Thank you for this info! It answers part of what I'm asking about in my question about my baby apple tree. I know I have moles, and assume there are voles as well.

I handle the mole problem with chewing gum. They eat it, thinking it's a worm (I guess), and it doesn't digest. They die unseen. Wonder if it is working on the voles too?

Voles are a major problem over here, but I have no problems on my property. I think the stoats feed on them and I have plenty of those around.

Sparky, moles will not eat chewing gum. Why would an intelligent animal with an extraordinary sense of smell even be attracted to such a foreign substance? Mole control is subject to lots of old husband's tales.....wishful thinking because they are a challenge to get rid of.

Sounds like a good protection plan, ilmt. Good luck!

Mass trap them. Those easy set plastic kill traps with a dab of peanut butter gets them every time. Around here the population varies...some years are horrible, some i hardly see any.

Rhizo, what you say makes total sense to me. More so, really, than thinking a mole is that stupid. But I tell you ~ somehow it works. I have very few moles anymore. They stop burrowing after I put out the gum.

Voles don't only live in rural areas. In central CA they were also in the newly planted suburban areas. Or were the people in the voles back yard. Hum.

As the tree grows, hardware cloth, buried underground around the base of a tree, would be likely to lead to failure of the tree as the near-surface roots (the majority of the root system) would be girdled by the wire. Hardware cloth is probably a good idea for protecting herbaceous perennials from voles, but is NOT a good idea for trees.

That's why I said "young trees".

Bigger trees don't need any protection from voles.

I guess I don't understand what you are doing with the hardware cloth then. I pictured you putting it around the tree and burying it at least a couple of inches into the soil. BUT, if you did that, it wouldn't be long until you couldn't remove it without damaging all the roots that had grown through it. I guess you could make a giant ring around part of your yard (nowhere near the tree), with hardware cloth, but that would probably be pretty expensive.

Castor oil solution works great for voles. Several winters ago, the voles were on a rampage in my front gardens (where the cat doesn't really hunt). I lost a ton of perennials and bulbs and even watched 1/2 of my large butterfly bush blow across the front yard after the voles had eaten away 1/2 the root system. This continued into the Spring as I watched my native hyacinth started from seed (!) wither one by one.

So I was desperate and mixed up this solution I read about on the Hosta forum, 1 TBS castor oil and 1 cup human urine per gallon of water. (Don't ask me exactly what the urine is for although it does make a good fertilizer...) It was a miracle - the last 2 Camassia scilloides were instantly spared, no more vole damage to any of the plants treated, and the plants were completely unaffected.

I sprinkle this solution around the roots of susceptible plants every fall since. It is very sticky, lasts for months, and apparently is quite unpalatable to the voles.