My Gardening Journey – The Case of the Vole and His Secret Hole!

Wow, has my gardening journey taken a turn! I was ready to have my best Utah gardening year this season and I still am, comparatively, and am very grateful for it, but this pesky vole has taken up much of my time and a bit of my peace. 

Gardening has been my focus, passion, and time away from the stresses of life since quarantine began. Gardening does have its share of challenges and learning experiences, but this is one I wasn’t quite expecting.

My Vole Story

I started quite a few tomato plants indoors from seed and transplanted them into our garden. I put 9 of them in a new garden area by the back fence that we started this year. Everything was growing beautifully, the tomato plants especially were growing faster and bigger than the ones in my center garden. I was so excited until…….

One by one my tomato plants started to disappear. We had a big wind and hail storm the weekend it began and I thought maybe the hail destroyed the first plant. It was weird though. I went out and noticed the plant looked really sad and when I touched it, it just fell apart.

I was so upset. And then one by one, the entire plant started to disappear. It goes in phases. I think the vole is gone and it strikes again. I really thought things were good when we left for a camping trip and when we returned, I lost three more plants. 

In total so far, it has eaten seven of the tomato plants I started from seed, five tomato plants I have bought from the store, one pumpkin plant, one squash plant, and two of my marigold plants to go along with it.

To Trap or To Eliminate (the non- toxic, eco-friendly way, of course)

Well, neither in my case apparently! This vole is way too smart!! When it all began, I wanted to approach it as humanely as possible. You know, trap the rodent and set it free up in the mountains. Easy peasy, right? Wrong! 

I bought a Havahart trap and baited it with all of the suggested foods recommended online, nothing.

I bought some deterrent that can be sprayed around the perimeter of the garden, nothing.

I bought some mole sonic spikes. I read that they can help with voles too, nothing.

I even bought some Vole X Bait. I put it in the vole holes, wrapped some in plastic wrap as suggested on the package, used some without the wrap, nothing. 

The sneaky vole pushes it all right back up when it closes the holes. 

I also made some peanut butter bait balls rolled in oats and sunflower seeds and all I seem to be doing is feeding the ants.

I’ve Been Outsmarted By a Vole

I feel like I have tried it all. At least all that is safe for a vegetable garden. The vole has outsmarted me and I don’t know what else I can do.

Many of the YouTube videos and websites say to set traps all along their tunnel paths, but that isn’t so easy in my case. All of the tunnels go under my garden plants. I see no clear path to follow. 

One thing I haven’t tried yet, however, is the typical mouse traps. If the vole doesn’t want the bait in my trap, would it go for bait in the mousetrap? 

I don’t feel like the vole scurries above ground. Most plants have been taken right from the root. 

Ugh! 

Vole Advice Please

If anyone has any advice or suggestions on how to remove this vole from my garden, I would really appreciate it. Please leave them in the comments below.

To see more of My Gardening Journey and how-to articles, click HERE.