Lets have suggestions on getting rid of voles.
A friend of mine uses the small rat traps baited with peanut butter and places them under a flower pot (by one of their holes). The pot keeps dogs, cats, etc., from setting the trap off. He has also anchored the trap so it doesn't wander when the vole gets caught (and doesn't die).

My kitties are pretty good at keeping those types of critters down. And I've noticed a few hawks and owls in the area, so...

Now, if I could just get them to take care of the deer... LOL

Diann

You need bigger hawks Diann

Gary

We live in the woods and we have a significant vole problem. Traps are not enough and since my worst problems occur during the winter (under several feet of snow), I'm not sure cats are the answer either. This is what I'm trying:
1) Digging in sharp gravel around and under the hostas
2) Making "collars" of hardware cloth, pinned solidly with landscape pins
3) tinfoil on young tree trunks

Comments? I'm not adverse to poison but I worry about the critters up the food chain.

I think you are on the right track, Kathy. I have friends that do roughly the same to protect their lily bulbs from voles.

5 YORKIES THEY ARE RELENTLESS!!!! THE OLDER 1 TRAINS THE NEW ONES SOMETIMES ALL YOU SEE IS TAILS AND WELL..... MY MOM WHO LIVED 400 FT FROM ME USRD TO GET SO MAD BECAUSE SHE HAD THE NOTORIOUS TUNNELS AND I DIDN'T I JUST TOLD HER TO QUIT FEEDING THE CATS SO MUCH!!! BLESS HER HEART THERE WOULD BE STICKS OF GUM COMING OUT OF THE GROUND,, MOTH BALLS ECT. BUT YORKIES WERE TRAINED TO GET VERMIN AND THEY WILL, ON THE DOWNSIDE THEY ALWAYS HAVE TO SHOW YOU THIER PRIZE. KJ

My kittles also like to present their kill to you so you can give them the proper appreciation for a job well done. And trust me, I do appreciate my kittles. ;)

Okay -- any other ideas about how to get rid of voles...

I dug a new hosta bed in the back yard last year.... scraped grass off and tilled the soil up so it was really nice. I planted a whole bunch of hosta liners and daylily fans in this area. Now as I go back to the area to see why my liner is teeny tiny, I am finding tunnel after tunnel. This is the ONLY place in my yard where there are tunnels.

So - any ideas? I was hoping SLUGGO would kill them (LOL)!!

This might help http://extension.missouri.edu/...

Thanks Susan!!!

Christine I went on a garden tour yesterday which were 5 gardens that were in the National Hosta Society Convention tour two years ago. Be still my heart. Never saw anything like them before, not even on TV. Many of the gardeners double up a three gallon plastic pot (like the round black pots bushes and trees are in at a nursery) and plant the hosta in good soil with compost then sink the pot in the ground. When I asked whey they did it they said the hosta doesn't have to compete with the trees for water and the voles can't get to the roots in the pot. Maybe a tip that would work for you.

WOW!!! That is intense!!!

Sorry I didn't take more pix.

i have done the planting in the old container in a trouble critter bed and it works - i have cut the bottom our to give the hosta roots a place to go with out any problems - i only use one container.