How to Get Rid of Voles in Your Yard

We understand how frustrating it is to see these rodents damaging your yard and plants.

 

Why Do You Have Voles?

Voles are native to California and most of Northern America. The main reason they come onto our properties is to find food. They are herbivores, meaning they eat plant matter. Like gophers they will eat the roots of plants but they can also strip bark off of the lower sections of tree trunks!

 

What Can You Do?

There’s unfortunately no guaranteed way to prevent them from coming onto your property.

However, there are a variety of options to control them when they do!

 

Control Options

Baiting

Baiting is probably the most effective way to get rid of voles. Since voles don’t like to feed on the surface, bait placed directly into their holes will be quickly consumed. Then the voles will pass away and decompose underground – greatly minimizing the risk of any cross species poisoning.

Trapping

Trapping is not a very effective means of controlling vole activity. They tend to live in groups so you would need a large amount of traps to get a good amount of control.

Natural Options

Some customers find some success with more natural/poison free options such as clearing wood piles or other dense hiding spots for voles or by planting vole repelling plants (spearmint, garlic).

 

Do You Have a Gopher, Mole, or Vole?

It’s important to identify which type of activity you’re seeing!

Gopher mounds (on the left) are finer in texture and tend to be crescent shaped with a plugged hole in the center. This is because the gophers gather and process the dirt they move in their cheek pockets and push the dirt out at an angle as they tunnel.

Mole mounds (in the middle) are chunkier in texture and are often found along edges of pathways. Their stand alone mounds are more volcano shaped than gophers and do not have any sign of a plugged hole. This is because moles essentially bulldoze the dirt out of their way.

Voles (on the right) do not leave any mounded dirt behind, they instead leave small open holes (about the size of a golf ball) and tend to leave small paths of dead grass in their wake.

You can read more about our services for these pests here!

If you have any questions or are interested in vole control you can give us a call or submit an online form!