what plants do your voles not eat?

hi,
i've been noticing, as the voles are going through my gardens and munching down on my plants, that there seems to be certain ones that they don't touch at all and those they eat to the quick. what have you found in your garden beds? of course it could be that i haven't seen the damage yet and so i would like to compare notes.

don' eat:
astilbe, yarrow, daffodil, snowdrops, allium bulbs, rudbeckia 'goldstrum' (black eyed susans), rose bushes, hydrangea bushes, ox-eye daisies, hardy cactus, clematis and hollyhocks.

love to eat:
sedum's 'autumn joy' and others like this, hosta's, lilium, tulip, crocus, grape hyacinth bulbs, daylilies, siberian iris, russian sage, parsley (a whole patch last year!), and...........can't think of the others right now.

i'm off to the garden to enjoy this spring day and cry over the loss of another plant or two or three. :-(
later,
debi z and franklin the doggie that needs lessons in scaring voles and moles out of the yard. :-p

so sorry you're having trouble with the darn varmints too! I've been losing species tulips, one by one, along the front walk. They took out a few dwarf dianthus too, but I think that was more incidental damage as they were digging their way to the next tulip!

mine started working on some ox-eye daisies yesterday. i've got the vole control in and i'm waiting for some instruction from the company on a problem i'm having with where to put the bait traps.
i have to get out there and get some of those daisies into containers.
later..........
debi & franklin

I don't have small children or pets loose in the yard and wouldn't recommend this if you do. I scatter moth balls in the flower beds to deter the voles. Poke one down any holes you find too. These is also a castor oil based spray that you attach to your hose and soak down the flower beds. It's supposed to keep them away too. Peanut butter on mouse traps works well for killing them too.
Pam

i heard the castor oil works for moles, not voles. have you found it works for voles too? i'm sure those moth balls would get me out of a hole, LOL those things are some strong, but don't they just go off to another part of your yard and then the same thing keeps on going round and round. i'm going for complete anialation from my garden beds. i want the things gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think there are two or more, but definately 2 nests on my property and that only means more to come. i hope these new traps and bait i have works.
debi z

I have not lost any more tulips this week!! I put about 4 pellets of poison (Tomcat brand, zinc phosphide) down a new "active" hole and have seen no new holes since! I wasn't worried about primary poisoning of any neighborhood pets (pretty unlikely that they'd eat bait out of a tunnel), but I was concerned about secondary poisoning like you can have with Decon, where a neighborhood cat bites a poisoned, easy-to-catch-because-it's-dying vole and ingests a lethal secondhand dose. But nothing else was working to drive off that tulip-munching vole in my front bed, so I took a chance with the poison. I'm glad it worked, but I intend to use it very, very sparingly.

I don't think you can ever get rid of them. More will just move into the unclaimed territory. As long as there is vegetation to feed them, they will keep moving in.
Yes, the castor oil spray did help keep them out of the beds. It does say on the label for voles too.
I've had a mouse trap set in my little greenhouse for two weeks now and I'm still catching two voles a day. I don't have a concrete floor and they keep tunneling in under the frame.
We're going to put down a 3 inch layer of gravel. I've read they won't dig through gravel. It's a good idea to surround any tulips bulbs you plant with the gravel too. Two years ago, I lost over 100 tulips to those darn critters.
We found nests under bigger rocks, any mulch piles, wood piles, even a flat piece of lumber. We had put down that plastic weed guard before we put down mulch on a path, and even found tunnels under that.
Pam

Keep an eye on the ground as you make your rounds. I put a teaspoon of vole poison down each hole I find. Am getting less and less new holes. They have cleared out 100's of tulips over the years. If you are careful putting the bait down the holes - I use a long handled spoon, and plug the hole with a little rock or (better yet) a plug of grassy soil you don't have to worry about animals finding the bait. I am careful because I don't want my birds to find it.

I used a quarter teaspoon, and that did the trick, so maybe less is more.... the less extra poison in my yard, the happier I am!

Does anyone know whether the risk of secondary poisoning is less with these zinc phosphide baits, as opposed to DeCon?

As I said, I'm not worried about other animals eating the bait, I'm worried about other animals eating a poisoned vole.

Pam, the gravel sound like a great suggestion for any future tulips I plant! I've heard of planting hostas inside a little wire mesh cage to protect them from burrowing varmints......

I lost my weigela wine and roses because of a vole who ate most of the roots last year .... I was hoping to save it but it hasn't come back ... I was able to save some plants that were eaten but last year's tulips are gone ... don't know if it's the hard winter or voles ... I did see a lot of trails this spring when the snow melted ... also any time you plant something new they are attacted to the loose dirt and easy digging ... it's like a magnet! I think gravel is a good idea ... next time I plant bulbs or hostas or sedum I'm going to sprinkle a good bit of chicken grit around them ... I'll let you know how it works out ...

i had to pull a phlox yesterday and pot it before all the roots were gone. :-(
i spent the good part of the day potting my order from bluestone perennials and dahlia's yesterday because i don't want them eaten by the voles until i can get them under control. i also found an astilbe, which they arn't suppose to like cuz i think there poisonous, well i hope they are and i hope the buggers are dead somewhere. ;-} evil grin
debi z and franklin

I have had all the above-mentioned plants eaten -- even the ones supposedly not tasty to them -- and I cannot keep a dusty miller in my front bed -- 7 out of 8 gone! They also ate my clematis when I moved it (and it was going to bloom this year) ... I think they killed my bottlebrush buckeye -- I filled dirt in around what roots were left last year but only got one little leaf near the bottom ... not sure what to do with it ...

I've started sprinkling chicken grit around the base of new plantings ... so far so good ...

Well, chicken grit doesn't work ... or maybe I have a chipmunk problem too.

How do you tell the difference between chipmunk damage and vole damage? Do chipmunks dig holes next to the plant? Or is that the vole?

I thought the problems I have were due to gophers, but now I think it might be voles? I will investigate. I have lost many plants this year so far.... it is so discouraging, as you all know.

ok everyone....let's all have a good scream together. ready.....on the count of three.....1......2.....3.....aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
feel better? i do.
debi z and franklin

Voles are alive and well in NJ too! I've been battling them for years. First year was gum and mothballs. The voles multiplied and I found gum and moth balls all over my yard! The next year it was mouse traps with peanut butter. You can never catch them all and that just attracted the cats who would wait for a kill and take the voles and traps to the next yard! The buzzer thing had no affect on them, but drove ME crazy. And the commercial stuff was expensive, but not effective. This year it's castor beans and used kitty litter (they are rodents!). The jury is still out on the castor beans, but I will say the holes I put the kitty litter in have not been reopened. That is a first in several years. I'm sure the stuff isn't exactly good for the garden, but if I don't do something soon, there will be no garden. I'll keep you posted.

Carol

thanks carol. so far they haven't returned, but....i have nightmares tht they'll be back to finish off the groumet lily bulbs. arghhhhhh!!
i sure have missed so many of my lilies this year. very sad :-(
debi & franklin - who is definitely not a rodent hunting dog, like a terrier.

I HATE these hungry critters! I don't use any poison in the garden, so I've tried grit, peagravel, PermaTill, cages around roots, vibrating gizmos and peanut butter on mouse traps set in inverted flower pots. NOTHING has worked effectively. We live on a large wooded property in a semi-rural area, so they just keep coming out of the woods to dine in my garden. BTW, the flower pots were literally tossed aside by peanut butter- loving raccoons, despite the large rocks or bricks that my husband put on top of the pots.

So far a cage around the root ball and bent over the top just under the dirt has worked for me -- also recommended by a landscape artist up here ... pain in the butt but worth it for plants you love ... my astilbe is still alive and thriving in the bed that gets the most damage ...

I have just heard of a new vole deterrent which I will try ASAP -- chocolate X-Lax (ex-lax?)! Grind it up fine in a food processor or chop really fine and pour it down the vole hole ... I was told they won't return! Can't wait to try it ...

good one, i like that idea. let me know how it works. of course your beds could smell nasty for a bit. LOL

They've practically demolished my tulips....and tore through my campanulas and clematis.
I found that a mix of cayenne powder and wasabi powder sprinkled on the ground about every two weeks works. It goes a long way, I use one bottle of each about every 45 days..that is all i've discovered. I assume the powerful smell as well as the heat on their little feet causes them to stay away...Nothing else works. The moth balls I've used never stopped them. The sonic devices and urine repellants are not effective I've been told by others who have struggled with these voracious eaters...

mikepots,
what is wasabi powder? where do you buy it?
thanks,
debi & franklin. where do you sprinkle it? would franklin's feet get it too?

wasabi powder is a japanese horseradish powder that when mixed with water forms a paste and is used to complement sushi. It can be purchased at a grocery store from the spice aisle. It's very very potent and extremely hot. Just take a whiff of it...
I would assume that the feet of larger animals aren't tender. They have pads that protect their feet. It's not toxic at all, just very spicy hot. I sprinkle it all over the surface of the soil about every two weeks. Again, I suspect the spicy mix of wasabi and cayenne keep the noses of voles out of the ground...