No. There are numerous reports online about voles damaging or killing rhododendrons and hydrangeas. Just because animals may be related doesn't mean they share the same diets. Voles prefer underground portions of plants - bulbs and tubers, roots and bark that may be covered by grasses, weeds or mulch. Hamsters tend to prefer leafy green vegetative stuff....and fruits.

Voles and mice strip the green bark from stems of my Hydrangea arborescens under the snow in winter and I haven’t found any little dead bodies in the spring when the snow melts . . .

I haven’t had problems with Rhododendrons/azaleas getting chewed by rodents.

Sigh why is it that all of the most garden destructive animals are resistant to all plant toxicity while our beloved pets such as dogs and cats have to be the only ones susceptible. This is really not fair. Nhbabs, did the stripping kill your hydrangea? Also I also want to ask if callicarpa dichotoma is also a vole treat. (If you have one)

Also Nhbabs, how do you successfully grow your garden with all those voles around? I've been following a lot of your posts on voles and wondering how you deal with them

Callicarpa isn’t hardy enough for me to grow here, so I can’t help with that.

Hydrangea arborescens is fine being cut back to the ground every year, so there is no problem with winter vole nibbling since in the years it is bad, I whack it back and it resprouts quickly. They don’t seem to bother it during the growing season, so it isn’t a favored food for them in my garden, just a food for long winters.

My garden is pretty much surrounded by rough field, so I have tried a range of things to deal with voles, including snap traps, spiked traps, castor oil, urine, and hot peppers ground up, and while they may discourage the population for a while, they reproduce so fast in the surrounding fields that they will be back. I am not willing to use poison since I don’t want to poison other wildlife that might eat poisoned voles. The only things I have found that work are either growing plants they don’t like or surrounding plants they do like with a large circle of hardware cloth (1/4” wire or heavy grade plastic mesh) that I make from rolls. I usually go for just under 1' diameter since I can get the hardware cloth in 36" widths, I cut off an 8" band and create my cylinder. I stitch the edges together with wire.

Obviously this doesn’t work for large shrubs and I have had several well-established shrubs with roots totally eaten during either winter or the growing season, which kills them, including Pieris, shrub and tree Cornus/dogwood, and Daphne. So I won’t replace them unless I find spot unattractive to voles (such as an area for the shrub dogwoods that stays too wet for vole tunnels) or figure out a protection strategy that works for large plants.

When we had a cat, she caught quite a lot of them, but our road has gotten too busy and when she was killed by a car, we didn’t want to expose another animal to that. But if you have a safe yard, a terrier or a cat has good potential to keep them under control.

Oh wait, so can I assume that all shrubs that flower from new growth and can be cut back each spring are 'vole safe'? Safe as in, like you mention, because they're being cut back anyway vole damage won't matter. And callicarpa is also one of those shrubs that flower on new growth. But.... it's not like you cut the shrubs all the way to the ground level where you won't see any wood, usually I cut it back to 3 inches. And don't the voles go for the lowest part of the wood?

On the hardware cloth, I have considered it and does seem like the perfect idea but one question is, will it eventually rust in the ground and you have to replace it like every year? I pinned some landscape pins in the ground to keep some of my netting in place for my bulbs but the landscape pins rust and break off within a single season.

Wow, I cannot believe the pieris was attacked. I thought they are poisonous to almost every animal... The Daphne I believe was only the berries but wow voles are scary. Are they unpredictable just like deer in how they will 'eat anything' if hungry enough? Or are there certain plants they definitely won't or can't eat? Luckily I haven't had any voles for the 17 years I lived in my current house but I'm just trying to prepare for when a vole invasion might come in the future, and if my future home property has voles too I can prepare for that.

Btw, I'm sorry about your cat. I love dogs and cats but we only have a dog(small) and cats aren't an option because my dad hates them.

I can only tell you that there are a lot of plants that they don’t bother in my garden. I haven’t lost rhodies that I can be sure were due to voles. They don’t bother mums, daffodils, Colchicum, foxglove, or monkshood. I haven’t had them kill any hydrangeas or ninebarks. There are lots and lots of others that either outgrow the speed at which voles consume them or just don’t seem appealing.

I think if you have them, you will just need to experiment to see what is safe in your gardens. I also live on a farm with woods and fields: hay, alfalfa, and corn that is really great vole territory. I tend to doubt that most suburban and urban gardens are nearly as vole friendly as my garden!

My area is heavily suburban but there a lot of woods and lakes nearby. A lot of wildlife too including deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, skunks, raccoons, tons of birds. So not sure why voles haven't arrived yet.. But I rather prevent them in the first place instead of experimenting them because then it will be too late and I have to watch my precious plants die

By the way, can you answer my question on the hardware cloth?

It is galvanized so in more than 5 years they look and function pretty much unchanged and unrusted. I don’t know how long they are likely to last. But putting it is where it isn’t needed doesn’t seem wise and it does add expense.

The plastic ones have only been in the ground 2 or 3 years, but so farhey seem to work fine with no evidence of having been chewed through.

Heruga - you commented that landscape pins rusted out to the breaking point in a year... I have landscape pins that we used almost 20 years ago to pin soaker hoses in place. The pins are rusted now but are still strong and have never broken. (The soaker hoses have largely been removed after the plants got well established or the hoses have been left in place, buried under years of leaf litter.) Either your pins were awfully weak to begin with or perhaps your soil is very acidic, helping to break the pins down quickly. Our soil is neutral-to-alkaline. Hardware cloth is also long-lasting here. Knock-on-wood, we’ve never had a problem with voles here, which makes me very happy! What kind of small dog do you have? We used to have a Lhasa Apso who was a demon hunter of rabbits :-). We never had a problem with rabbit damage when she was alive! Terriers are also great rodent hunters... - so don’t underestimate what a small dog can do for you!

Nhbabs, true but you never know when voles will start invading your property so wouldn't it be better to always have your plants protected and be safe than sorry? Say if voles first start invading your property after 30 years you lived in a home. And all that 30 years of raising your previous plants gets eaten and killed all of a sudden. I think I will go into traumatic shock and end up in the er if that happened. Doesn't make sense for the typical person but I am always extra careful and sensitive with my plants...

Woodyoak, they're the stagreen brands I buy at home depot. Which ones do you use? It couldn't be acidic because its near 3 mature juniperus virginianas that I had the pins installed. They make the ground more alkaline I believe. It's also right next to my patio which also gives off an alkaline effect. Not sure about what exact breed. We adopted him as a rescue dog and nobody can tell what he is. He is small and never grew in size, has a long snout and half pointy and half floppy ears. And oh no, don't get me wrong. He will chase deer rabbits, rodents and stuff but we don't have a fence to keep him from running away. We are on a busy street too so we can't let him loose.

Heruga - I can't remember where I got the staples/pins - probably at Canadian Tire (a Canadian chain of stores that is sort of a cross between Home Depot, Walmart and an automotive supply/service store....) The staples look like these ones.

If you have a dog, you need to have fencing :-) so you can let it out to help you in the garden! We just have 4' black chainlink - that was hastily raised to 6' with hardware cloth a couple of years ago after a coyote popped over the fence to attack our poodle! And a friend's big collie mix who is here often started popping over the fence to play with the dog that lived next door! While a coyote could scramble over a 6' fence, one never has (yet!) here. The fence extension is a bit flimsy so a coyote would probably damage it - which would warn us of its presence.... The fence is also great for growing vines so it expands the garden too!

You can see the hardware cloth fence extension above the 4' chainlink fence, both covered in 'Serotina' honeysuckle.

There's also a climbing hydrangea woven into the fence at the far end where it is in shade under pines. I don't have a good picture of that. So fences can be useful extensions of the garden as well as controlling dogs and serving other useful purposes. Having a dog (or several!) in the garden with you can be both useful and fun - for both the people and the dogs! :-)

So, my advice is to put your dog to work to help with any vole invaders - and expand your gardening opportunities too :-)

I would have to say my dog - a Cocker spaniel - is useless at keeping voles in check. Apparently any hunting gene he has is limited to just squirrels.....he thinks deer are just big dogs (and they just laugh and stare at him.....NO threat at all!!)

But the cat in his prime was a serious hunter and extremely good. He would often bring me several bodies a day - gophers, voles, shrews, moles, bunnies, snakes. You name it - he could catch it!! Unfortunately, he is now in his advanced senior years and not up to any more hunting duties. But he more than earned his retirement :-)

We just use mouse poison. It works. We've used mouse traps too, and they work, but when you have as many voles as we've had, traps really aren't that practical.

As a mom of 3 cats, I can't bear the thought of any of them being outside. The wildlife would get them for sure. We have coyotes everywhere....

NHBabs, I put hardware cloth around my Amur Maple, yesterday. I'm not taking any chances....

Be aware that if a pet oe hawk or fox eats a poisoned mouse, it will die an unpleasant death. I am not willing to kill the predators that help keep rodents in check.

Fencing is just not an option here. First its because its my dad's house and he doesn't want fencing because he thinks its a waste of money and neither can I afford it. Second, our backyard is designed in such a odd way that you cannot construct a fence! We have a patch of lawn in front of one of our unattached garage doors. Theres other things about our yard why we can't construct a fence. Nice garden and dogs btw :)

We have about 3 different cats roaming around our area but no sign in chipmunk population decrease. Also gardengal, I thought voles don't exist in the west? When I looked at the vole habit range map in wikipedia it did not highlight the pacific western areas.

Here is my dog and if I get an answer of what his breed is on a gardening forum I will be the luckiest person ever. My wild guess is part German shepard and corgi and maybe dacshund who knows. If we did have a fence, I would be gardening with 100% joy and satisfaction in terms of animal pests. He chases everything that moves. He's even chased deer away out of my grandmas yard when I released him

Cute dog! My guess would be a corgi and a Pekingese got together :-)

Too bad about the no fence situation... Our fence provides lots of garden opportunities and makes the dog care easier. In my younger days we always had cats but I became allergic to them in my 30s so we switched to dogs :-) Cats are definitely the better hunters and are easier-care but dogs are great, very loving companions so we’re happy with the dog situation here and volunteering at the local service dog training facility is an important and fun part of our lives now.

If you don’t have a problem with voles now, I wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about them. It sounds like you have now got enough information that you could cope if they do show up. Don’t trouble Trouble until Trouble troubles you is one of my philosophies:-)

Happy gargening. Give that cutie dog a pat and cuddle from me :-)

"Also gardengal, I thought voles don't exist in the west? When I looked at the vole habit range map in wikipedia it did not highlight the pacific western areas."

LOL!! I'm not sure how that info originated but it is not correct!! There are seven different species of voles that can appear in the PNW but the one most common in my area is the Townsend's vole. The meadow vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus, is one of the most common mammals in the US and has a huge range that extends from Alaska, Canada and across virtually ALL of the continental US and into Mexico.

No voles here, but I do have a terrible gopher problem. I have a neighborhood park on two sides of the property, so there’s an endless supply of them coming in. I do plant my most precious plants in gopher cages, but I can’t realistically plant everything in cages. I have been experimenting with a plant called Plectranthus neochilus. It has a skunky aroma when watered or brushed up against. I ordered it from Annie’s Annuals and Perennials. Annie’s makes no mention of it causing gophers to leave the area, but I read about it while researching the plant. Apparently many animals despise the scent of it. It’s an almost succulent type plant, and makes a good ground cover. Although I only purchased one plant, it roots so easily that I can just break off a stem and stick it in the ground. I keep it moist for a week or two, and it takes off. The areas where I have planted it have been deserted by gophers completely. I plan to put them all around the edge of my yard. The big drawback to Plectranthus neochilus is that it’s only perennial in zones 9-11, so it wouldn’t be helpful during the winter in cold zones. It does look a plant that you could overwinter indoors, however.

I don’t have enough experience with this plant to say it works perfectly at keeping the gophers away yet, but I’m encouraged by the results so far. I was further encouraged when a visiting aunt from the San Joaquin Valley recognized it. She said she’d always wondered what it was called, as it’s planted all around the commercial strawberry fields to keep the gophers out. If the commercial growers are using this plant for gopher problems, there must be some truth to what I’ve read.

It’s just very unfortunate that as a tender South African plant, it’s not hardy below zone 9. Still, it might be worth looking into for those in warm climates with gopher/vole problems. Lisa

Oh wth..., I was looking at the distribution of the meadow vole. Now those don't exist in the west. Thought I was just looking at the distribution map of voles in general.

So you're doubting the credibility of that person whoever made the map. Doesn't make any sense to me.

Gophers are equally terrible from what I hear. I'm really starting to hate herbivores now. I might as well grow all non-vole/root eater resistant plants in pots and just sink them in the ground before its too late.

“So you're doubting the credibility of that person whoever made the map. Doesn't make any sense to me.”

Was this supposed to be funny or are you serious? Makes perfect sense to me. Internet sources vary widely, so it it were on a reviewed/edited/quality controlled scientifically based website, it might not make a lot of sense to question it, but anything else is anyone’s guess as far as reliability, especially sources like Wikipedia which can be edited by anyone. Also, since GG48 has personal experience with the presence of voles in the PNW, why wouldn’t she question it? I certainly would question the reliability of a website that directly contradicted my personal experience. (Climbing down off of my teacher platform . . . ). ;>)

“Whoever made the map” is precisely why I’m doubting it, Heruga. Meaning that I don’t know who made it, so it should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism. I was just trying to inject a little levity, while hoping to get you outside of your ‘absolute’ box. No harm intended by me.

Heruga if you don’t have them, don’t worry about it - why buy trouble? There’s enough other garden tasks to be busy with!

Ok something is wrong with me today. I completely forgot or missed(don't even remember that either) gardengal said meadow voles exist in her area and wrote my previous comment. Sorry about that indianagardengirl, you said that after gardengals post and after finding out the fact that meadow voles exist in her area and the map I was looking at was therefore not accurate.

Dingo, won't you think it is better to be prepared before its too late? I mean its not like voles will never appear in your garden even if they haven't appeared once in the 17 years I lived in my house right?

Heruga, It is fine to be mentally prepared so you have a plan in place on the off chance you might get some voles, but if I had the option of not burying a bunch of metal cages in my garden soil I would not hesitate to skip them. And I have gardened on 4 different sites over 25 years before this one with nary a vole in sight, and my folks’ garden never had any voles in the 50 years they were there, so why waste the time and considerable cash to add cages that aren’t needed. Just pointless when you could spend that money on plants; hardware cloth isn’t cheap and there is a reasonable chance that you may never see a single vole in your garden.

Not sure how I missed your last post but good thing I read it. Nhbabs or anyone with voles, if you have yews (taxus) of any variety do they seem to be attacked by voles? Deer love it but it's poisonous to rabbits and bears and dogs. So I'm wondering what about voles

The deer attacked yews in my previous garden (which didn’t have voles, though it was only 10 miles away) to a degree that they rarely had needles, so I would be nuts to plant more, so I don’t have a clue if voles like yews. However, if they aren’t effected by deer here, I haven’t seen them looking vole attacked In areas where voles are likely to be present.

Part of the problem with tunneling animals is the tunnels and how the presence of these can affect small plants. Even where no plants are being eaten by the tunnelers.

I've never seen gopher mounds in central Puget Sound.

Mazama pocket gopher range map:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=ZAzR2Z3%2f&id=293A5E88BDD3B4B375FC58FFA579BDAEA4BD067C&thid=OIP.ZAzR2Z3_aBInuz69uygxhQHaE8&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fnaturemappingfoundation.org%2fnatmap%2fmaps%2fwa%2fmammals%2fWA_mazama_pocket_gopher_nm.jpg&exph=800&expw=1200&q=mazama+pocket+gopher+range+map&simid=607990346203333984&selectedIndex=0&qpvt=mazama+pocket+gopher+range+map&ajaxhist=0