How to Get Rid of Voles

Voles are small mammals that are active both above and underneath the ground. Although mature voles only reach five to seven inches long, they can still upend a yard by feeding on vegetation and kicking up dirt, roots and grass.

Like moles, shrews and mice, voles pose their own unique pest issues. But moles mostly stay underground, and shrews and mice don’t create nearly the same amount of tunneling, burrows or runways. Voles can also be difficult to identify because of how closely they resemble mice. They are even known as meadow mice or field mice. But if they are creating a problem on your property, it is important to distinguish voles from real mice.

In addition to their small facial features, short tails and small snouts, voles have some additional identifying characteristics to keep in mind. A vole’s body is stocky, rounded, and shaped similar to a potato. Its short hair is usually colored brown to black, with a darker belly. Like other rodents, voles have small feet and short claws. They also have small, but sharp, teeth that enable them to gnaw on vegetation and bark.

• Mice have very large eyes and ears, while voles’ eyes and ears are small in comparison.
• Mice have a long tail that extends nearly twice as long as its body, but voles’ tails are much shorter.
• Mice have a somewhat pointed snout (though not nearly as pointed as shrews), whereas voles have the most rounded snout of the bunch.

• Vole mating season can last from spring all the way through fall, but it usually ranges from late spring and ends in early fall.
• Female gestation is between 16-24 days.
• Vole litters are usually between three and eight pups.
• Female pups are sexually mature as young as 13 days.
• Both male and female voles will stay with their mother and father for only a short period of time.
• Voles only live for about a year.

Voles have been known to carry a variety of diseases like rabies, Hantavirus, and Korean hemorrhagic fever. This makes it especially important to keep a safe distance from them in your yard. Even their feces and urine can carry viruses, so be sure to wear closed-toe shoes and gloves if you’re working near their runways.

• Vole runways and tunnels are more prevalent and noticeable in the spring right after winter snow has melted.
• The vegetation surrounding a vole runway will be clipped back and kept out of the way.
• A burrow hole created by a vole will never be greater than three inches.

Inspecting for voles can be difficult because their appearance – as well as much of the damage they cause – is similar to that of other animals.

Educating yourself about voles and remaining patient during the inspection process will help you determine the exact species you’re dealing with. Once you have all the information you need, you can develop a targeted strategy toward preventing further damage and removing them from your yard altogether.

• Small tunnel entrances, runways and burrows in your yard, ranging from 1-2” wide
• Vole droppings and vegetation debris within surface runways
• Small gnaw marks on bark and plants
• Sickly trees

Whether or not you’re already dealing with a vole infestation, prevention methods are crucial to use in both instances.

These methods will not only help turn voles away, but they’ll keep them out, prevent them from returning, and protect your property from other pests and wildlife as well.

While mice infest homes, voles can create pest control issues of their own outdoors. These small nuisances dig out shallow runways on the surface of the ground which they use to get around.

This can damage your plants when voles tear through their roots, and the runways will leave unsightly grooves all along your yard. Voles eat aboveground and munch on vegetation, nuts and seeds – often leaving gardens bare and creating scratch marks along trees and branches.

If you’d like to remediate damage done by voles in your yard and prevent others from returning, there several easy treatment and prevention methods you can use yourself or call upon a pest control expert to do for you.

You’ll know you have voles in your yard if you can see visible runways on the surface of your ground along with damaged vegetation and small gnaw marks. Compared with other ground-dwelling mammals that cause damage, voles’ runways will never be larger than 3” and won’t create any tunneling. Voles do burrow, however, so you may also see small holes where they’ve created entryways to their nests.

Like mice, voles are also small with hairy tails and similar coloring that usually ranges from brown to grey or black. Voles, on the other hand, have smaller eyes, ears and tails. Successfully identifying voles and the evidence of their damage will lead to a better-targeted treatment plan.

Your first step in treating a vole infestation is remediating the problem at hand. If you focus on removing the voles first, others could still be attracted to your yard and start the cycle all over again. This is why it’s important to focus on cleaning up your yard before moving into strategies for eradication.

Voles love to eat where they have lots of ground cover to protect them from predators. Be sure to trim back bushes and trees in your yard and regularly rake up leaves, branches and brush. For the same reason, voles love when there’s a nice pile of mulch leading up to a tree or plant. If you mulch in your yard, take care to leave a good amount of room between the mulch and any of your plants or trees.

Voles can easily dig through soft soil. While regularly watering your yard is important to promote vegetation growth, a few simple measures can ensure that it won’t get more moisture than it needs:

• Trimming back trees prevents voles from hiding underneath them and helps the sun reach your lawn in order to dry it out after it rains.
• Removing debris and keeping grass short ensures that different areas of your yard are draining properly.
• Fill in dips within your yard and use a ground roller to keep the grass level and compact

While some traps on the market are designed specifically for voles, you could also easily use mousetraps since voles are the same size. These usually come in the form of spring traps, which snap onto the vole once they’re triggered, or glue traps that cause the vole to get stuck to the trap until they either die or are removed. You can also buy live traps that work by using one-way or spring-loaded doors.

Carefully read all of the instructions for the device you’ve decided to use. Especially when it comes to spring-loaded traps, these can be dangerous if you accidentally snap it onto your fingers. Each trap should come with detailed instructions and tips for use.

Place the trap strategically where it will receive a lot of traffic. Since vole runways are open-faced, you can peer inside them to see which areas look well-used. These areas will likely be slightly deeper or wider, and there will be more vole droppings.

Next, place some bait inside of the trap. Voles are herbivores that enjoy a variety of different plants, seeds and nuts, so you could try pieces of fruit covered in peanut butter or even a piece of the vegetation they’ve been feeding on.

While the trap is set and you’re waiting for it to be used, keep your children and pets away from the area. Especially if you have outdoor pets, they’re likely to be similarly attracted to the vole bait you’ve laid.

Check the trap every day for a vole, regardless of whether you have a kill trap or not. If the trap is meant to kill the voles, you’ll want to remove the carcass as soon as possible before it draws other animals. On the other hand, you’ll want to release a vole from a live trap as soon as possible before it dehydrates and dies. Regardless of whether you’re handling a live or dead vole, always use gloves to prevent disease transmission.

There may be specific state laws regulating vole trapping and where you can release them, so it’s always a good idea to check first. By rule of thumb, you should release the voles at least five miles from residential property.

Known to effectively reduce vole populations, poisons can nonetheless require more work than many people realize. It’s very important to prevent children and pets from tampering with the substance. You’ll also need to use it in an area where it won’t affect your plants, even if it rains and the poison is washed away. Similar to trapping voles, you can use vole poison or those designed for either rats or mice.

Read the instructions thoroughly before using any type of wildlife poison. Some may take up to a week to affect a vole, even after it has been ingested. This makes it important to actively monitor the poison as well as the vole runways and surrounding areas for any dead voles. Never leave a vole carcass in your yard, or it can attract other animals and cause even worse problems.

Poisons are more effective in winter and fall when their usual food sources aren’t as abundant and they’ll be more likely to take the bait. Always wear gloves when removing dead voles in order to prevent disease transmission.

Store-bought repellents either come in granule or spray form and usually contain castor oil with a mixture of other ingredients that repel voles with their odor and taste. Apply repellents directly inside vole runways, near burrow entrances, and around vegetation from which you wish to keep the voles away. The product instructions will let you know how often you should be using them and how long.

Use repellents either as a preventative method before you have spotted any voles or in conjunction with other treatment methods to prevent voles from coming back. By themselves, they aren’t likely to be as effective.

A professional will usually begin vole removal by starting at the source. They’ll eradicate burrows as well as address reasons why voles are attracted to your yard in the first place. As a bonus, many wildlife companies offer guarantees in which they’ll either refund your money or continue returning until they’re sure the problem has been resolved.