The hardware cloth is a good idea. Also, is the fence around your garden partially buried, or does it stop at the ground. We buried a good 8" of a chicken wire fence in the ground, angled outward, to help deter digging animals. So we have a problem with moles in the yard, but not in the garden.

We installed a mole trap over one of the main tunnels last week to deal with a mole that was destroying the yard. The trap appears to have been sprung. I'm tempted to remove the trap and dig it out to make sure we got the menace. There hasn't seemed to be new damage in a couple days.

-Kris

Howdy, Oogie!

Yep, hardware cloth is loverly stapled to the bottom of the frames.

Kris, if you give it another day or so, you won't have to dig down very far to verify a catch. The nose knows....

When I had my original raised beds I eventually had to dig out the soil and lay in some gopher fence and put the soil back in... Gopher fence is a squared metal fence and the holes are only 3/4 to inch square. Stopped my problem completely.

I have read (and my dad told me) that moles do not harm the vegetables, they are after grubs. My dad controlled the moles with an insecticide for the grubs he had in the lawn since the moles there would ruin its appearance. I do not know about voles, though.

Beneficial Nematodes are excellent at controlling grubs, fleas, and other harmful critters, but won't harm your earthworms. That's a great way to discourage moles--and the much larger armadillos--from digging up your yard and garden. I found that if I didn't let the ground bake dry, I could get by with a half-dose of new starts in the spring. You just water them in with a good quality hose-end sprayer, then keep the ground slighty moist under the surface. I got a mix of two varieties, "stationary" and "travelers." They were quite helpful in controlling fire ants and fleas.

As for voles, wiki is our friend! (Sadly, we can't say the same for the voles, which mostly prefer seeds to grubs. Not much for burrowing, though. I found one had made a nest under an old piece of plywood in my East Texas back yard, but the "burrow" was really just a shallow scooped-out cup near the edge of the wood.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Wiki spills the beans on voles here

Hi
Anyone have an idea what is tunneling through my pond garden?
There are many holes the size of a half dollar, I did see a greyish pinl nosed something, it' small.. what is it?
and how do I get rid of it?

no...moles do harm gardens...and, do you really want to use pesticides in your garden? Send me your email address and I will send you a picture of how to win this one with ease!....