Could it be a coyote? Best get it a steak anyway! It must be hungry if it is digging for voles! Lol :)
Ginny

"...and still put out bait stations..."

You don't want to poison what's eating the voles and a vole that ate poison will poison what eats it. I'd pick up the bait stations while natural predation is happening.

tj

If I had to guess, could you beu be a 'pepe le pew', they would only come at night and I have had then dig up the yard looking for voles and dew worms.....great at their job when I don't have to meet them!
Flora

Thank you so much for the suggestions. There has been no poison put in the stations since the digging started. I don't know what critter it is, but it is welcome.

My yard is a magnet for cats, but they don't seem to be digging. It would seem to me that a coyote might eat a cat, but I don't know about that. This is concentrated digging. I originally worried that it might be an armadillo because of extent of the digging, but the digging is confined to the vole tunnels, and not a single plant has been disturbed.

Pepe likes cheese. Maybe I should put some out in case it is him. (We were overrun with a large group of skunks at one of the picnic areas in Great Smoky Mountains National Park one night. we would toss bits of cheese to get them away from out table...they would actually walk over your feet).

Thank you so much for the suggestions, and sharing in my pleasure at this turn of events. I have lost four roses bushes and three daylilies to the voles, which is the original reason for the bait stations.

kay

This is interesting! I'll be curious to hear what it is!

Think it could be a raccoon?

Sorry - I have to ask. What's a beu, please?

Perhaps a beu is a typo?

Humm, coincidentally, I've been seeing some digging in my yard too, around the mole holes. I have a problem sometimes with opossums coming up on the porch where I feed my cats & eating late at night. I've been taking in the cat food at night to discourage this. I forgot til after dark one day, & ran out. The opossum was there, I could just see him around the corner. I yelled at him & walked toward him. About that time he raised his head at me, at the same time I realized this possum had a furry tail, & the bottom half of his fur was black. I think we both had the "Wha'the" look on our faces for a second before I decided the skunk was welcome to the rest of the food. I've been sure to collect the cat food earlier since then, but maybe I should leave it if he is getting the moles & voles :)

Yep, it was a typo. I am still seeing signs of digging, so my "benefactor" is still around. I hope he kills all of them...I won't put any poison in the stations since I don't wwant to kill the digger. Still don't know what it is,
kay

Thanks - I thought it was some unfamiliar US vocabulary!

Coyotes will eat cats and small dogs :-(
Don't think that armadillos, skunks or possums do. A racoon might fight with either. My daughter was cornered in her car one night several weeks ago by a 'dillo. It kept snuffling around the car and wouldn't leave for about 15 minutes. She told me about it the next day. Keep us posted when you find out what it is.

my b/f sitting here suggests that you don't want to treat the digging creature too much, lest it no longer require voles to satisfy its appetite.
Perhaps a few steak bits instead of a whole steak?
Skunks will eat hamburger meat, or anything, really, being omnivores. Your leftovers will make them happy as clams. But you don't want them hanging around and taking up residence under your house. Sometimes, whilst under your house, they get scared. It's funny in retrospect... less so at the time: when ALL of your fabric in the entire house needs washing, all the walls, the ceilings, YOU, etc. It's impossible to sleep in the house for a few nights. So, you get yourself into the car to go somewhere else. Guess what? now the car smells like skunk.

Whatever it is, I hope you find out for sure and send them my way. I've had a terrible time with voles this year for the first time in 8 years gardening at this house. They have wiped out many of my favorite native perennials! They are still causing damage here and there despite the fact that the cat has caught dozens of them, and I've stomped a few myself.

The reason could be because we had very deep snowfall last winter and the rodents were snug and happy under there making tunnels and eating perennials roots, and probably even breeding! They all seemed extremely populous this year.