Thanks Renee. I really appreciate the help.

Sandie,

I have a yard full of voles. They've munched through all the perennials I planted last year, but they haven't eaten the rosemary or nepeta. I also still have healthy ligularia (hoping that doesn't mean the voles just haven't found them yet!) Have you found any other plants they don't like?

Lyria

Hey Lyria,
I was told that garlic and society garlic they would leave alone. BUT, not the voles I have. I planted tons of both last year and they are all gone but a couple. I'm just not going to buy anymore plants unless I put them in pots. I could probably put poison down, but I don't want to take a change of hurting the chipmonks and other little animals.
I guess they haven't really bothered the 4 o'clocks yet, but then they come up everywhere so fast, who can tell. If you hear of anything please let me know and I'll let you know. Sandie in NC

My yard is full of tunnels also. I've tried the castor oil
based repellent in certain areas as a test....hoping it works!! Looks pretty good so far.
Last week I found two uprooted roses, checked the roots and
there were hardly any left. I didn't have time to get
stressed...just took care of the problem. I'm stocking up
on repellents this year. (whatever works) I have a lot of
roses and I just can'd deal with these buggers.

Castor Oil sprays will help keep Moles out of an area, but I have not seen that it will do much of anything to deter Voles, a different rodent.

I have grown hostas for over 20 years and was so proud of how large and beautiful they were until last year. I almost cried. I dug up most of my yard and now have most of my hostas in pots....my son bought me a solar powered deterent that emits a high frequency sound that the voles do not like. It does work..but it just chases them from one area of the garden to another. Young cats are good at catching voles. My cats are old and arent as quick as they use to be. I am thinking of getting some new young cats.
If you have voles ..get your hostas out of the ground and into pots or you will lose them.
Good luck to all with voles..they are a modern day plague

I know that this is an old thread but it is also an annual problem. I am going through it again this year. First it was whole stems of my marigolds, then the native columbines.. The columbines were started several years ago from seed and I have plenty and marigolds are cheap but today it went after a $10.00 Phygelius and chewed off every stem and bloom and drug the stems over into a corner under the siding of the house. It also went after my prised Iris fulva and a young Silene regia that was about to bloom for the first time.

Over the years one thing I have noticed is that they are less likely to go after Salvias, and Agastaches or anything in the mint family. I have several salvias a a few agastaches in the same bed as the Phygelius and not one leaf on either of those species has been touched.

Also when I make cages out of hardware cloth to encircle my plants They leave those plants alone.

Penny

I had finally established a great collection of hostas and thought I was well on my way to having the flower garden of my dreams. It was early spring and the first signs were shoots of hostas coming up. They began to disappear and I noticed that where I had hostas last year they were not coming back. I told my husband that he had to get rid of the ground hog that was feasting on my hostas. I watched vigilantly for this very hungry ground hog but never could see him. Then one day my beautiful drift rose just up and wilted buds and all. I gently tugged at it and to my horror the whole plant came up out if the ground in my hands and the roots were literally gone. There were little knawing marks all over the trunk of what was left of my sweet drift rose. I lost all my hostas, many roses and then they started eating away on my hydrangeas that I had planted the fall before. I had invested money, blood, sweat, and tears in my flowers and over night I was seeing them all dissapear. I saw hosta leaves literally being drug down the little holes everywhere in my flower beds. I had many sleepless nights pondering and worrying about the loss of all my flowers. I had such a bad invasion that I chose poison which I tried very hard to keep away from my beloved chipmunks. I covered all bait with a bucket turned upside down. I have made progress but it is a battle that still goes on because of how bad the infestation became. My plants are recovering except for the hostas and I am still afraid to try to replace them. If you begin to see little holes in your yard or flowers do ignore it.

I just found a list of plants voles don't like, so I'm planting lots of them at the spots where voles enter my garden (from their condos in the rocks underground.) Helebores and castor bean are poisonous to them. They don't like alliums (onion and garlic), arum, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and can't get through quarter inch metal hardware cloth or through gravel.

Here's a good webpage about deterring voles. Lots of info...

http://thesagebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/vole-in-garden-control-methods.html

so i ve had those holes in the ground in my garden for a few years but i havnt been bothered by them but this season i am tired of seeing some of my plants gone the others weak or dying, there are tunnels everywhere, i also have chives in the same beds and it seems to not bother them. What is it voles or chipmunks, how can i tell the difference?

In our zone, at least in NY, chipmunks don't tunnel. They eat the fruits of plants like tomatoes and nuts.

Voles here are tiny (smaller sometimes) like mice but have shorter tails and almost non-existent eyes. They eat the roots of plants and make tunnels. Voles are a common name for many rodents in different parts of the world.

ok so i looked up the vole and realized i have seen those grey longer than the mice cute looking creature the other day under the pile of brush, the tunnels, most of them are very close to the surface of the soil and the grass around the beds with the tunnels comes out easily meaning theyve been chewing the roots, i think the culprit in this case is vole. Now how to get rid of them?????

There are many threads here on how to get rid of voles. Do a search.

I put mouse traps in tunnels baited with apple or peanut butter. Cover it with a bucket weighted with a rock. Sometimes the ants get to it first or sometimes the voles cover the trap with soil. Buggers are hard to catch but not impossible.