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Controlling Voles in Your Lawn
Voles resemble short-tailed field mice and grass roots are a primary source of food.. They are a bit harder to eliminate as the castor oil that bothers moles doesn’t seem to affect them. You might try a sonic torpedo. This is a tubular battery-operated apparatus that vibrates away and when inserted into the ground, sets up a vibration that apparently they do not like. There are also sonic devices that are advertised as being effective against these creatures. Plug them in and rodents will leave when the appropriate frequency is created. Cats work really well. More than one cat owner has written with tales of how much dear kitty loves to bring home “presents”.
Some gardeners carefully slice open the tunnels and insert a waterproof poison block for mice and rats. This works reasonably well – the poison is below the ground where pets and children can’t get to it and it will last until the pest eats it. You’ll kill this pest because they do eat the grain-based poison blocks. This works equally well for moles and voles although it is most often the mole tunnels that gardeners discover. Mothballs do not work (the critter simply doesn’t get moths) and chewing gum also doesn’t work (except that vole-dentists get more work repairing the cavities from all that gum sugar). If you have trouble remembering which is which – moles and voles. M = meat eater and these are Moles V= vegetation eater and these are Voles These pests hide in long grass (cut it) and piles of old boards (remove them) and other piles of vegetation (shred them and compost them) and any other place that a mouse would hide. If you remove as many of these hiding places as possible, you’ll reduce the level of damage in the lawn. But unfortunately, if you live next to a hay-field or park, you’ll always have them. Click here for free newsletter or if you have a question about voles
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