Voles are interesting creatures. These rodents, which are often mistaken for mice, are in fact a species of their own. They are roughly 5-7 inches long, with a chubby body and thick neck. Their tail is different from that of rats and mice in that it is very short. Although they’re cute and cuddly looking, you don’t want voles around. They’ll eat your garden and ruin your yard, including killing an entire tree. Getting rid of them is important, but how do you do it? You can use poisons and chemicals, but if you don’t want to go that route, there’s always natural methods.
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Eliminate Your Vole Problem Using Natural Ingredients
Pest control usually involves some kind of chemicals, whether it be repellent or poison. These ingredients help to kill the invading creatures as quickly as possible, saving your home from further damage. Seems great, right?
Unfortunately, there are negative side effects that come with such ingredients. Chemicals can ruin furniture and kill plants in your yard and garden. It can be deadly to pets and children who might unwittingly get their hands on it. Using pest control products that contain natural ingredients solves these issues, while still getting rid of your vole problem.
Get rid of those voles without using poison
Voles, unlike moles, will gnaw and bite at your garden plants. They love bulbs under the ground, and they will tear apart most plants in your yard. One telltale sign to distinguish a vole is marks of gnawing around a tree trunk. Over time, this can actually kill the entire tree – further reasoning that you definitely want them out of your life. An easy way to stop them is with poison, but another way is through habitat modification.
Some easy ways you can change your yard to deter voles include:
- Fencing: Putting up a physical barrier is a simple way to keep these vermin out of your yard. Insert stakes into the ground and attach a firm length of mesh to it around the perimeter of the property. Remember, voles can climb, which means you’ll need to dig about 12’ deep and insert the mesh in there, as well. If you live in a place with heavy snowfall, make your fence 12’ higher than the maximum level of snow will be.
- Trees: Since voles can gnaw a tree to death, it’s a good idea to wrap a mesh around the base of your trees as a precaution.
- Debris:
Take the time to walk around your yard and clean up anything that voles might want to get their hands on. This includes leaves and piles of mulch or groundcover that could be used as a shelter for voles. If there’s nuts, seeds, or fallen fruit on the ground, pick it up and get rid of it, as these are excellent food sources.
Found yourself with a vole problem? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Go here to find out how to get rid of voles.
You don’t have to kill voles to get rid of them
One natural method you might want to try when it comes to getting rid of voles is traps. This is a great way to get rid of your pests without actually killing the creatures. However, there are downsides to this, including the fact that you’ll have to travel at least a few miles to release each vole, most likely more. Also, voles are voracious breeders; a pair of them can produce up to 100 young each year. Because of their high rate of reproduction, the vole you capture may have an entire litter hidden somewhere in your yard that you’ll have to deal with later.
Some traps that you can use include:
- Ketch All Mouse Trap: Yes, this is built for a mouse, but it is perfectly fine for a vole, as well. There’s a hole in the side that the vole will climb through, where they will then set off a trigger that flips the vole into a chamber where it’s trapped. Something nice about this product is that it has a clear top on it, letting you see inside for an easy, quick yard check.
- Harris Humane Rodent Trap: Something great about this trap is how easy it works. The vole is lured inside by bait, and when it reaches the trigger plate at the back, a door snaps up and shuts off the vole’s exit, keeping it locked inside.
- ULINE Mouse Trap: Made of steel, this trap is a low, wide box with a small entrance. Once the vole gets inside, the entrance is blocked off and it can’t get back out. A perk of this product is that it can fit several voles in it at once.
An Organic Solution
Believe it or not, there are actual pre-made products you can buy that will get rid of voles. Because they don’t use chemicals and synthetic substances, they’re organic and safe for accidental human or pet exposure.
Most of them will use ingredients that voles naturally hate:
- Vole Scram Professional: These granules are made from ingredients like Thyme, Garlic, Citronella, and Pepper – things that voles find disgusting. Spread them liberally around your entire property and voles will flee once they see their source of food and shelter is tainted.
- Nature’s Mace, Mole and Vole Mace: You don’t need to worry about the weather with this product, as it will work whether there’s rain, snow, or sunshine. Made from ingredients that are all-natural and bio-degradable, Nature’s Mace granules send any voles on your property running to seek another home.
- Bonide Mole Max and Vole Repellent Granules: This will cover 5,000 square feet per bag – most likely lasting you awhile. Something unique is that the ingredients (the main ingredient being castor oil) will penetrate into the ground to affect your voles while they burrow, sending them up and out of the dirt.
Voles can be a true pest. They eat your vegetables, they tear up your soil, and basically ruin your hard work. To learn valuable information on how to keep voles out of garden, go here.
Natural vole repellent
A repellent is different than a poison. It contains ingredients that the vole dislikes enough to make it leave immediately, and carries the added bonus of keeping new voles from ever coming near your house in the first place.
If you’re looking to find a way to make a vole repellent using products you might already have sitting around the house, it’s probably easier than you think.
In fact, there are several different items you might have laying around that will effectively keep voles away:
- Pepper (granules or black pepper essential oil).
- Garlic.
- Cayenne.
- Mint (Spearmint, Peppermint, Wintergreen).
- Thyme.
The Castor oil solution
Castor oil, derived from the castor bean plant, is a substance with many uses. It’s a laxative, is used in skin conditions, and even has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. Another use it has is in pest control.
Here are some easy recipes you can put together to create an effective and easy vole repellent:
- Mix 3 oz castor oil with 1½ a tablespoon of liquid dish soap in a spray bottle of water. Since the oil will collect away from the water, vigorously shake it before you spray to combine everything equally. Apply liberally around your entire yard, and reapply every week.
- Mix ½ cup castor oil with 8 cloves of crushed garlic into a spray bottle of water, then spray around your yard.
- Get some Diatomaceous Earth, then pour in enough castor oil to make the mixture crumbly. Then, take black pepper essential oil and drop in roughly 3 drops per cup of DE mix. Sprinkle this around your yard, and remember, you don’t need a huge amount in one area – just little sprinkles of it are fragrant enough to deter voles!
Don’t just get the voles to leave your yard – keep them away with repellent. Recipes and tips for vole repellent can be found by clicking here.
Clear Your Yard of Voles Without Poisons or Chemicals
Another great invention to get rid of voles without using chemicals is the ultrasonic vole repeller. This device uses ultrasonic sound waves in a frequency that humans can’t hear but that are extremely uncomfortable to voles. The device sits on a spike that you stick into the dirt in intervals around your property. Voles that get near it will be so irritated by the noise that they’ll seek another location to live.
One tip for using ultrasonic repellers is to periodically change the location of the devices. Animals that are stubborn can get used to the sound frequency, and by changing the location, you re-introduce the sound into places it wasn’t before, decreasing the chances that the vole will want to stick around and have to get used to the horrible sound over and over again.
If you’ve got voles, don’t worry – following these tips, tricks, and suggestions will not only get rid of your pest problem, it will do it in a way that won’t expose you or your loved ones to harsh unwanted chemicals and products. If you’re all-natural, there’s an all-natural vole solution for you.
