Moles? Voles? What is killing my plants

I am experiencing sudden wilting and dieback of parts of some of my perennials. Eventually the whole plant dies in some cases. There are many 1 1/2 to 2 inch holes throughout my gardens. Some of my perennial beds are mulched 2 to 4 inches deep with a fine hardwood mulch and tunneling under the mulch is evident. My 2 newest beds are not mulched. Plants in all beds have been affected. I have read that mulching encourages moles and voles to set up houskeeping. Moles, I have read, eat grubs. I know I have planty of grubs by how many Japanese Beetles are around. Voles, I have read, eat grasses, seeds, tubers and gnaw through tree bark. Do voles also eat plant roots...or kill a plant just by burrowing/tunneling under them? Do moles do any of the that kind of damage? And what control will eliminate them? I am loosing a lot of plants to something, and need to get rid of whatever it is.

Moles are carnivores, The only damage they do to plants is from their burrowing which can disturb the roots. Voles on the other hand are eat just about any vegetation below ground. Moles can be controlled with "Mole NOT", Castor oil treatments and mole traps. If you find any thing that will control voles let me know, I haven't and I have gone all the way to the sulphur and phosphorous "bombs" placed in thier burrows. They have even killed apple trees for me.

When we lived in SE Pennsylvania, we often saw black racer snakes going hunting in the "vole holes" on our property. The snakes cleared out most of our rodents. So maybe what you need to do is encourage snakes to live in your garden!

I have a raised heuchera bed and the voles killed or half killed several by exposing their roots with their tunneling. Poor things were just dangling with their roots in air! I let my cat out first thing in the morning now and she has made a pretty good dent in the vole population. Aside from predators I don't know what controls them and there are a lot of people in my area that would sure like to find out.

I have a friend who just found a product that kills off the voles. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name. They were some kind of artificial worm that you just dropped in the hole. I believe he said there were about 8 of these worms in a package and I recall thinking it was really expensive. However, after just one treatment he was sold on the stuff and has been telling everyone about it. I'll ask him again on Monday what it was. Certainly may be worth the cost if it works as well as he said it does.

Thanks all for your replies. beaker, probably the product your friend used is nematodes. They are microscopic and kill the grubs that moles feed on. I don't think they would be helpful for voles, but I will look into it, and be looking for your info from your friend.

http://www.pestcontrol-products.com/rodent/voles.htm
http://www.bugspray.com/article/voles.html
http://landscaping.about.com/cs/pests/a/vole_control_3.htm
http://www.cooperseeds.com/voles.php3?

All of these imply that control of voles is easy. I have pine voles and I can tell you they are persistant liitle boogers. I have tried most of thses products and they still give me a fit.

I have read that Castor Bean plants will drive the moles away. I have a terrible mole problem in the front of my house but none in the back. I have Castor bean plants in the back. My plants are seeding now, if anyone wants some of these seeds let me know. I have to warn you though, both seeds and plants are although pretty and unique they are also very poisonous.

I have voles. they kill the plants either by eating the roots or chewing the bark all the way around at ground level or below. I use Mole-tox (it's a poison for rodents - you put it in the holes or along the trails, but you have to cover it so the birds don't get it. I use pieces of old roofing shingle.) then I use some kind of repellent with castor oil to try to keep the live ones away from the plants. it's worse in the winter when there's not as much to eat.

the biggest problem is, like all small rodents, they reproduce QUICKLY. one pair can produce 100 by the end of a season so there are always more to take the place of the ones you get. if you just use repellent and they go to your neighbors, they'll come right back. it's a never-ending battle.

gram

I just order one of the castor oil repellents. It's granulated and our local gardening guru swears by it. I hope to gradually move them toward the woods strip at the back of my property. Then I guess I'll have to be very diligent with the repellent to keep them out of the yard. It's a never ending battle, isn't it? I'm afraid of poison due to my pets and wildlife here.

I have voles, moles and groundhogs but the one that is the most damaging is the voles. I have tried everything. I went out and bought window screen and lined a hole and drop my plant in with soil. I brought the screen up to a few inches above ground. It seems to have worked but now I'm looking for hardware cloth in bulk. Does anyone have a source?
Thanks
Rose

I have one cat that is a "vole killer". She does a pretty good job of it, too. On the other hand, we live in heavy clay soil, so maybe a burrowing anything is good!