Plantskydd® Repellents are the most cost-effective, and environmentally safe animal repellents available. Plantskydd is uniquely designed to keep small critters, like voles, from eating your plants. It's no wonder why Plantskydd is the #1 choice of professional growers, landscapers and foresters for over 30 years!
Use a repellent spray or live traps to capture them and then release them somewhere far away. You could also try and draw natural predators like hawks or owls that will feed on voles. There are a couple of vole-proof plants that you can try growing, such as salvias, mint, daffodils, etc.
Like most sensible animals (and people), voles hate the taste and smell of castor oil. Sprinkling a bit of it around your landscaping can deter the rodents. Voles also dislike capsaicin, the potent compound in peppers that makes them taste spicy.
Fill in tunnels and burrow holes: Fill in any tunnels or burrow holes with soil, and tamp the soil down firmly to prevent them from returning. Modify the habitat: Reduce the cover and food sources in the area to make it less attractive to these garden pests, such as removing weeds, mulch, or other debris.
Biological Control. Many predators including coyotes, foxes, badgers, weasels, cats, gulls, and especially hawks and owls eat voles.
Voles probably don't like the bitter smell of coffee grounds. Scattering the used and dried coffee at the entrances and exits of the tunnels can help to drive the rodents away. However, the coffee grounds must be spread again regularly as soon as the smell has dissipated.
Voles do not hibernate and are active throughout the year, mostly at dawn and dusk.
Rodenticide-treated baits are very effective in reducing vole populations. Bait distribution may be done by spot-baiting, placing bait by hand, or by broadcasting, scattering bait over the entire infested area.
Pine oil contains monoterpenes which may inhibit microbial symbionts in the digestive tracts of hares and voles. The repellent action of pine oil is likely based on this interference of digestive processes, and it is of adaptive advantage for cecal digestors to avoid it.
Best control for voles are traps. See video below. Uncle's tip: Fill vole trails and burrows with Primera Sports Field Conditionr, a weed free calcine clay chip. Generously pour the seed dressing over the damaged areas, filling in all tunnel depressions.
Mice typically do not like coffee grounds scattered around the kitchen. The strong aroma of coffee is generally unpleasant to mice, which can act as a deterrent.
Voles are busy little creatures. These small rodents have a high reproductive rate and can quickly populate your yard. In residential areas, voles typically prefer spaces with plenty of cover. They love hanging out in thick grass, gardens full of weeds, and areas with lots of plant debris.
Voles are especially attracted to gardens with ample vegetation, which provides them with food sources and habitat. They feed on a variety of items, including stems, bark, bulbs, and insects, and their activity can turn a once pristine lawn into a network of unsightly trails and dead grass.
Vole tunnels have openings 1.5 to 2 inches across and are typically hidden beneath mulch, shrubs, or spreading plants. Look for fresh grass clippings or seeds near tunnel entrances. Spongy soil. Some voles burrow and create many shallow tunnels, while other types dig down to a depth of 12 inches.
Voles live in colonies. How many are in just one colony? Usually, there are two adults, several juveniles, and a nest with up to five babies in just one colony! These pests multiply fast, and a below-ground foraging vole colony will often occupy an area of 40 feet surrounding their burrow entrance.
If you're wondering how to kill voles instantly, mouse traps such as the snap traps by Victor® will do the trick. For maximum effectiveness, bait the traps with peanut butter or oatmeal. Then, place them in front of any holes you can spot around your garden.
Maybe they chewed the bark off your fruit trees, dug tunnels all through your lawn or ripped up the roots of your rose bushes. Whatever the havoc, mothballs are not the answer—and are in fact highly toxic and really, really bad for garden use. You might be surprised to read that.
Spread around areas where voles are present according to instructions. Homemade repellents: Make your own homemade repellent with ingredients such as garlic, onion, crushed mint leaves, cayenne powder, or chili pepper. Mix with water or soap and water. Apply with a sprayer, repeating after it rains.
Predators. Many predators eat voles, including martens, owls, hawks, falcons, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, snakes, weasels, domestic cats and lynxes.
If you want to know how to trap voles, you also need to know how to bait the vole traps effectively. The best bait for voles includes bread and butter, small nuts, cherry pits, oatmeal, sunflower or similar seeds, mixed peanut butter and oatmeal or gumdrops.
The young are weaned at 2 weeks and reach maturity at 3–6 weeks when they themselves may start breeding. Females can have six litters per year; thus in a short period, voles can become very numerous. Voles live about one year.
Sticking a water hose inside of a vole's burrow and turning the water on full blast is supposed to run them out of their tunnel systems, but you have to find the right tunnel to flood. Even if you flood all of the burrows that you find and watch them escape, they'll just be back after you're done.
Vole nests are typically located in shallow burrows that are often concealed beneath grass, plants, or groundcover. The nests themselves are made of grass, leaves, and other plant materials. To locate vole nests, look for signs of vole activity, such as the presence of runways and tunnels on the surface.
Vole Diet. Primarily herbivorous, voles commonly feed on grass, as well as the seeds, roots, stems and leaves of plants. On rare occasions voles will eat insects and snails, but they certainly have a strong preference for vegetation.