I alwsys think voles when roots sre eaten, but the digging you describe suggedts something larger…

For me it's the chipmunks.

I had to dig up 88 hostas and replant them in gopher bags because of my unrelenting chipmunk problem.

If anyone can help me with it I'm game to listen.

I can drive them away from their burrows with peppermint oil, but it needs to be repeated after rain and my yard is huge.

It wouldn't be so bad but when I see one they are FAT and have super glossy coats and look like show quality chipmunks- all on a diet of my hard fought plant roots.

That's salt in the wound- they pop up out of a hole and LOOK at me like "That's right! I'm feasting like a king!"

My dogs go after them but are rarely successful. And I don't mind a BIT when they are.

UGH.

Vole is a possibility. we have some holes in the lawn but i never see what vole looks like. I see chipmunk running around happily though. what puzzles me though is we never had this ”roots been eaten” problem before, is it because this year is much drier that they cannot find enough water?

Put a water bowls on the ground then?

I would think that animals, birds and insects have an even harder time with the drought and heat than we do. Fleshy roots have moisture that they need, so I guess it's not surprising that is what they go for. Unfortunately we live in a tme where the balance between predator and prey has been disturbed and we end up with too many chipmunks or rabbits, etc.

I know for some gardeners chippies would eat tomatoes off the vine , likely for moisure reason. Friend told me water bowls helped her harvest.

Chippies dont eat hosta here they just dig in the moist soil burrying seeds and nuts. they especially like to dig in pots and under the foundation of the house and coop. making entry easy for other rodents. they live trap quite easily. some go in out of curiosity others need a crumbled saltine. i am up to 29 and counting. The girlfriend relocates some, i dont have much sympathy for them so they take a swim. note…. they dont swim

Wow, that's a lot of damage to your plants. That's terrible.

I am wondering if there is a water source nearby for the critters? Are these critters trying to get something to eat or trying to get some moisture and relief from the heat and lack of rain? What other things are there near your home that they can eat?

I provide year round water in a bird bath. My maple trees provide tons of seed. There are oaks nearby and the squirrels like to bury the nuts in my yard. A couple of immediate neighbors have vegetable gardens. I find half eaten tomatoes in my yard. But I live in the city.

hosta_maker, my Dad always referred to it as ’teaching them to swim’, and said they were really bad learners.

We have water bowels in the ground - not intentionally -only fills them when i water -like every other day. my neighbor has a koi pond in his yard. the hosta soil is more moisture than other places cause I watering them when i watering house plants nearby. they are all under a crab appl tree. i also have tomato plants, yes tomatoes also been eaten. I thought it might be birds. i did see one time a squirrel carries a half green tomato climbing the oak tree. don’t know chipmunks eat tomato too. i do find other two hosta victims - one is just like the first one but only half of the clump with dirt dug up and roots all gone, but the other half is unattacked. the third one is in different bed. they (whatever they are) just started digging the dirt around the hosta.

this year must be a hard year for animals. we saw a very thin (you can see the ribs thin) coyote carries some small animal crossed our yard ( we never seen coyote before not mention in our yard), two days late, i found the coyote dead in the corner of our backyard. buried it in one of the garden before kids see it. two days ago, found a rabbit (we have a lot cottontail rabbits around) dead in the yard - cannot tell the cause of the death. i buried it again in the garden, but the second day, its body was gone, some animal dug it out. Our neighborhood close (within 800ft) to a cove (salt water) i would think there should be a better environments for the animals?

Although there are only a few squirrels around here, I've caught them digging up some of my potted plants. Today, it was a portulaca, which I then replanted after driving the offender away.

Hire a weasel.