The Best Way to Get Rid of Voles

Voles are mouse-like rodents found across North America. A fully matured vole grows up to seven inches long and weighs about four to five ounces. While there are several species of voles, about half a dozen of them are considered as pests. While keeping the lawn grass short and ground cover minimal can reduce vole population significantly, for effectively getting rid of them, a combination of techniques is recommended by Dr. Jim Pease, Emeritus, Iowa State University Extension Wildlife Specialist.

Use hardware cloth cylinders with a mesh size of 0.6 cm or less to keep voles away from saplings and seedlings. Place the cylinders six inches deep into the soil. This will keep voles from burying under it and getting to the plants. Drift fence with pit traps also help in monitoring if large population of voles are about to infest orchards or cultivated crops.

Eliminating weeds and litter around plants and vegetables, mowing the lawn short and removing mulch about three feet from around the base of trees will help control vole damage quite a bit. Soil tillage is also a good way to eliminate voles. It not only removes cover, but also destroys the runaway burrow channels. Some voles may even get killed in the process.

Though not recommended, zinc phosphide can also be kept inside the runways and burrows. These are available as pellets and grain-like formula or concentrates. However, if used too frequently, the vole population may develop bait shyness. Also, these baits are very unsafe for ground-feeding birds, such as waterfowls. Alternatively, you can use anticoagulant baits. These toxicants take five to 15 days to be effective and require multiple feedings.

Trapping voles in mouse snap traps is effective. This method is effective in getting rid of small number of voles. Place the trap at right-angles to the path taken by the vole, making sure that the trigger is facing the path. Use a mix of peanut butter and oatmeal or apple pieces as bait. The best time to trap voles is fall or late winter when they searching for food.

Voles are very vulnerable and easily available to different types of predators, such as cats and owls, as they are active during the day as well as in the night, throughout the year. However, in most cases reduction or elimination of voles with the help of predators generally proves ineffective as their reproduction rate is very high. Hence, the population of voles increases faster than the predators. Both synchronous and postpartum breeding is seen and a female vole is ready to breed by the age of two weeks.

Measures, such as shooting, rodent frightening devices and fumigants are generally not very effective. However, fumigants, when used in new and small burrows with maximum two openings, do work. Thiram- or capsaicin-based repellents also provide protection against voles, but for short durations. Contact your local pesticide regulatory agency for other registered repellents that can be used on voles.