ut2nc, voles are meadow mice with another name, they are endangering crops in many areas of the US. I bet farmers are killing them in huge numbers. I have seen 1 dead house mouse and one dead shrew outside in my 28 years I am gardening here, never any half eaten ones, only complete ones. They seem to die in the ground. My voles seem to live in a large mount of lawn clippings my neighbor in the back established years ago about 15 ft from my fence. In that area I had hostas shrinking in size or die. Cats probably eat them, but I have never seen a sick predatory animal, no neighbor has complained to me.

htakeover, I think to not glue is so you can twist it a little to fit the ground. I also bend the two open parts like a 'U' when filling in pellets. I try to place the pellets in the middle, had to watch out that they did not roll out the other end and the 'U' position helps..

Thank you for answering my question. One of the reasons I was wondering because I saw a dead vole near the mouth of the tunnel. I wondered if they pushed their dead out to clean their tunnels.

Good to know about the light dose. I know its mean stuff my husband takes it daily and has to be so careful.

You hate Gummy Bears? That's just not right.

Here is an update on my baited vole tunnel restaurants, please refer to above posting of mine with a picture of tunnels :

Yesterday I put 4 tunnels outside in an area with vole activity, placed about 20 pellets in each. I also poured another 20 pellets in an open vole hole in the ground in the same area, pushed those pellets further into the hole and covered it up..

Just now I checked on all. There seems to be a lot of above ground vole traffic. Voles like the poison pellets. 2 of the bait tunnels were empty, one had a few pellets left, One seemed to have all left. The single hole in the ground had no pellets left either and cover was off. I plan to make another 4 tunnels for another area at the fence where there is the second hole in the ground which I had baited yesterday and was uncovered and empty now.

Result : there is a lot of vole activity above ground. Judging vole activity by the number of holes in the ground only considers part of the problem. All these voles will love your hostas over winter.

Update on 6-28 : 3 hours later I checked again the two holes and 4 tunnels, ALL were empty of bait. I saw one grey vole run away. Some vole just dug a very large new hole beyond the fence, so they are taking that bait very well. So I went back to HD, bought more supplies, just made 3 more tunnels. HD no longer carry d-Con pellets, Lowe's probably.

AWESOME update, Bernd! This is wonderful news! I will be making a trip to Lowes for these supplies this week (they're far so I have to plan ahead). Great getting firsthand report on effectiveness of the tunnels AND the bait. I found a new and very large hole at the base of Risky Business today. I just keep putting bait in everywhere, every day. It just poured here so not sure how effective today's baiting will be, but I'll just keep at it.

Not good news that neither HD nor Lowes will carry d-Con pellets! Why on earth would they stop carrying an effective product??? Unreal. I would check with management and see if that's true and find out why. I'll be asking too, when I'm there.

Thanks so much for all this helpful information, Bernd! It's very much appreciated and I'm sure by more folks than just me.

hostatakeover, Lowe's had 3 boxes today, tomorrow I will get more to satisfy that demand by voles. I also can order it for same day store pickup. But HD said NO, but said ACE probably has it. They are also selling chunks which I could cut up. I have to read up more. It seems that these poisons work slowly, so voles probably clean out the tunnels and put the bait in storage or to their family. Perhaps I should wait a week to let some die and then refill?

Wow....chunks. Yes, you'd want to break that up, especially if they're not eating it on the spot but rather carrying it off to cache somewhere. That's troublesome if they ARE storing it (which in all likelihood they are) because once again you're contending with the possibility of the stuff getting wet from rain or other sources. Glad Lowe's will continue to carry it as that's my go-to hardware store.

Personally, I'd bait for 10 days straight, THEN take a break from it. This is because I doubt every vole is taking bait every night. Late-comers are likely showing up so I'd want to make sure they're getting ample amounts, too. You can't bait every night indefinitely, so 10 days seems reasonable, then see where you're at in vole activity.

I just went out again, all bait has been taken. Voles are also tunneling more. It seems that neighborhood voles realize that I provide food and come and get it. I have now 7 bait tunnels, all at the back fence which has natural environment and that lawn clipping mound across it. For those 7 bait tunnels and 4 or 5 holes I emptied out 2 packs of pellets which is half a box. Each box costs $5, so $2.50 per day. I am now refilling only once per day and will stop that after a week and then every 2 days or as needed.

Wow, unreal. Sounds like a good plan, Bernd. What a learning experience. Reminds me of fly traps, which many (like me) won't use because it's perceived as an invitation that works to bring in far more than you'd have naturally. Interesting.

Thank you for the continued updates. I'll be curious to see if the activity on your property finally begins to diminish in a few days.

I have been taking a 12 inch long piece of aluminum gutter.Bend the sides so it stands up about four inches tall.I then put reg mouse traps with the pan pointed out.Then cover traps with section of gutter one trap at each end pan out no bait.Locate on well used vole trail and bye bye vole! Works very well for me.They run right. Into trap.I live surrounded by farm land.And have cought a lot of them this way.

Organic Control for Voles - Castor Oil

Steve Massachusetts Zone 5bOctober 20, 2011

I'm putting this in its own thread. Firstly, because it needs to be searchable and secondly, Richard Merritt of New Hampshire Hostas (from whom I learned of this control) recently posted a video and directions for this method on his website. Link below.

The video is rather long and rambling and includes a pileated woodpecker, but there is some essential information that is key for making this work.

Firstly, it should be done after frost and before the ground freezes. For many of us this time of year is already here or rapidly approaching. Secondly, you need to remove all the dead hosta leaves so that the material can soak into the soil and/or mulch. You want to give the area a good soaking so that it gets to the roots.

The formula is 2oz of Castor Oil and 2oz of Dishwashing liquid in a hose end sprayer for a large area. I'm not sure how large an area this will do but NH Hostas has a huge inventory. You can also do a small area with a watering can. The formula for that is 2 teaspoons of each with one gallon of water.

The critical part of this is to get full coverage. The results that NH Hostas had with this method were remarkable. Before using the Castor Oil treatment, they lost a large amount of their inventory, a large English Ivy bed and a large bed of ground cover Sedum. After using Castor Oil they had no losses in areas that were treated. What did happen was that the voles ate their lawn which was untreated.

With any critters it is important to get at them when they are active, hopefully before they breed again, voles have 4 litters a year. I see vole holes now, so I am treating them now. A castor oil drench would not really help, because I only would displace them and they would continue breeding, ready to get into my yard. It seems that voles are running also on the surface.

I have my vole poisoning project now starting the fourth week. After the first week all holes at the back fence stayed close, so those local voles were dead. But then voles were still taking pellets out of my bait tunnels, which seems to indicate that there is a larger population out there which found my food source. Right now I put pellets into my tunnels only every 3rd day and in any new hole. I am also working now on a side fence next to neighbor's vegetable garden which has vole holes. It seems that killing voles is a continuing fight, because populations farther away will move into areas which you have just vacated off them..

i never really smelled one ... i think you are much to 'up close' with your vermin ...

ken

I can only sympathize with the ongoing battle, y'all. :(

No Canadian voles!Eh!

To update everyone, I did what Bernd recommended, creating mole "runs" exactly like he did using 1 1/4" PVC pipe with elbows. The only difference is my DH spray painted them camouflage because that's what you do when you live in the Ozarks, dontcha know. They worked. As the days passed less and less bait was taken and less and less activity was seen. I've not lost any more Hostas. I still see the occasional new vole hole so pretty much I've always got a run or two baited, but I started out with 7 "runs" and now only need one or two going, which I keep moving around as the voles in one area die but new ones arrive at another end of the garden. They even worked out in another section of yard in protecting a couple new Pine trees we had planted. The voles were in them within a week of planting and now there's NO activity.

A big THANK YOU to Bernd for this idea as it was the only thing that worked. We were getting SO much rain it wasn't possible to keep putting the bait inside the vole holes....just too wet.

Now, as for the preventive measures I took Mikerno's advice and purchased the Vole and Mole Granules from the I Must Garden website. The primary ingredient in this product is Castor Oil, the same ingredient Jon strongly recommends as a vole repellent. I intend to use that when everything goes dormant to protect all the Hosta (and Pine) roots over the winter. I could smell the stuff before I even opened the box, so I'm feeling fairly confident that it'll be effective.

Thank you so very much, EVERYONE, for all your input. I've learned a great deal and I'm sincerely grateful voles are no longer a terror to my garden.

Lol, oh, we have them... I had an incident two years ago, but thankfully, it was minor in comparison. ;-)

hostatakeover, really glad you got a handle on this!

There does seem to be a population explosion of voles this year. I've actually seen them crossing rural highways or dead in the road. The only similar experience I've experienced was back in the early 90's, when there was a population explosion of mice in the southwest region of the country. Mice were EVERYWHERE. If you happened to be out driving at night the roads were alive with mice. Most houses had mice inside. That year the region also saw the Hantavirus outbreak, and the following year the snake population exploded, with a large uptick in rattler bites. So next year will likely also see an uptick in snakes in this region, as well, although I've yet to see any venomous snakes on this piece of property.

The key is as Bernd states; you have to keep up on them. I will also add that I have MUCH better luck with bait being taken if I lay an end of the "run" up right next to a vole hole rather than simply placing a "run" randomly in the garden.

hostatakeover, no active vole hole right now and pellets get eaten anyway. So they must have runs and holes in neighbors' back yards. It seems I am feeding a larger population. For a few days I also had an about 2 inch dia hole at the fence followed with a 20 ft long 'path' created by vole feet which disappeared in my hellebores. I must have treated that vole, because the hole stayed closed since yesterday. I need to check that hellebore patch in detail to see if they have a colony created in there, but we have it too hot out there.

So sorry, Bernd! While costly and time-consuming to continue baiting, hopefully it'll really pay off for you later down the road. You must be experiencing a serious population overload! Sorry you're having to deal with all that. It sounds like it could get overwhelming, so I feel for you.

My large garden is surrounded by woods but the bait has nearly stopped disappearing, yet I do see the occasional, newer, smaller holes show up, so I continue baiting.

Today I was watering my smaller garden and, while I haven't seen any activity in that one I have a baited "run" there. So I picked up the "run" and moved it and continued watering and a stiiiinnnnkking vole dashed out of it and froze outside the border of the garden! I looked around for something to smash it with, couldn't find anything, tried to move into position to stomp it and it darted BACK into the garden and disappeared underneath my biggest and most prized Hosta there. All I can say is "Mangia" while adding more bait. smh

I am feeding now voles at the back fence with 7 bait tunnels for 3 1/2 weeks with none or only 2 holes showing. This seems to explain while last winter under a lot of snow dwarf conifers had bark stripped and geraniums were eaten in the front yard though I could not find any vole holes. Voles seem to travel long distances above ground.from their dens.

It takes so long to kill voles because the bait pellet poison is so weak, and voles have to eat for close to a week to die.

Bernd, that is a LOT of time, money and bait. Good grief, and for you there seems to be no end in sight. Isn't the bait being taken slowing down even a little?

Yes, in that smaller garden there is not a single vole hole, yet there was that vole inside the "run!" Unless there's vole holes in between the rocks in the rock border that I can't see. But there aren't any mole tunnels around that entire area, either.

This morning one of the Hosta wells in that garden showed three small mounds of dirt that had been shoved above ground from below. Oddly small. Too small to be created by moles but too large to be created by ants. My baited run is still out there but the bait isn't being taken. Weird. No other signs of Hosta damage, though, so that's relieving.

Agreed, the bait poison is TOO WEAK! It wouldn't be so bad if it took three days to kill them; that would be a reasonable compromise. But 5 days of uninterrupted consumption is rather ridiculous.

This noon, all 7 bait tunnels were empty, so put again 30-40 pellets into each tunnel. There were no holes in the ground. I noticed another well worn vole path, see picture. These are narrow paths, squirrels probably will have much wider paths if any, though they could be from chipmunks, though have not seen any recently. I followed the one from days ago into the hellebore patch, found no holes. I followed the newly found one (see picture), saw also no holes in a thick stand of hostas and perennials. So those paths are probably used by voles surveying the area when they probably live relatively far away. There you can see how far voles will travel repeatedly in summer, probably same in winter under snow looking for hosta food. It seems that voles are in all your gardens even when you have no hosta damage and no holes. We have no rats in my area and rats probably will not fit into a 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe to take bait, similar with chipmunks.

I'm coming a bit late into the discussion, but having read all of the posts I think I might have a few things to add that haven't already been said.

- D-CON: Someone mentioned not understanding why stores are no longer stocking d-con. I was trying to find some too, and just couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I even had trouble finding it for sale online. In my search, I came across this link, which may explain why it has suddenly become unavailable: http://www2.epa.gov/rodenticides/canceling-some-d-con-mouse-and-rat-control-products

- Vitamin D: Apparently the "sunshine vitamin" causes a fatal calcium deficiency in rodents... who knew? Apparently true: http://saferodentcontrol.org/site/problems-with-rodenticides/#non. At the end of this informative article: http://www.conngardener.com/voles.html the author gives a couple of DIY recipes, including the already-mentioned castor oil soak and a peanut-butter/vitamin D rodent bait. You could try dropping a few of these "bonbons" into your bait stations. I haven't tried this yet, but I like its much lower risk of second-hand poisoning desirable predators such as cats, foxes, or owls and other birds of prey.

- Castor bean plant: Castor oil may work as repellent, but the plant and its beans are absolutely gorgeous. http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/castor/castor.htm. According to the Dave's Garden website, http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57602/ it's tropical (zones 8 and up). All parts of the plant are toxic *if ingested*, so if ingestion isn't a high risk for visitors/pets/children in your garden, you might try growing this as an ornamental plant that creates shade for the Hostas and also serves as a pest deterrent, poison, or all of the above. I have no idea how it would do in colder zones, but I am going to see if I can find some beans/seeds to germinate for next year. :o)

- Owl box: I suspect that the very people on this forum with most serious vole problems have the perfect kind of property to attract an owl. Here is a link describing how owls help to keep the rodent population in check: http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/attracting-owls. Apparently, if you build it, owls will find it and move in. Here is a link to the Audubon Society owl box plan: http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/backyard/backyard0201.html. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology also has owl box plans, as well as a lot of great information about birds in general: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/page.aspx?pid=1139.

I'm just the kind of kook to try this. This past March I built my own variant of the two plans. Yes, my DH let me play with the power tools. :o) I respected the plan dimensions, but modified the front panel to make a lift-up door, since I thought that once installed about 20 off the ground it might not be possible to access it from above by a top-hinged roof. Here is a photo of me filling it with pine shavings after my DH secured it to the tree for me.

I am not sure if it has attracted a resident owl. I have not hauled the ladder all the way out there to look inside yet, and I don't want to disturb the owl(s) if indeed they are in there. But I have seen a few (not many, but some) "owl pellets" on the ground, and my garden vole problem does not seem to be too bad this year.

Good luck to everyone fighting the vole fight!

Wow. Just wow. I'm glad there's no evidence of vole holes but I'm also glad you're continuing to bait. That definitely looks like above-ground vole runs and the fact the bait continues to disappear is further confirmation. I'm really sorry you're having to deal with this massive mess, Bernd, but your efforts have got to be having an impact on the population around you, even if it doesn't feel like that right now. Your vole population must be insanely vast.

Don't get discouraged. I seriously believe your efforts will pay off by season's end.

Hi Marta, thanks for your input. As mentioned a few times, the DConn currently in use IS safe for any animals eating the target animals. The Warfarin used in the pellets is so weak that voles must eat it 5 days in a row without interruption for it to be effective. Any animal that eats the vole will not even get sick because the level of toxicity is so low.

I can't speak for others but we have plenty of owls here; I hear them every night and have also seen them. The problem is that owls will never eat every single vole, it's just not statistically possible. And since voles are lethal to Hostas the goal is to rid our garden areas of voles completely.

Repellents are a nice idea but their effectiveness has been questioned and they seem better suited for end-of-season application. I do have a product I've purchased to repel the voles which has Castor Beans as the primary ingredient, but right now the goal is to significantly REDUCE the population. Life is cyclical and THIS YEAR is the year of the vole. A population explosion has occurred and many Hosta (and other) gardens are rife with the vermin. It isn't just private gardens at stake, but entire industries. On an average year voles can reduce the production of apple trees by as much as 45%. In our own yard they already went after two very expensive Pine trees we planted this year and they continue to target other areas of the yard, not just the gardens.

That aside I like your owl box. We have a sizable and healthy population of Barred Owls here and I enjoy them as well as the Hawks, both of which hunt our property.

Have you tried snap traps?I find them very easy to catch.Very cheap too.I set my traps when I notice activity and catch them till it stops.Safe and environmentally safe.Except for the vole!

I've tried various mouse-type traps, if that's what you mean. Had success on my first one and then never again. Some folks swear by them but personally I've found them to be ineffective. I wouldn't advise anyone NOT to try them, however, as some do have great success with them.

I also use a victor multi catch.It catches them live then I release them a few miles down the road.But if your going through that much poison.Maybe you have a bigger problem than me.I would just be worried about the upstream food chain.

The poison in the pellets is far too weak to incur any damage beyond the vole. The vole must eat the pellets 5 days in a row without interruption in order to die. Any animal that eats the vole experiences zero negative effects, the poison levels are just that low.

Best method yet!Make em work for the fancy feast!

When you have a large vole population in your yard and the neighborhood you need a lot of cats. Feral cats would be one solution. Voles have 4 litters a year, probably spring to fall only. Studies say then that poison only helps.

Edit : In my yard the situation might have turned around. Yesterday I had refilled the 7 bait tunnels with 30-40 pellets each, today only 3 had lost half each, that is 4 not at all. I will watch those daily to make sure that supply of pellets is always provided for the voles.

Lowe's today again had boxes of d-Con pellets on their shelves- I bought three.

We have a small clan of 4 feral/semi-ferals living on our property. Recently I watched as one of them caught a vole about 1/2 acre BELOW the garden, brought it up TO the garden, then lost interest and let it escape IN the garden. *sigh*

Don, love your black beauty. Hope he/she is a more determined hunter than mine.

My cats use the dachshunds for back up and seems to work . Also great marmot hunters

One day short of four weeks into this vole project, today 6 of my 7 vole bait tunnels did not have any bait eaten from over the last day, one only partially. No new holes were opened, former holes in the ground were not reopened. So I am getting now into the phase to keep only 2-3 tunnels out there to maintain a presence until winter and possibly year round.

Inside the tunnels I used d-Con pellets, outside under all hostas I spread BugGeta anti-slug pellets. While thinking about and checking for voles I appreciated to see that slime slugs had left after eating BugGeta.

AWESOME news, Bernd! Wow, what an ordeal. You are to be commended for not giving up in frustration and continuing to push forward. So happy for you and glad you've finally gained the upper hand.

hostatakeover, thanks, it feels good to see the end of the 'tunnel', ha!

I hated that they also ate my dwarf conifers way in front of my house over winter when they probably lived in that warm pile of lawn clippings my neighbor has over my back fence. During that time nature in form of raptors (owls), cats, coyotes did not help. From now on I always will have a welcoming buffet of D-con pellets for all newcomer voles waiting - Come and get it!

Ha, good one! Yep, amen to that!

Shasta, my huntress, for a few days kept jumping off to the side of our walking trail and snorting at something under the leaves. She flushed out a vole yesterday and now there are only a few billion left in the world.

Jon

Please give Shasta a hug for me. :)

I will. Shasta eats up affection.

I had contributed to this thread showing that I used 1 1/4 inch dia PVC pipes in 'Z' shape as bait tunnels against voles. I kept them baited with poison pellets until recently. There were no vole holes any longer in the ground over the last 2 months, but some critters still ate the pellets. So I made three 'Z' shape bait tunnels out of 1 inch PVC, baited those with same d-CON pellets, placed them along the larger 1 1/4 size tunnels. Bait in the smaller tunnels was not eaten, the larger dia tunnels were emptied out. Note, cross section area between both diameters is significantly different.

Conclusion, no need to use PVC larger than 1 inch diameter to make bait tunnels, when you target voles only. I read about other gardeners using up to 1 1/2 inch PVC pipes, but they probably also killed other critters, not only voles. In a large article in the Hosta Journal several years ago a major contributor showed how he used 1 inch dia PVC pipe tunnels successfully against voles. So I leave my three 1 inch dia bait tunnels with bait outside, noticed a little nibbling, serves them right.

I just came across this thread and had to chime in. I've tried traps, castor oil concoctions, and I have a great hunting cat...however, none of them were anywhere near as effective as this simple solution I discovered a year and a half ago.

First, in the fall, stay ahead of the leaf litter. DO NOT LET LEAVES LAY ON YOUR BEDS! The voles shelter under the leaves away from the eyes of hawks and owls. Besides, with the leaves gone, you will be able to spot the tunnel entrances with ease. Now go to your local hardware store (not big box) or Amazon.com and buy "just one bite" bar rat and mice poison. It is a seedy-poison-waxy bar that will not disintegrate when wet. I wear disposable gloves and break the bar into green pea size pieces and poke one piece into the opening of each tunnel entrance. I do it in the early fall and again in late winter when they are hungriest. No PVC tubes, no repeat baiting...I promise you that even this halfhearted strategy has reduced my vole population easily by 85%. I have at least a hundred hostas and at least as many perennials and shrubs on a wooded two acre lot and I lost one hosta and had damage to one hosta this year...no shrub damage...this year was by far my best year as far as barely no vole damage! I'm rejoicing!

For what it's worth, I read that the small amount the voles eat, combined with the fact they metabolize it makes it no risk to larger animals like cats and hawks that may possibly eat a poisoned vole or mouse...besides I have not seen a single dead vole on the ground.

I'm thrilled with my success and hope you have the same experience.

Here is the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002SAQ7ZM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1444518819&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=just+one+bite&dpPl=1&dpID=410DNMpGGUL&ref=plSrch

bernd, I copied your 1 1/4 tubes and bait them with Ramik nuggets. Seems to be working, there are less new holes and the bait is usually gone within a few days. Thank you for the idea and plans. I also use live traps and snap mouse traps but have only caught mice in them. The raccoons do raid the tunnels on occasion but i guess that is collateral damage. I wonder what kind of critter would be using the 1 1/4" but not the 1" tubes?

pammyomammy, I will also try the product you posted. It is available at a few retail dealers near me. Thank you.

I am just following this post as I have discovered we have voles in our veggie garden area. I have some castor oil pellets on the way, but feel I will have to resort to bait and poison.

Bernd, how did you set up your bait stations? Did you just lay them on the ground near the runs or did you insert one of the PVC openings into a hole?

We live on a heavily wooded lot with acreage and unfortunately, my raised garden area is built with mulch all around. We've been here for 4 years with no trouble, but this week, I saw some of my overwintered flowers and herbs eaten from underneath. I have a bad feeling about this years veggie garden.

The tunnels are all around this mulched area. This is a pic from last year:

I may have very well had voles for some time, but either there are a lot of predators in the area (which there are), or I've been very lucky not to have as much damage. I grow greens in the spring, tomatoes, summer squash, cukes, green beans, and herbs in the summer. Garlic in the fall/summer. I tried fingerling potatoes last year with decent success; however, I did have a few taters chewed up.

I've always assumed the tunnels in the area were from moles, as there are a lot of earthworms in our beds.

The Just One Bite poison has bromodialone in it and I'm pretty sure that my cats ate a few poisoned voles before I threw the rest of it away this fall. At the Guilford Horticultural Society Symposium this past weekend, some one said the vole population is on an upswing. If you research it on the web, it will strike terror into your hosta loving heart, as vole populations have peaked at 25,000 per acre in past explosions. The population of voles has peaks and valleys. Maybe we're heading for a peak. Let's all hope not.

Kathy

Our local garden guy has successfully used dry ice for moles, gophers. Should work for voles too. The co2 (carbon dioxide) is heavier than air, it sinks into the hole and asphyxiates the little buggers. They die in their sleep? ;-)

But you have to find the holes and you won't get to see their bodies.

-Babka

I have never even heard of a vole and I am 65 years old. Our property is infested with voles. I have spent over $3,000.00 trying to get rid of them. Cayenne Pepper, Garlic, Crushed Red Pepper, Peppermjnt, Volex, Tom’s Chunx snd Castor Oil. Nothing worked. The castor oil had them running but they were back next day. When I used the castor oil again they retaliated. They are all around the foundation of the house, they have destroyed our concrete driveway, they have tunnelled under th patio and into the garage, 16 bushes, and all flowers are gone, snd they came into the house. I had an exterminator come and seal our house. I have mad voles on the inside that can’t het out and mad voles on the outside that can’t get in. Only a few have been in the bait stations outside and none that I can tell on the inside. There are all kinds of holes and split cracked wood on the floors. it looks lile what appears to br parasites coming through the floors. God knows what I will have to spend this year. I feel like I am living in a Stephen King novel.

Goodness, HU, how awful! I've never heard of voles coming in a house or tunneling underneath a house. Are you sure those are voles and not something else? Groundhogs can do extensive foundational damage, but I've never heard of voles doing that.

I have to admit after all these years, I fought the voles and the voles won.