Here are the easy ways: (1) Get a cat. (2) Make it hard for them to hide, or to travel undetected. Keep the lawn mowed for at least 15 feet around your garden, weed frequently, and hope the neighborhood predators (hawks, owls, foxes) will find them. Forget about sprays, vibrating machines, etc. If you can't get pets or wildlife to get rid of them, you will need to trench some heavy-duty ¼" mesh hardware cloth down at least a foot and leave at least 18 inches above ground, all around your garden (or plantings). This year, voles ate about two-thirds of my seedlings and chomped down on lots of mature plants, strawberries, and tomatoes. They like to eat broccoli and kale plants down to the nub, can devour an entire pepper plant overnight, and will bite through a pea vine at the base, killing the whole plant (ditto morning glories). I tried trenching in some hardware cloth about 6" down. It wasn't long before they figured out how to dig under it, and not long after that they discovered they could bite through it. Every week I'd inspect the fence and find new tunnels to plug with rocks, and new holes to patch. The past couple of weeks, I finally trenched in some heavy stainless-steel mesh down a foot and out a foot (in an "L" shape) around the entire 200-foot perimeter of the garden. That had better keep them out, because I am at my wits' end. It wasn't easy.

I don't have any particular fondness for rodents, but I just don't have the heart to kill an animal. For me "exclusion" is a much easier method. I just keep all my roses in gopher cages, and have no problems. But I do laugh when I see a ring of gopher mounds around a caged rose. On a related subject, I was going crazy with my son's cat who is a rat killing machine. There are weeks when I end up with 2 or 3 dead rats in the house, or patio. So, I came up with a new program called "Rats for Roses" Each time the cat brings me a dead rat, I bury it under one of my rose bushes. I have about 30 roses, so I just keep buring them , eventually all 30 roses end up with a nice little bonemeal/bloodmeal treat. By the time all 30 have been given a rat, the first rose is ready for another one. It's good for the roses, and it gives the little fellers a decnt burial.

Just ordered traps called gophernator - neighbor has some and has caught quite a few in the past few weeks. Company is out of California called trapline. We have gophers and they have taken down a 6' rose and large Mexican bird of paradise this week. My plants will be revenged!

Someone told me about those electronic stakes that make vole noises to scare them away. I have had one in operation for almost 6 months. I looked the other day and there was a new vole tunnel (they can make their own tunnels in loose soil) right beside the noise maker stake! So, those things do NOT work. I have also tried the chemical repellants with less than great results. They seem like they make work for a week (maybe), but you have to apply them even more frequently than the package/bottles say. That can get pretty expensive. I'm still trying a number of approaches, but haven't found any magic bullet yet. I even found a feral cat in my barn, started feeding it to keep it around for the voles, and then found it gone after I'd bought more cat food.