THe Hosta damage you're describing is usually caused by voles, which are like field mice. Keep mulch away from affected areas and bait tunnels in fall or anytime with outdoor mouse/rat bait.

I had left the leaves on this spring instead of removing them like I did previous years. Is that why I had them this year. I have now removed all the leaves. I will get the bait for them and place all around. I can't have them destroy the rest of my hosta beds.

Well it does seem to be Voles that I have. I have been told to get this product called Repellex. They say that this stuff will make them leave your yard. What have I got to loose besides more plants.
Has anyone else had a problem with them this year?

It is VOLE's . I have put down three different types of vole repellent. None has worked. I am seeing my plants of old and new just eaten away. Can anyone help me?

Scraping away the mulch helps. Voles tend to eat mouse bait when foraging in October.

Thanks Steve, but they were eating the plants before I even had mulch down.

Voles just appeared in last few weeks to join their buddies the moles and chipmunks. One ran right past me and dove into a hole in newly laid mulch.

Creating improvised raised beds was an improvement for drainage and now it helps me see where the little darliings are aiming right for the roots of anything the slugs haven't eaten above ground.

Found a dead mole right on the side of the driveway this week far from where the one tunnel is at the far end of the house. Don't see any raised trails in lawn so not sure where it came from.

It wasn't damaged in any way and no hawk or other predator has picked it up. They're all too happy to pick off one of our yard birds but Nooooo moles for them...LOL.

Tinylady, I've wasted money trying all the granular repellants including Repellex. Some consist of a small amount of caster oil concentrate which is supposed to repel them and doesn't. Just bought some Bonide Repels-All granules that just smell like garlic. Dug up bulb cages this morning that had over 40 gladiolus bulbs in them...only 6 grew and rabbits ate the foliage no matter how much I sprayed with repellant. I don't know which of the burrowing stinkers got through 1" openings in bulb cages but one cage had only dirt left in it.

There's a mole tunnel complex near the corner of the house right behind where I have spring blooming bulbs and have more ordered to plant there. I'm going to have to decide what to do about it in next week or so. Gonna have to dig up bulb cages and see what's left under there even though I sprayed bulbs with Repels-All, wrap them in fine steel wool and then place in bulb cages. I haven't had a problem with my squirrel friends getting their paws tangled in steel wool because I keep freshly dug soil sprayed with anything that smells until it freezes over. This year I'm direct sowing Poppies and some other hardy annuals around bulbs at the same time I plant bulbs in front bed and then covering it all up with row cover material so snow can rest on top. When things start to sprout in early spring I'm planning to put something to hold up row cover material so they can grow and not get eaten by deer and rabbits while they're still tender. After that it's time to spray the stinky stuff almost every day to keep Tulip foliage going right through beautiful blooms.

Best laid plans of mice and gardeners!

Since the Repels-All spray costs $15.95 per bottle I may resort to the homemade brew of putting eggs, garlic, some dishwashing soap and a bit of bloodmeal for good measure in the blender, straining it and using it for a spray all winter. It's going to stink to high heaven but I'll do my best keeping it in the garage.

As I sit here in the garage I can see a sizable rabbit feasting on the last of the Sweet Alyssum (deer and rabbit resistant) and am reminded of how defeated I feel from all the critter damage my first year of gardening. All my new Sedum were eaten to nubs Sunday night in garden with 4' fence around it and stakes every 12" holding it down. Whoever did that also ate down Echinops Ritro which NO ONE is supposed to eat.

I'm dizzy from trying to figure out what to plant that won't be decimated by some critter above or below ground. Feel pressured to get this figured out before fall planting window passes and I have to get garden "put to bed" for the winter.

Sorry for venting...spending the day cleaning up what critters have eaten or damaged over past week and those 150+ bulbs I ordered will be arriving before I know it.

At least the birds are happy...giving them good supply of food to fatten up for the winter and White Throated Sparrows will be coming "home" from Canada in next month or two. Lucky to have any nature at all to enjoy so shouldn't be so whiny...but that won't stop me. :)

Good luck catching your voles. Like you, I've got to get some traps and set them out. Never in a million years did I think I'd be trapping mice & voles (which need to be disposed of...yuck), squishing 2-3" slugs with a gloved hand and all the other gross things I've been provoked into doing this year...LOL.

At a talk today on planting bulbs, the speaker recommended mixing crushed oyster or egg shells in with the soil (although any type of sea shell will work) to deter small rodents. Apparently the sharp edges are just too much for them. This also is supposed to keep slugs away if sprinkled around their favorite plants.

I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it sounds pretty easy and cheap, and certainly can't hurt anything ... except those pests.

agardenstateof_mind, I searched for "crushed oyster shells" and got a real education...LOL.

It comes in different particle sizes depending upon what size chicken is being fed the calcium rich grit to make their resulting egg shells harder. Still more particle sizes are used for "hermit crabs" and home raised snails although that's not a hobby I even want to think about!

I'll call around to feed supply places and see if I can find it in a size larger than 5 lbs. as I'd like to work it into the mulch that I'm going to turn over this fall.

NJ isn't a hot spot for feed stores but I found an Agway in Englishtown that isn't too far. They don't carry the Premier Pro-Mix I need for seed germinating but it's probably worth a trip just to see what they have if I find out they carry the crushed oyster shells in particle size that isn't so pulverized it defeats the abrasive quality I want.

It's also used as mulch around some plants since it does change the soil ph although I don't have a clue what the soil Ph is in different beds. Guess I should have tests done for them at County Extension.

So many variables, so little time and money...LOL.

Thanks for the tip...I'm going to try it. Can't hurt as long as I don't overdo it and adversely change the soil Ph which I don't even know as of now. All this gardening stuff is a LOT more complicated to get started than I ever thought.

newbie_in_nj : You could also try Dill's Feed Store in Freehold on Throckmorton St. Also in Englishtown is Rick's Saddle Shop. They might have the calcium grit your looking for.
Good luck!

Dear newbie in Nj,

I just took a walk around my yard this morning and was so depressed at what I saw. More holes and plants gone. I gave up this summer with fighting them. I was too upset. All my work gone not mentioning the mopney. I told my husband when everthing dies down we will be cleaning out all the flower beds from any grass, leaves loose soil and mulch.Also cleaning up in the woods next to our property. Then I will try treating the beds with something.
I wish anyone with this problem lots of luck in getting rid of these flower bed eating varments.
And if you have any good fool proof way of getting rid of them .please send us a mesage.

Thanks Marie

Voles are very frustrating. I was even considering finding a Jack Russel and letting them tear up the yard digging up the voles. I have been organic for years, and hated to do it, but I have made a considerable dent in my vole population using Kaput Rat, Mouse and Vole Bait. I never had a problem with voles until my barn cat got too old to hunt. My kittens are getting old enough to hunt, so I anticipate the voles totally vacating very soon. A secondary problem I found is that some of my hostas developed root rot as a result of the trama to the roots from the voles.
Good luck.

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.