaf weeds, picking up stone after stone. I lifted up a small border stone and lo and behold a huge fat ugly and very dead mole. He'd been living right next to the cafeteria of his dreams-my front yard cottage garden. The cats sat on top of his bedroom rock all day and he had no fear. He was fat and large and i am sure he is the nemesis i'd been battling for 3 years. He wasn't injured or starved so i have to believe that he finally ate one of those mole baits that i'd put in every mole hole i could find. And that, my friends, is the only way to stop a mole or ground hog. Capture and release or kill them. Or just hand over your garden and walk away.

Look how long we've been struggling with voles! I first looked them up on gardenweb years ago when we had tons. I remember a day when I snap-trapped fourteen in a couple of hours! Here is an odd solution which has worked (apparently) for me. In frustration I began flooding the holes and tunnels with the end of my hose. Amazingly it seemed to work. I have done this for several years and where I use to have LOTS of voles and vole damage I rarely see a hole now and when I do I immediately flood it. I did use oyster shells but I have such large gardens that it was completely impractical. And now where I did use them they keep coming to the surface - years later - and I don't like the look of them. This year I have grubs and thus I have moles as well as skunks which dig holes in the lawn. I was able to move the moles away from the very front part of my yard also by flooding (stick the brass nozzle of the hose right through the turf into the tunnel) - it doesn't get rid of them like it seemed to get rid of the voles. But it did make them move. I am not a lawn fanatic but between brown spots from grubs and holes from skunks it's too ratty. I am using milky spore and it'll take quite some time before this solves the problem but it's the non-poison way to go and once established it'll do the trick for years. Just to say - unless I missed this on this long thread - moles and voles have not got the same habits and thus need different solutions. Voles are not carniverous, do not eat grubs so getting rid of the grubs won't deal with the voles. I only brought up the topic of moles as they also don't seem to like flooded muddy tunnels. After I tried my vole-death/relocation-by-flooding I read in an article somewhere that in Mexico some farmers were protecting their fields which were under vole attack by putting trenches filled with water around them. Well, hope somebody else tried flooding and writes about how it works for them . If nothing else, it is very satisfying!!

Thanks to all for your input. Much appreciated! I wrote a response weeks ago but apparently never hit “post” so here it goes- and I’ll add an update below that- I’m willing to bet the grubs I’m fighting are not June Bugs but could definitely be Japanese beetles - just bc we do get Japanese beetles every year (When they show up I just put up one of those beetle bags and that takes care of that situation) and I’ve only seen one June bug in my entire life. But these grubs could be baby anything’s and I wouldn’t know the difference!! All I’m sure of is That there are wayyyyyy too many of them. I have also been digging them up and letting THe birds feast on them!!! And this year is the year of the Bird here in NJ! My theory is Covid keeping ppl home = less cars on the road= reduced level of air pollution= happy birdies! And just like going out at night and capturing and killing slugs in the garden - it’s really satisfying to personally kill the culprits ruining your hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears go into planting our gardens and it’s incredible how much damage a spineless, disgusting, glob of snot can do overnight. Oh no- I don’t think so!!! When you catch Them red handed and get the justice you deserve- that just feels good. Granted- It’s usually not the best, long term solution haha And just to clarify- my veggie garden is not new this year. It has been in place for decades but my bf expanded it about 3 years ago. But it’s too big for us. It’s never been in full use. Usually only half is planted in. In my ornamental garden around the house I find grubs here and there- average numbers. This is my first time taking over the veggie garden (my boyfriends health is preventing him from getting out there in the hot summer sun) so Idk how long it has been this bad. I did my research and decided to try beneficial nematodes- ordered them from GardensAlive! But they still have not arrived. Now I’m bummed bc I won’t be able to start a veggie garden until much later in the season than I wanted to. Originally they were expected to arrive June 1... I called today and they were shipped -June 4- eta= June 9-17!!!!!!! If you have used beneficial nematodes I could use a bit of advice- Say I have them in hand and apply them today. 1-How soon after an application can I begin planting? 2- The soil needs to be freshened up a bit- u know, the usual- Should I add the compost and soil before or after I apply the nematodes?