If there is no damage, spray the rest of the garden and reapply after watering or rainfall. It’s a good idea to test these substances on a small part of the plant first and check back after about 24 hours. Spraying either substance on your greenery provides a smell and taste voles find unpleasant. Both oils are effective mole and vole repellents. Nontoxic ways to ward off voles include castor oil, derived from the seeds of the castor plant, and capsaicin, an oil found in hot peppers. STEP 2: Go natural with repellents and irritants to discourage voles from your yard. By cleaning up prospective nesting areas and removing food sources, you’ll create an environment that will make voles decide that the grass looks greener on the other side and decamp. If there are fruit trees on your property, clean up fallen fruit immediately, and rake up pine needles around evergreen trees as well. If there is an existing vole nest in the yard, it will be cleared away with the rest of the debris during this process. So your first move is to eliminate environments that make voles feel at home: excess brush and mulch, leaf piles, wood stacks, and tall grasses. With adequate shelter and a plentiful food supply, a colony will thrive. You may be wondering, “Why are there voles in MY yard?” The likeliest answer is that something is attracting them there. STEP 1: Be a bad host by removing vegetation and cutting off food sources.Īctive year-round, voles multiply rapidly, producing up to 100 offspring annually. Keep children and pets away from traps or areas that have been treated with irritating or poisonous deterrents.Use gloves, masks, and eye protection when handling chemical deterrents or poisons.Avoid touching live voles or carcasses to prevent the spread of disease.Trap and release voles as local laws allow.Invite voles’ natural predators to the yard to ward them off.Use physical barriers to protect plants and trees.Make the yard inhospitable by using some of the best vole repellent and deterrents. When learning how to get rid of moles and voles, it is in your best interest as well as that of your property and the surrounding ecosystem to use humane methods whenever possible. This distinction is important because getting rid of moles requires a completely different approach than getting rid of voles, and the best mole repellents or the best mole traps may not be effective for voles. They are larger than voles and have unique hand-like claws, and their eyes and ears are not visible. Both animals will burrow underground and cause major damage in a yard-however, moles are much more destructive and can dig as far as 200 yards in a single day. There is some understandable confusion about the difference between voles and moles. But since voles hide underground, you may need a wildlife expert to help you identify them. Voles are vegetarians, so they may also chew up grass, tree roots, and stems. Before You Begin…ĭo you have voles in the yard? Or is another animal digging holes in the yard? The first telltale sign of voles is their narrow, shallow tunnels that can run all over the surface of the yard (if the tunnel is much bigger than the width of a golf ball, you may need to look up how to get rid of chipmunks instead). We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites. So don’t wait to roll up the welcome mat! Follow these DIY control methods and learn how to get rid of voles in your yard for good. These rodents are especially active in the springtime, just when your yard is coming back from dormancy. Unlike moles, which eat grubs and other garden pests, voles love plant matter and won’t hesitate to snack on stems and seeds from your garden. Yet evidence of the pests’ presence is unmistakable: According to Emory Matts, board certified entomologist and technical service manager for Rentokil Terminix, “Voles will tunnel through the grass and may feed on the grass and other plants in the yard.” Vole holes in yards lead to dying plants and displaced grasses. They are also easily mistaken for mice, although voles have smaller features and it’s rare to find voles in houses, while mice are relatively common visitors. The 7-inch-long rodent also known as a meadow mouse is rather shy and spends most of its time underground. If you’ve never actually seen a vole, that’s not surprising.
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