Voles are omnivorous, which means they eat a variety of food groups, just like humans. Their favorite things to eat are fruits and vegetables, making your garden a prime target at dinner time. With such short lifespans, averaging between 3 and six months, voles are plentiful in numbers, and reproduce faster than you can say “viola!”
For this reason, it is important to impede on a nuisance vole problem before their numbers can multiple to unmanageable amounts. Continue reading to learn some helpful tips on how to stop nuisance voles from destroying your lawns and gardens.
Vole Facts
Also known as “meadow mice” or “field mice”, a vole is an animal that is part of the Rodentia Order, making it a rodent. In fact, they are very similar to your everyday household mouse. They have stout bodies that average in length between 3 and 9 inches, as well as, short grayish-brown hair, long tails, and small ears and eyes. They have unique molars that are high-crowned and with angular cusps, which contrasts the standard molar design of low-crowned and with rounded cusps.
Nuisance Activity
Voles are mostly attracted to plants, like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. To them, your gardens are like free grocery stores that stay open 24 hours a day. They rummage through and take what they please, and then return again for more and more. In addition to destroying lawns and gardens in search of plant-based foods, they are also known to girdle trees. This is referred to as ring-barking because they peel strips of tree bark off in a ring around the trunk. This is highly damaging to landscaping trees, and can cause a tree to get sick or die.
Vole Removal and Control
It is important to understand your state’s laws regarding animal trapping. In most states, you are required to have a state-issue permit to trap or relocate wildlife. You should never attempt to touch, trap, corner, or kill a vole. Instead, use organic, non-lethal methods to stop them from trespassing onto your property.
An effective method for vole control is to combine household ingredients like eggs, cayenne pepper, garlic, red pepper sauce, and anything with capsaicin, with water, and spray the solution around the perimeter of your property. If voles are still a problem for you after using homemade wildlife repellent, your next best course of action is to contact a local wildlife control company for effective environmental modification and monitoring services for nuisance voles and more.
