How Do You Get Rid Of Voles In Your Lawn

Reduce Food And Cover

Voles are attracted to areas with ample vegetation for food and cover. Rather than encouraging voles to live in your yard, take steps to remove these elements to help drive them out naturally.

• Mow your lawn and pull weeds regularly.
• Remove ground cover like brush, low-lying bushes & shrubs.
• Till soil and mulch to keep them clear of tunnels.
• Clean up any fallen birdseed, berries, nuts, etc.

S Guide On How To Get Rid Of Voles In Your Yard

Voles are small mammals that feed primarily on vegetation. They can be found in a variety of habitats, but are most common in marshy areas and thickets.

So voles are tunneling around in your yard and garden, blazing surface trails like mouse pioneers, and killing your plants and grass by nibbling on their root systems. What can be done about it?

The first step is to identify that the species youre dealing with really are voles. They’re often mistaken for mice or rats, but voles have longer bodies with shorter tails. Voles also have fur-lined cheek pouches that they use to carry food back to their nests.

Voles are smaller than most other mice, usually only growing to a few inches long Also, voles have shorter, furry tails, beady eyes, tiny ears, and relatively wide faces.

But you can identify voles by the presence of above and below ground tunnels if you cant get a good look at one.

If you want to rid your yard of voles, the following 5 steps should help you get started:

Do Voles Carry Diseases?

Which Company Should I Call

There are a few factors that you should consider when choosing a pest management company to look after your home.

Do they specialize in voles?

Most companies will offer to service pretty much anything, however voles take a special skill set and are best handled by someone with specific experience taking care of them.

What are the environmental impacts?

Different products have different environmental impacts. If you live in an area with lots of birds, wildlife or natural areas nearby, it is important to consider the environmental impact of the treatment you choose. Not all treatments have the same impact on the surrounding areas! To read our environmental policy, click here.

Do they offer any warranty or guarantee?

As we always say, the most expensive pest control service is the one that doesnt work. You should ensure that the company you choose offers a comprehensive warranty or guarantee and stands behind their work . To read more about our industry-leading service guarantee, click here.

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What Is A Home Remedy To Get Rid Of Voles

Castor oil scent is offensive to voles as it is what they hate the most. It is natural, safe for use, and does not affect humans.

However, it is another story for voles as they cannot stand the smell, so they evacuate wherever it is laced with its scent.

Mix a portion of castor oil with liquid soap, and dilute with a gallon of water. Spray or splash around the perimeter of your home, in burrowed holes, and your lawn and garden as vole pest control. Other home remedies to eliminate voles and serve as pest control are:

• Garlic:

Garlic has a pungent smell, just like that help drive voles away. For better results, create a spray solution by mincing garlic cloves and mixing with water. You can also crush the garlic and drop it around the vegetative areas on your property.

• Capsaicin:

This is an oil found in hot peppers and is excellent as vole pest control. Its scent and taste are unpleasant to voles. Mix with water, and apply in a spray bottle, then apply on vegetation with vole presence.

• Ammonia:

This is another pungent chemical that is great for pest control on your property.

Ammonia can be easily washed off by rain when you spray around the runways, so it is best to disperse through the air. To do this, first, get a piece of rag, a pair of gloves and a container with a lid.

• Domestic pets:

Household pets like dogs and cats are natural pests repellent due to their predatory nature.

• Predators urine:

• Animals that reduce vole populations:

First: Know Your Enemy Whats A Mole

Moles are insectivores whose diet consists of earthworms, grubs, insects, and larvae. They measure 4-8 long, have paddle-like feet with extended claws for easier digging, and can be grey, brown or black. They have elongated heads and snouts but short necks. They have tiny eyes and no external ears. They are almost blind except for the ability to see the light and dark. They breed once a year in late winter or early spring. Litters are typically four to six babies that leave the nest after four weeks. The life span of a mole is six years. They are solitary creatures except when breeding annually.

Moles live in dens undergroundunder trees, sidewalks, and buildingswith a network of tunnels connected. A mole can dig up to 15 feet an hour, and tunnels arent used repeatedly, sometimes only once. The surface tunnel ridges are for hunting. The molehills are created by excavated dirt as they build their burrows. Moles hunt both day and night. Moles are always underground, so the evidence they exist is the tunnels and hills.

Moles arent all bad. There are a few reasons not to get super stressed over them. Read on.

In other words, moles do eat their fair share of Japanese beetles , so for the rose lovers, they may not be the worst thing to happen to a garden, but for lawn lovers, they are a nightmare.

Mole hills: Evidence of moles in the landscape.

Ground vole

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Is That A Vole Hole Or A Mole Hole

Voles are often confused with moles, another incredibly destructive pest. However, the two animals have very little in common.

Moles arent rodents, and they dont eat plants. Instead, they feed on earthworms and other small insects they find underground. They have no interest in your lawn or garden.

They can still damage it by burrowing underneath it, though. Unlike voles, however, they dont leave burrows all over your lawn instead, they create tiny little hills when they pop up to the surface occasionally.

You still have a problem if you have moles in your backyard. Unless you see little snake-like burrows, though, you at least dont have a vole problem.

How To Kill Voles

The next step in getting rid of voles is to decide what method you will use when deciding how to kill voles in your yard.

If your yard is small, vole traps can be used. Vole traps are simply mouse traps that have been placed in the yard, particularly near where known burrows are or were.

Rodent poison can also be an effective way of killing voles. When using poison though, be aware of the other animals in your yard. Rodent poison will not only kill voles, but can kill pets, beneficial animals, and even make children ill if they unintentionally handle or eat the poison laid out for voles.

Making your garden a haven for predators of voles is also recommended. Attracting snakes and owls and keeping a pet cat can help reduce the vole population in your garden.

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What Is A Home Remedy To Get Rid Of Moles In Your Yard

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Linsey GrossHardt

If you want to use this method, you must:

Zahya Lleixa

How Do I Know I Have Voles In My Yard

The type of damage voles do to your yard is easy to distinguish from mole and gopher damage. Voles create a crisscross system of tunnels that help them travel through your yard in search of food. Their burrows will look like a lot like cracks on the surface of your lawn. You will also notice holes throughout your yard. Voles create golf ball-sized holes, and this is where they enter and exit the tunnels.

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Signs You Have Voles In Your Yard

When a rabbit or deer pays a visit to your garden, its easy enough to spot, what with the missing plants, chewed shoots, and nibbled leaves. But voles in the yard can be harder to identify. Also known as meadow mice, voles are small, pudgy creatures which look like mice but with darker color and shorter tails. Voles can be yellow-brown or red-brown in color but they are mostly brown-black. They have partially hidden ears and small beady eyes.

Now that you know what a vole looks like, lets see how you can spot vole tunnels or activity in your yard.

How Do I Get Rid Of Voles In My Garden

Voles migrate from empty fields to gardens with fresh vegetation boasting of many trees, shrubs, and grasses. If you have noticed that a place that once had plants has become clear, including its roots, you may have started suspecting vole damage.

The big question is how you can get rid of the voles in your garden and lawn before they get out of hand.

Here are ways to do so:

• Alter their habitat:

Leaf litters, weeds, ground covers in your garden are what any rodent, including mouse and vole, need to set up their habitat.

You should remove them by clearing them off and ensuring the area is neat and tidy always discourages voles from seeing it as potential habitat.

Avoid keeping mulch close to trees, and limit the ones around grass, as voles may dig up tunnels underneath them. Plant annual crops that allow you to cultivate the soil as often as possible, repelling voles from inhabiting there. Free your garden of any fallen nuts, bird seeds or berries that may attract voles.

• Fence your garden:

You can put up a barrier to keep voles out of your garden. You can install a wire mesh around your garden to prevent voles from entering.

Install cylinders made of hardware cloth of about 1/4 inches long to protect the plants in your garden. It would be best if you buried the cylinders at least six inches below the ground to protect the plants by preventing the voles from burrowing and creating tunnels.

• Use vole repellents:

• Set traps:

• Cultivate vole-proof and vole-deterrent plants:

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How To Keep Voles Out Of Your Yard

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• Voles vs. Moles

Most people have heard of moles but may be unfamiliar with voles. Relatives of hamsters and lemmings, voles are small, mouse-like rodents that live in the wild and can do a lot of damage to trees, lawns, and gardens. In North America and Australia, they are sometimes referred to as meadow or field mice. Voles share many characteristics with moles but are more destructive to plants moles typically feed on grubs and earthworms.

Voles construct well-defined, crisscrossing tunnels, or “runways” at or near the surface of the ground, about 2 inches wide. The runways result from the voles eating vegetation, like the roots of grass and perennials, as well as from the constant traffic of numerous little feet beating the same path. And if any lawn and garden pest can literally beat a path through the grass due to their sheer numbers, its the vole.

Lawn Moles And Voles How To Get Rid Of Them

Lawn moles can be one of the most frustrating problems a homeowner can deal with. While one or two short tunnels are hardly noticed, multiple tunnels crisscrossing your lawn is too much. You’re probably thinking, “surely there must be a sure-fire way of getting rid of lawn moles, isnt there?”

The shows a mole the cats dragged up. Literally! This is a front view of a mole showing its snout and the large front digging claws. Cats are often a mole’s biggest enemy.

Important: This page is mostly about lawn moles. Click here for detailed information on Voles.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many mole “cures”? Its simply because most methods don’t work or they are set in the wrong place. This fact alone has opened the doors for all sorts of strange ideas. If you searched the internet, you have probably read some of them.

All is not lost, you can do this. To successfully get rid of lawn moles does require some skill, but mostly it is knowledge of mole behavior that is essential. The is of a short, winding feeding tunnel.

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Havahart 1025 Live Vole Trap

Havahart live traps are a popular way to catch rodents inclhttps://www.amazon.com/Havahart-1020-Animal-Two-Door-Mouse/dp/B0000DINGGuding voles. This is another great option if you have no interest in killing the poor little fellas. After all, theyre just rodents trying to make a living on the means streets of your lawn. This live trapping system is made from sturdy and reliable materials that will last a considerable amount of time should you need them again in the future. The Havahart 1020 can not only be used to eradicate voles, but to catch mice as well. The size makes for a double pest-control solution, providing two slots for vole containment.

You might be persuaded to buy this trap if you appreciate tradition. Havahart has been manufacturing the same design, and using the same materials, for over seventy years. For them, theres nothing else to be changed design-wise, and they know that what they sell works.

Features include two gravity-action doors, smooth internal edges for the protection of the animals, and proven functionality through extensive field testing with high catch rates and few escapes. The live trap is made with a strong rust-resistant wire mesh with steel reinforcements galvanized for maximum resistance.

Features include an easy foot stepping motion to set the trap safely underground, no need for chemicals or poisons, and are accepted in organic farms, nurseries, and ranches. Two traps come in this set.

Signs Of Voles In Your Yard

Before you begin the process of removing any voles in your yard, its important to look for signs that they are actually in the area. While the damage they leave is similar to the molehills and tunnels left by other burrowing animals, there are some crucial differences.

Vole tunnels are found close to the surface of the ground and are roughly 2 inches wide. The entry points for these tunnels are rarely found in the open, and will likely be closer to dense brush.

Mounds of dirt arent indicative of voles. These are either a sign of mole activity or gopher activity .

Typically, the trails left by voles are first visible in late winter or early spring. During the winter months, voles will carve tunnels and pathways along the surface to make navigating through the snow easier. Once the snow melts, these trails are plainly seen on the grass.

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Problems Caused By Moles

Moles can be a big problem for homeowners. Their tunneling creates unsightly ridges and may uproot plants, damaging or killing them. In addition, they can damage your turf’s root system, as raised areas of grass dry out and die. Moles actively feed day and night, all year long. With the ability to tunnel up to 100 feet in a single day , it’s essential to take action to control moles as soon as you discover them.

What Do Voles Eat

Voles are herbivorous for the most part. They love eating plants, tubers and bulbs, as well as the bark and roots of trees, says Smith. Theyll treat your garden like an all-you-can-eat buffet, leaving you with droopy, dying leftovers. If their favorite foods arent available, Troyano explains that voles are also opportunistic and will eat dead mice and other rodents.

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Voles In Your Lawn Or Garden

Now that weve answered the question What is a vole, we need to discuss the damage these little creatures can cause. If you already have voles in your lawn, you probably know they can be a real nuisance.

The main problem with voles is that they’re elusive, fast-breeding garden-destroyers. Given the rodent’s way with roots, the vole is known to destroy plants and crops. However, most landowners dont discover infestations until late in the game well after a whole web of paths and burrows have been dug underground. This is because vole activity generally evades the human eye. Consequently, humans only tend to find out the hard way, such as when a group of valuable plants have suddenly died.

One of the key indicators of voles in a lawn or garden is the poor health of the grass or plants. When a crop of well-watered, healthy plants expires for no apparent reason, voles could be to blame. Bite marks on the plants could make it easier to determine whether a vole or some other critter is the culprit.

As with other rodents, voles carry numerous diseases, including hantavirus, salmonella and babesiosis. Voles also host ticks and other parasites that are transmitters of Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Due to all the damage and disease associated with the rodent, vole control is a crucial undertaking if an infestation occurs on your property.

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