All you did is to tell them to go elsewhere where they will regroup and increase their population to invade your property again soon. What I read is that you should kill those varmints with poison pellets to really get rid of them for a while.
Bernd

Good to know, I saw my first vole in the garden the other day. Glad to read that it's 100 percent organic too. I worried that it might be poison...I guess I wouldn't want to hang around a place that smelled of coyote and fox urine either! Thanks for the tip. I'll look out for it in my area.

This particular Shake Away doesn't have coyote or fox urine in it. It has mint, rosemary, and cedar oils. I've also used the Shake Away for rabbits, which does have fox urine in it, and it took care of my rabbit problem. I like their products.

Deanna

The problem with using poison is that the dead voles don't go underground to die. The weakened or dead voles are eaten by some scavenger or other predator and the poison then is transferred to a non-target species, like Red-Tailed Hawks.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Tufts Veterinary Institute - Red-Tailed Hawks Poisoned

This post was edited by steve_mass on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 6:55

...and once the natural predators decline, rabbits and other vermin go on the rise. And if your or your neighbor's pet eats poisoned critters it wont be good for them either.

tj

That's what I like about Shake Away - non-toxic all the way around.

Deanna

I dug in sharp gravel along a 120 ft fence and no vole is passing this line this year. I also use wire mesh baskets.

Voles are a new challenge for me this year. I read somewhere that drought drives them in from the woods.

berndnyz5,
How wide and deep was the trench that you dug for the gravel barrier?
also
What type of gravel: 'chat' (like they use when oiling county roads) or chicken scratch or doesn't it matter?

As I plant new hosta they go in wire mesh baskets but am hesitant to dig the larger more established hosta and replant in the mesh...As an option I'm considering trenching around them with the gravel but i don't know how deep or wide is enough to be effective.

Dgregory, I made a little trench 6-8 inches deep and pushed and mixed in the smaller size gray gravel (not the very small ones) I could buy at Home Depot. This was gravel used for laying patio pavers and concrete blocks in walls. Then afterwards I spread more of it on top. Some voles tried to dig thru or climb over, so I spread more gravel, also around planted hostas.
I should do that too for an 80 ft stretch of an adjoining fence, but it is lugging a lot of heavy bags and digging through roots. I think it was 1 1/2 bags per 8 ft section of fence.
Bernd

Rodent repellent....does that include squirrels and perhaps rats? I know it says rodent.....anyway, I ordered some because the squirrels are back to digging in the pots and something is digging up the cypress mulch all around my hosta garden.

Thanks for the Home Depot suggestion, Bernd. What I have been using is much more expensive and pure white...kinda stands out in the garden...& not in a good way ;-)

I hope the rodent repellent works for you Mocc. I've had a difficult year with the squirrels as well. Nothing I've tried has worked for long & some didn't work at all. What a waste of money.

Destructive critters are frustrating...

In respect to squirrels read the Wikipedia. Squirrels only have a few acres territory in which we had 11 or 12 of them, now one is left and the threat of destruction is gone. You can catch them in a trap and drown them, or give them a ride to an isolated place a few miles away.

They moved my neighbor to a nursing home a couple of weeks ago, so the squirrel and bird feeders are no longer filled. I hope that translates to fewer rats, squirrels and possums. I no longer have a compost pile, so that helps, too.

I have a pellet gun, so I might have to take up target practice.

bk

This also works for getting rid of voles. 2 last night and 4 the night before.... time off in the day and then back to work!. These are the ones she brings to me and the others are found dead in the yard from the other two cats

Steve, thanks for reminding of the poison threat to birds. We had a Great Horned Owl in the yard last winter. Only saw him/her one night, but I do hope no one in the neighborhood uses poison for the mice/rats/voles/chipmunks. I hate the thought of what the raptors suffer if they eat prey slowed by poison.

Cynthia

I didn't realize hawks and other birds eat dead rodents. I've always thought they ate live prey. Makes me glad I don't use poison.

Deanna

Moccasin - I don't know if the Shake Away works for squirrels, but putting rocks in your pots will make them stop digging in them. Can you post a picture of how your cypress mulch is being dug up? Any cats in your neighborhood? They'll dig around in mulch as if it's a litterbox...there's also a Shake Away for cats.

If squirrels are digging in your mulch, you might try placing some of those shiny whirligigs around in your garden. For whatever reason, squirrels don't seem to like those.

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Shake Away for cats

dEFINITELY not cats, Deanna. This is like Scrooge McDuck had been diving in all his millions of gold coins. Whoopee! it is the first time I've seen anything like it.

I had it spread smooth. This is not from a cat digging a spot to poop, Nope, this is FORAGING behavior. Like it is eating grubs or worms or something, and it is a very ACTIVE critter, because it covers the whole back garden. We've had moles, and if they are destroying the grubs or perhaps the bagworms which recently migrated from the pecan trees, down into the soil (mulch) beheath those trees. It doesn't go much further than the depth of the mulch. In much of the area, I had the synthetic cloth laid over the ground, then applied the mulch. That cloth is there in a lot of this disturbed area, but not all of it. Where there is no fabric beneath the mulch, they go down into the soil (in thinly mulched areas) about 1 to 2 inches and no more. The mulch is deep enough now that I suppose moles could be tunneling, thus lifting and destroying the smoothly mulched effect.

Which is why I got the coyote urine. I have frogs, I have lizards, I have butterflies, and I have catered to the wild birds. I have no desire to use poison. If my critters have a species instinct to recognize predator scent, then good. I hope they do. There isn't a coyote between here and the city limits at least. Although we do have foxes where there are wooded areas along the rivers. Maybe fox scent is close enough to coyote to cause them to pick up and move permanently. I can sure do without this added to my over wintering problems.

I'm with Gardenfanatic. The ONLY ONLY ONLY way I was able to thwart those darn squirrels from digging up my plants this year (I did lose Holy Mouse after all, to their digging) was to install fist-sized rocks around each and every plant in my gardens. Sprays and powders were a complete waste of time and money. The bushy tailed rats just laughed at them and simply waited for me to toss the empty "repellent" container into the garbage and go inside my home to begin their endless digging once again.

ROCKS, my friends. ROCKS work.

I poison mice, voles. In all these years I have seen only 2 dead mice,voles,etc. on the lawn. I throw pellets deep into tunnels, close up tunnels with bark or sticks, repeat that if necessary. I have never seen a vole or mouse, or cat or squirrel walking around dizzy from a poison pellet. I have never seen a dead hawk, crow, cat, dog, etc. on my property. None of my neighbors has ever complained to me that I poison their cats. None of my neighbor's kids dig out the pellets out of tunnels and eats them. Voles and mice seem to die in their tunnels and become nutrients for hostas. Bernd

Bernd, what do you use to poison the voles? I'm having a terrible problem with them right now.

I use d-CON from Home Depot. I use it when I see a hole in the ground. Good luck!
I do not use poison pellets inside my house, use traps there, catch perhaps 2 mice every 2 years. Bernd