Any suggestions for best vole bait?
i use tomcat peanut butter flavored bait chunks from TSC. it works well.
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I completely feel your pain. Between deer and voles no part of the fruit tree is safe from chewing during the winter months without protection/planning. For those in the south that don’t have to deal with snow pack, this is what voles do during winter in the north. They make tunnels and feed on vegetation, free from arial predators like hawks and owls (which feed readily on my population during the summer months. I have several breeding pairs that nest near by due to my high vole population).
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I haven’t seen any actual damage to my fruit trees or blueberries but this was a very bad winter for vole activity.
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that’s what I see in the spring… 
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my heelers try but they cant dig deep enough in my heavy rocky clay soil.
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you were lucky.
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Anyone have luck with gassing or smoking voles in the tunnels?
I was out at dusk and one of my apple trees I planted last year looked like it could use some water. I saw some holes near the base in the ground. When I shot some water on it, 5 or 6 hamster looking rodents shot out with short tails. Looked them up and seems to be voles. I plan to get a couple of bait station made of pipes. But wondered how gas would work in the tunnels? I also am concerned of using gas poison under the tree. If it affects the tree via the roots.
Zn Phosphide pellets.
My understanding is that when eaten, Zn Phosphide interacts with stomach acid to produce phosgene gas, which is quickly fatal. I have found dead voles within 6" of the bait station. But then the Zn Phosphide is neutralized and the gas dissipates quickly, so the risk to scavengers is very low.
Of course, you don’t want birds or children eating Zn Phosphide pellets, so you should dispense them through a bait station with an opening small enough that only a tiny rodent can enter.
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We used to plant trees in chicken wire “baskets”. Some of them ended up with roots clumped into a ball instead of going trough the mesh eventhough the holes were large enough, but some of it was better quality than we had hoped… Now, I add rocks, gravel or sand into the hole when planting a young tree. The trees don’t mind, but rodents will look elsewhere. I try to graft on volunteers, that have survived the elements and animals already. And we leave volunteer trees (like cherries) to grow and distract the animals from our food trees until shading becomes an issue. Then they become firewood.
In terms of control, our huge cat (we named him Boris The Animal for a reason) has taken an issue with moles, voles and even young rabbits… I am getting a bunch of Norwegian forest cats when he’s too old to do the job… (We could use more cats now, but Boris The Animal doesn’t keep friends…)
We don’t use any poison - too harmful to working cats (all village cats are basic utility equipment here 
) and raptors (protected by the law). Besides it would be like trying to stop a leak in a barrel with your finger at best… …while poisoning yourself (physically or metaphorically) at worst.
I started the garlic trial last year and I’m ordering bucket loads of naturalising daffodils in autumn. (if anything the rodents are a good excuse for my flower-unfriendly partner 
)
I believe that this is a mole, not a vole. Moles eat grubs. They’ll dig up your grub-infested lawn but won’t bother your trees.
The dead giveaway is the big front mitts.
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I learned… (M)ole = Meat, (V)ole = Vegetable.
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I’ve also learned by observation, that cats will eat voles(Voraciously), but not moles(Meh). They hunt them for sport, though.
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This works
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I’m sure the next vole (or mole) family to move in will appreciate the plumped up soil…
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Yes, much easier digging.