How to Get Rid of Voles In Your Yard

Voles are tiny animals that can drive homeowners crazy! They create networks of deep, crisscrossing tunnels, and can wreak havoc on a garden or lawn. This article will help you if you are wondering how to get rid of voles.

5 Effective Ways To Get Rid of Voles

To protect your beautiful outdoor space that you’ve created, follow the tips below to enjoy a healthy, vole-free yard:

1. Remove vegetation

Voles don’t prefer to feed out in the open. Therefore, one of the simplest methods to check their numbers is through habitat modification. Keep your lawn mowed, remove dense ground cover, keep mulch light around shrubs and trees, and continue on snow removal.

2. Protect young trees

Voles like to gnaw on the young trees’ trunks. To prevent this behavior, remove their favorite food source, cover the lower trunk of young trees with a guard, such as a plastic tubing or wire mesh. Contact your local arborist if you need help with this.

3. Use live traps

Live vole traps serve the purpose of trapping animals without injuring or killing them. Even though live traps may not be the best option for serious vole infestations, they’re an excellent way to control vole numbers or remove a few individual animals.

Ensure to release the voles as far as possible, or you may find that they return to your property.

4. Use natural repellants

Like most sensible people and animals, voles hate the smell and taste of castor oil. Sprinkling a little around your landscaping can discourage the rodents.

Voles also don’t like capsaicin, the powerful compound in peppers that makes them taste spicy.

To discourage voles naturally, mix biodegradable dish soap and chopped hot peppers with water. Spray the mixture on vole hotspots in your landscaping and lawn to prevent voles from pecking at your plants.

Natural repellents can be just as helpful as conventional methods.

People often ask, “do coffee grounds repel voles?” While there is some evidence that coffee grounds can repel voles, moles, and other destructive pests, be cautious of the amount you apply.

If you dump a large amount of coffee grounds on your soil it can cause nitrogen depletion, making it unsuitable for anything to grow. Instead, go for a light sprinkle in areas where you have observed vole activity.

5. Contact a professional pest management company

The best option is to hire a professional team, if you want a quick, extensive vole removal service.

3 Conventional methods to get rid of voles

Conventional methods to eliminate voles involve vole poison and kill traps. These methods are effective and quick options to eliminate voles, but they come with their own risks.

Eden doesn’t recommend conventional vole removal methods as they are not humane, and no-kill methods are equally effective. So given below are three of the most common conventional methods to eliminate voles: 

1. Vole Poisons

Vole poisons are substances designed to kill voles upon ingestion. The poisons may imitate the appearance and smell of common vole food sources and typically kill the animals between 12-24 hours of consumption.

Pros: Fast, effective

Cons: May poison non-target animals, brings up a risk of secondary poisoning for animals (like birds of prey and pets) who consume poisoned voles

2. Repellents

Chemical vole repellents are a helpful way to push voles out of their burrows and stir them up to leave your property.

Pros: Fast, effective

Cons: Typically includes dangerous chemicals, may not be safe for use around pets and kids

3. Traps

Vole traps kill voles immediately and can be an effective method to get rid of large vole populations in your yard. These traps are more effective when they’re placed in front of vole holes and baited with oatmeal or peanut butter.

Pros: Effective, fast, poison-free

Cons: Required to check and change traps often, and dispose of dead voles

How Do I Know If I Have Voles in My Yard?

Below are a few signs of voles in your yard:

• Paths 1”-2” broad in the turf surface.
• Vole burrows appear around the bases of trees or holes in the lawn. Unlike molehills, these dens do not consist of soil mounding.
• Areas where the grass of the lawn is suddenly very short.
• Visible gnaw marks on the stems of young trees and woody plants.
• Exposed stems that have been gnawed to a pointed tip.
• Dead plants that, when lifted, have no existing root structure.

As voles reproduce quickly, it’s difficult to control the populations at the first indication of infestation.

How Do You Fix a Vole-Damaged Lawn?

Below are a few quick tips to fix the damage caused by voles on your lawn:

• Give the complete lawn surface a gentle rake to break up debris and excrement in vole runways and encourage lawn growth.
• Use topsoil to fill in vole pathways.
• Overseed and fertilize any areas of chewed-down or thin grass.
• Prune and fertilize shrubs or trees that voles have gnawed on.

If you have serious vole damage in your lawn, hire a professional company, like Eden that offers ornamental and turf treatments.

How Long Does it Take to Get Rid of Voles?

The answer to this question depends on which method you choose. For instance, you can expect to spend about 3-4 weeks reducing your vole population if you have chosen to set live traps.

If you prefer to hire a professional pest control service to eliminate voles, you’ll notice much faster results. Companies like Eden offer prompt removal services to help you rapidly reclaim your property.

Are Voles Dangerous?

Voles are not a physical hazard to people, but they have the potential to spread disease. When voles defecate or urinate on your property, they can introduce parasites and diseases like leptospirosis, salmonellosis, and Machupo virus. Several of these conditions are transmittable to domestic pets and people.

For information about moles, read the article  ‒ how to prevent and get rid of moles. 

In conclusion, the effective ways to get rid of voles are ‒ removing vegetation, protecting young trees, using live traps, using natural repellants, and contacting a professional. 

Hire Eden professionals today to get rid of voles rapidly and effectively. Our experts can also help you fix the areas of your yard or lawn damaged by voles.