Protect Your Plants from Voles and Chipmunks
These adorable little vegetarian vermin can ruin an ornamental garden in record time. Perennials, annuals, bulbs, vines – you name it, they’ll obliterate it. Trust me on this one. But there’s a product you can use to ensure the safety of your ornamental plants, and there are a couple of pretty good techniques you can use to apply it. So keep it right here to learn how to protect your ornamental plants from voles and chipmunks.
If you’re a subscriber to The Renaissance Garden Guy, or a regular reader, you may be familiar with the epic battles I’ve engaged in with my sworn garden enemies, voles and chipmunks. Last summer, in what seemed like a matter of days, these guys (particularly voles), proceeded to wipe out dozens of my garden’s ornamental perennials. I wrote a three-part article here chronicling these battles, and offering an effective methodology for dealing with an infestation of these creatures. To be clear, a chipmunk infestation generally amounts to the presence of one or two individuals (but generally more with bigger gardens). In the case of voles, it could be dozens. Or hundreds. Part One, Part Two, and Part Three of that article pertained to purging established populations of these creatures (along with moles) from the garden. What I’m going to talk about today concerns a strategy that is more preventative in nature, and involves protecting the individual plants themselves from consumption. It’s not intended for general area repelling. (But, as you’ll read later, general area repelling could also be a potential outcome.) If you use the product I’m recommending here, and if you follow at least one of the techniques I’ll be discussing today, you stand a great chance of keeping your ornamental plants safe from these pernicious little reavers.
Note to readers: This article is about protecting ornamental plants only from voles and chipmunks. I offer no recommendations of products or techniques for use on plants intended for human or animal consumption.
What are Voles and Chipmunks?
Voles
Voles are small, mouse-like rodents (they’re often colloquially referred to as field mice) which feast on vegetation. They’ll devour nearly every part of a plant that they can reach. Roots, stems, leaves, seeds, bulbs, bark – it’s all fair game to a vole. They tunnel not only for shelter and nesting purposes, but to access the edible underground structures of the plants they target for food. They live in sizable colonies and they reproduce in highly prolific fashion. Two voles can become thirty in almost no time. For the purposes of this article, suffice it to say that they are a huge nuisance and an existential threat to the plants in your ornamental garden.
Chipmunks
Chipmunks are also small rodents that can present big problems in a garden. They’re in the squirrel family, and they actually do resemble really cute, really little squirrels. Like voles, they love to eat vegetation. And they tunnel. Profusely. Chipmunk tunneling can be extremely damaging to structures such as foundations and sidewalks. Unlike voles, chipmunks tend to be solitary. I’ve never had more than one chipmunk at a time in my garden. In my experience, the presence of one chipmunk is not nearly as devastating to a garden’s plant population as is a colony – or colonies – of voles. But again, for the purposes of this article, chipmunks are garden villains. Their tunneling habits and dietary predilections can cause big problems in an ornamental garden.
For More Information about Voles and Chipmunks…
I mentioned that voles are an existential garden threat. Well, chipmunks are, too. And since they both naturally inhabit the woods surrounding my garden, and they easily and routinely make the move to within the boundaries of my garden’s fence, I consider both critters to be transcendental threats to my garden, as well: as if by magic, they instantly go from wrecking plants on the other side of my fence out in the woods to wrecking the plants inside my fence right here in my garden. So, these guys manage to pose threats to my garden that are both existential and transcendental. Impressive, huh?
In order to successfully battle voles and chipmunks (or at least protect your plants from them), you’ll want to arm yourself with as much information as possible about each of them. Please click here to read Part One of my three-part article about dealing with them. In it, you’ll learn about each animal’s physical and behavioral characteristics, and about their respective tunnel systems. It’s always good to know your enemy.
Protect Plants from Voles and Chipmunks: The Product
An Ounce of Prevention…
Repellex Systemic Granular is the stuff. It’s the real deal. It’s the goods. Apply this product to your plants, and you’ll keep them protected from voles and chipmunks for a year. It’s as simple as that. The product is a systemic agent. When applied to the soil in which a particular plant is growing, that plant will absorb the product’s active ingredient through its roots. This active ingredient will then permeate all of the plant’s tissues – roots, stems, leaves – and will repel any critter that’s thinking about chowing down on it.
What about that active ingredient? It’s capsaicin (and related capsaicinoids). Capsaicin is the stuff that puts the “hot” in hot peppers. Plants treated with Repellex Systemic Granular are permeated with capsaicin. It stings the nasal membranes and taste buds of any vole or chipmunk (and, according to the manufacturer, a bunch of other creatures, as well) dumb enough to get too close to the treated plant. It’s potent, and it’s effective. It doesn’t kill voles or chipmunks, it just keeps them from eating your now extremely spicy plants. Please note that this product is for use on ornamental plants only. Do not use Repellex Systemic Granular on any plant intended for human or animal consumption. Please follow all manufacturer’s directions, and read all manufacturer’s warnings when using this product.
A number of readers have mentioned to me that they’ve tried all sorts of homemade concoctions as weapons against grazing voles and chipmunks, only to be met with limited success. My position on this is as follows:
- I’m lazy. I don’t want to have to mix up a bunch of crap made up of nasty household offscourings like coffee grounds or hemorrhoid cream, or whatever. I’ve got better things to do with my time, like performing life-saving brain surgeries and calculating drag coefficients for space exploration craft. And watching major league baseball games from the couch. Repellex Systemic Granular is already mixed, locked, and loaded. All I’ve gotta do is apply it.
- It works. No doubt about it. Not one single plant in my garden that’s been treated with this product has been assaulted by voles or chipmunks. It protects my plants for a year.
Repellex Systemic Granular is an amazing, non-lethal systemic product which treats ornamental plants from the inside out. Remember, a treated plant absorbs that potent capsaicin through its roots and it permeates the whole plant. It’s as if the plant has been turned into one big habanero pepper. And I can tell you that the voles and chipmunks I’ve met don’t much like anything that sits beyond a “10” on the Scoville scale. It’s sweet banana peppers for them. Not habaneros. The product is effective as hell. I wouldn’t recommend it if it didn’t work. Want to protect your plants from voles and chipmunks? Buying yourself a jar of this stuff is a great first step. Click the #advertisement link and order it here, directly from Amazon.
Protect Plants from Voles and Chipmunks: Applying Repellex Systemic Granular
Applying Repellex Systemic Granular when Bedding a New Plant
The technique I use for applying Repellex Systemic Granular to a plant that I’m about to stick in the dirt of my garden involves a really basic and simple five-step process.
Here you go:
- Step One. Sprinkle Repellex Systemic Granular into the hole you’ve dug for your new resident. Apply enough to uniformly, cover the bottom of the hole. See “Image 1” below.
- Step Two. Sprinkle a thin layer of soil over the coating of Repellex Systemic Granular that you applied in Step One. The new plant’s root ball will sit on this thin soil layer and help to eliminate the shock of transplanting. The new plant’s roots will quickly penetrate downward through this thin soil layer and will begin absorbing the Repellex Systemic Granular beneath. See “Image 2” below.
- Step Three. Set the plant in the hole with the root ball resting on the thin soil layer you applied in Step Two. Fill the hole around the root ball with more soil until only the top 1/3 to 1/4 of the root ball remains exposed, and then add another uniform sprinkling of Repellex Systemic Granular around the root ball. See “Image 3a,” “Image 3b,” and “Image 3c” below.
- Step Four. We’re almost there. (Which is good, because the ball game’s about to start.) Simple stuff here. Finish filling the hole (covering up your ring of sprinkled Repellex Systemic Granular) with soil, and mulch (if applicable). See “Image 4” below.
- Step Five. Water it all in. The product is more quickly assimilated by the plant when it’s watered. The capsaicin gets taken up by the plant’s roots right along with the moisture. No need for a pic on this one.
Applying Repellex Systemic Granular to Existing Plants
This technique is even easier than the first. I’ll start out with four photos, and follow with a short explanation of each. Easy peasy, cheddar cheesie.
- Photo 1. If there’s mulch around your plant, move it away from the crown. For plants like this toad lily, I clear away about one square foot of mulch.
- Photo 2. By hand, lightly rake the soil around the plant.
- Photo 3. Apply the Repellex Systemic Granular to the raked soil in uniform fashion.
- Photo 4. Once the Repellex Systemic Granular has been applied, you can replace the mulch by lightly sprinkling it from your fingers back over the treated soil.
- Water. Again, watering speeds the uptake of the capsaicin by the plant’s roots.
An Additional Measure
I successfully drove voles and chipmunks from my garden last year, but I remain vigilant and engage in protective measures continually. The application of Repellex Systemic Granular turns each of my plants into what amounts to a giant, red hot pepper, thereby completely protecting each one from vole and chipmunk assaults. But what about keeping voles and chipmunks out of my garden to begin with, and keeping them far enough away from my spicy plants that they’ll never even get their little noses and tongues singed?
There are some incredibly effective non-systemic repellent products on the market which are formulated to make the soil around the plants in an ornamental garden unbearable for burrowing critters. Repellex Systemic Granular makes the plants themselves inedible, but these other products act on the soil. The one ingredient that virtually all of these non-systemic repellents have in common is castor oil. Small mammals which tunnel in soil cannot tolerate the presence of castor oil. It really ruins the smell and the taste of the soil for them.
Note to readers: Be sure to follow all manufacturer’s instructions, and read all manufacturer’s warnings regarding the use of these non-systemic repellents. Many, if not all, must never be used on plants intended for human or animal consumption. Again, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and read the manufacturer’s warnings.
If you click here, you can read about ten excellent products I’ve used for repelling voles, chipmunks, and other burrowing animals (moles, specifically). Repellex Systemic Granular is on this list, but again, it works only on the plants themselves, not the soil. It’s the only product on this list that is a systemic, and works in this fashion. All of the others impact the smell and taste of the soil.
So, about that additional measure? What about using Repellex Systemic Granular and a general, non-systemic burrowing animal repellent together? Here’s how i do it:
- Bedding new plants. Simple. I make the hole a bit deeper than I would were I solely using Repellex Systemic Granular. I sprinkle my non-systemic repellent selection du jour into the hole, uniformly covering the bottom. Then I add a thin layer of soil on top of that repellent. At that point, I apply Repellex Systemic Granular as outlined in the section above. When everything is covered back up with soil, I add another sprinkling of the non-systemic repellent. If there’s mulch involved, I also add another uniform sprinkling of non-systemic repellent to the surface of the mulch. Of course, everything gets watered in.
- Existing plants. I follow the steps I’ve outlined in the previous section for applying Repellex Systemic Granular, but I also add the non-systemic repellent, as well. I also add it to the surface of any mulch I use.
Two Points to Consider
- I often treat both new plants which I’m bedding, and existing plants, with Repellex Systemic Granular ONLY. This product is so effective, it needs no additional measures to protect plants from vole and chipmunk consumption. Voles and chipmunks do not bother plants treated with only Repellex Systemic Granular. Period.
- Repellex Systemic Granular can be used effectively in conjunction with non-systemic repellents. Repellex Systemic Granular works on the plants themselves from their insides out, making them absolutely inedible to voles and chipmunks. Non-systemic repellents make the medium in which the plants live – the soil – unbearable to voles and chipmunks. The two types of products work on two very different principles, and therefore do not mitigate one another’s effectiveness. You can use both types of product together.
Through the miracle of modern technology, you can watch my step-by-step video on The Renaissance Garden Guy YouTube Channel demonstrating the act of protecting an ornamental perennial from voles and chipmunks using both the systemic repellent and non-systemic repellents together. The image link below will take you directly to the video. Click on it to check it out.
The Global Question
Here it is: We know that Repellex Systemic Granular protects your plants from voles and chipmunks by making them inedible, but can it also function as a general repellent and keep voles and chipmunks out of your garden entirely? This global question is also a loaded question. If you treat every single plant growing in your ornamental garden with Repellex Systemic Granular, and every single one of those plants becomes totally inedible to voles and chipmunks, then, ostensibly, there is no reason for these creatures to stay. Their food source is gone and they’ll move on. But this is often only partially true. In the case of these burrowing creatures, the tunnels and dens that each has respectively excavated in your garden may still provide shelter and havens for birthing and weaning young. There may remain some residual presence.
But make no mistake. Make no mistake whatsoever. Proper use of Repellex Systemic Granular will protect your plants from voles and chipmunks. Plain and simple.
I’ve said it time and again: You’ve gotta take care of your hands. And when you’re dealing with animal repellents, you’re going to want to glove up. Seriously. These Gloveworks HD Orange Nitrile Disposable Gloves are my own paws’ salvation. They’re comfortable, versatile, and remarkably durable. I rarely ever rip them. And I’ve put them through some pretty brutal paces. I give these gloves five stars out of five. I’ve used other disposable latex and nitrile gloves in the past, and none of them even came close to these Gloveworks HD Orange Nitriles in terms of durability and wearability. And, they’re touchscreen-friendly. Try ’em. You’ll love ’em! Click the #advertisement link to order them here, from Amazon.
And We're Done
Repellex Systemic Granular will, beyond the shadow of the remotest of doubts, protect your ornamental plants from voles and chipmunks. Its application infuses plants with capsaicin, effectively turning them into giant, scorching, inedible hot peppers. It can be used by itself, or in conjunction with general, non-systemic repellents. And best of all, it’s already mixed and ready to use, and it’s super fast and easy to apply. You can use this stuff with zero fuss, and you can apply it quickly. This is of particular importance to me. I need to be ready for the first pitch of that Cubs/Brewers doubleheader.
Or when it’s time to scrub for that emergency frontal lobotomy.
Cheers, and Happy Gardening!
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So happy you mentioned the gloves. Just finished using the last of a very sad ; yet well known brand. Thank you for all your gifting. Patti
Thank you, Patti. I’m glad the information was useful. It’s always good to protect your hands.
I am ordering right now. Sounds like what I need.
Thank you for the help.
It is remarkably effective and easy to use. My life has gotten much less complicated since I started using it last year. Great stuff. Thank you for reading the article!
Great product, so much easier than all those homemade solutions that grandpa used to use.
Definitely. Can’t deny the fact that it’s convenient as hell. Effective as hell, too. Thanks, Kevin!
I have no problem with Chipmunks LOL
Amazing article, information, lots to learn !!!!
Thank you for all this amazing info …, so well
written and extremely well explained 🌸😊
Thank you so much, Roxxy. I appreciate that. I’m glad you liked the article. If you ever DO develop a chipmunk problem, you know what to do about it now! Thanks again, Roxxy!
The problem in my garden is rabbits. They eat non-stop. I don’t mind them nibbling on dandelion leaves in the spring, but I’ll draw the line at my new rose bush. Would you believe rabbits eat young rose bushes, thorns and all.
I know rabbits are incredibly voracious. It’s got to be a major disappointment to find that your beautiful new bush had been victimized. I’m fortunate to live in an area where rabbits are not a problem. For us, it’s deer (which we bar from our fenced garden), moles, voles, and chipmunks. After just now reading about your rose bush experience, I’m particularly thankful that we’re not under rabbit attack! I hope you can bring your rose bushes back without further incident. Thanks so much for giving this one a read, Alegria – I truly appreciate it. And, again, I’m hoping that your new rose bush will pull through.
Chipmunks are the worst in my garden. I have tried several products. I will try this one . Thank you for the information.
Thank you for reading the article, Sharon. This product will keep the plants from being eaten, but it may not repel them in a general way from your garden. Give it a try. Your plants will be protected. Thanks again!