How to get rid of Voles

[Dentoman]

Originally Posted by JohnnyO

One of my latest creations is a 18" long piece of 4" diameter pvc pipe with 3 or 4 snap traps lined up end to end inside all with bait, I call it the tunnel of death. This thing has like a 100% success rate. I put it along the wall of the house where there is activity. The kids think I have gone full caddy shack when I go out and reset everything and thinking up different ideas to out smart them.
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This is a tremendous idea! Going in my backyard this week.

[Cortez]

Originally Posted by me_dennis

So I saw the rodent yesterday when I got home from work. I pulled into the garage and was looking at the snap traps to see if it caught anything. Then I saw the culprit scurry along the wall, exit the garage, and jump into a hole in my lawn. I looked around my lawn and I can see slight signs of vole paths/tracks. It's hard to tell if there were tracks because there's a lot of dead grass still.

The rodent was about 3-4 inches long, dark grey, probably 1.5-2 inches in diameter.

Does this sound like a mouse or a vole?

Rake up this dead grass. I bet you find a maze of tracks undernearth. Just came across this same situation on my front lawn when all the snow melted.
Sounds like a vole to me- if the rodent ran back outside into the lawn

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

My kitten grabbed 2 on her first day out, and she was on a leash. I think they were the only 2 in the yard, as she hasn't had any more success.

Our cats got their first kill of the season yesterday. Actually it was the first one of his life for one of them. They've been basically hopeless at it so far (one is 7, the other is 10) and now they each have one confirmed kill to their credit.

Pretty sad, but I'm taking it as a positive.

[Fuzz]

As long as they are taking voles and not birds, it's a good kill!

Don't forget to get them de-wormed.

[Lubicon]

Our yard is the safest one on the street for birds I'm pretty sure, I dont think there is much danger from our boys.

Good point about de-worming.

[Tiger]

any success with non-trap methods of moving the voles to someones elses back yard

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Tiger

any success with non-trap methods of moving the voles to someones elses back yard

What, like a little vole trebuchet?

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Tiger

any success with non-trap methods of moving the voles to someones elses back yard

Like mass transit?

[Lubicon]

After waging war on voles in my front yard over the winter things were looking pretty good. I had traps in my garage and a body count of 10, plus minimal lawn damage. As the snow is melting in the back yard I can see the little buggers have moved there in force. The lawn looks like an aerial view of a WW 1 trench system . A few more weeks and hopefully I can release biological weapons (our cats) into the back and they can get after it.

[Tyler]

Eff.. I think I have voles too. New community on the edges of the city.

Couple tiny holes. Little mazes in my grass. Anyone know how expensive would Cal-Rid or Orkin be to come kill these buggers?

[Fuzz]

Maybe you could infect them with COVID?

[Erick Estrada]

Now that the snow is clearing I can see the vole trails in the grass. Man these little critters are annoying.

[Zevo]

This might work.

[Lumby Lager]

I knew someone here in the Okanagan that had one of these beautiful things!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgztUzqaL3E

[Cliche]

Dead mice video

NSFW!

[missdpuck]

I love this thread just for the word “rodent.” I just have a thing for the word.

[Weitz]

Looked at a lot of lawns in my neighborhood while walking the dog this morning. Looks like a ton of vole problems. And some looked really bad this year.

[calf]

We had vole holes all the way down the side of the driveway the last 7 years or so. We called an exterminator for a quote a few years ago. They could set out traps to catch the odd one, but said the most effective way they had was constant monitoring and resetting traps every few weeks, which they would not guarantee and was quoted at about $600 or so if I remember correctly.

Some things I've heard that work are the poles that send pulses into the soil and disturbs them.

Apparently a dog running around does the trick as well.

We had a relatively vole free season this year. Part of it is my son is old enough to play for hours outside now, which we did, which may have had the same effect as the last 2 points.

The guy who cuts our lawn approached us to test an idea he had and tried. They dug a little trench, put in some gravel and bricks. The voles apparently hate that stuff. So we have it a shot - worst case scenario, we have a decorative piece by the drive way with some vole holes. It's been about a year, and they haven't dug by the driveway at all (but seem to be in the flower beds, which is not a big deal for us).

Spoiler!

[Tyler]

Cal-Rid quoted us at around $125 to treat the voles. $30 for additional traps after the initial treatment is done and kills the first round of varmints.

Will let you know how it turns out.

[rohara66]

I'd be curious if they're doing anything beside setting up traps and poison stations for you?


Our lawn got decimated so we have around 10 traps and a couple bait stations setup. I don't think there's much else they can do.