Vole Removal
Voles are destructive little critters that will make your life very difficult if you like to have a nice yard or if you have a garden. Voles will ravage your yard, eating up all of your fruit and vegetables, stripping the bark off of your trees and making the tunnels that moles and squirrels have made much worse. If this wasn’t bad enough the tunnels they dig kill your grass and make your yard look like a dirt road map. They will also use holes that have been dug under your house and in your walls to make their homes which is a fire hazard and unsanitary. Try some or all of these do it yourself tips to get rid of the voles that are destroying your property.
Another thing that you can try (which is probably the most effective) is to have predator animals in your yard. Leave your dog outside and keep cats outside as this will scare them away. You can also release snakes (non-venomous) into your yard if you don’t have a phobia of snakes. You can also attract owls and other predator birds to your yard by building nesting boxes. If this doesn’t work, you can always put up decoys that make noise and move when they are motion activated. These can be found in almost every garden shop.
There are predator scent repellents available, but they don’t work very well. Some of these scents include coyote, fox, king snake, etc. but they have to be applied regularly and are not guaranteed to work. Something that might work better is to throw ammonia soaked rags into their burrows.
You could try to smoke or drown them out by blocking all the entrances to their tunnel except one and then fill the tunnels with water and smoke to kill them. However, you can’t be sure that you have gotten them all and it is inhumane. If you decide to do this, make sure to fill in the tunnels so no other animals take them up as their new residence.
Voles are one of the smallest species of rodents who happen to make their homes underground. They dig their tunnels just under the surface of the ground or your lawn and often will take up abandoned burrows or dens left behind by moles, rabbits or chipmunks. This is why they are often mistaken for these animals, especially chipmunks. Voles are also similar in appearance to chipmunks in that they rarely grow longer than a few inches and are usually a dark brown color with puffy cheeks. Voles have a varied diet, but it mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts and any other type of eatable vegetation. Voles need to live in lush areas that have the vegetation they need to eat, so they will leave the arid planes to live in your back yard.
Vole Information
Biology
Voles are small rodents similar in appearance to mice. They have a stout body, short hairy tail, small eyes and ears and have around 155 species in total. Depending on the type of species, they can grow around three to nine inches in length. They like eating small plants, nuts, and fruits and will also consume other small dead animals such as mice or rats. They are really fond of roots and generally dig tunnels right below the plants or trees with their favorite roots which will eventually destroy the plant or tree. They are excellent diggers, but poor climbers, and are aggressive in nature. Most of them are nocturnal and stay in the burrows during the day. However, there are a few species that are active during all hours of the day. One species of voles are semi-aquatic rodents and are found throughout Europe along the river banks. They come out of their homes during the day and swim in waterways to collect aquatic plants which they consume or store for future use. At the time of birth the sex ratio is well-balanced but becomes excessively female biased in a very short interval of time. There can end up being around four females to one male. This trend suggests that there is an intense competition among males for female mates which results in the death of a number of males.
Habitat
Voles like living in areas where there is a lot of green vegetation for them to feed upon. They are great diggers and make burrows and tunnels. However, most of the time they are found using tunnels and burrows made by other small animals instead of making their own. They are common in Britain, North America, Parts of Europe and Asia. They like green grass cover and open areas. They are particularly fond of grass in damp overgrown fields. The burrows are about 12 to 16 inches beneath the ground and have separate areas for rest, food storage, mating and taking care of baby voles. Female voles may share a burrow and are known to defend it from predators or unknown voles. The males mate with more than one female and move from one burrow to other; this way of moving from one burrow to another has given them the term of ‘floaters’.
Life Span
Voles do not have a long life span; in fact they generally only live between three to six months. Large sized voles are known to live longer and can survive for around two years. However, according to a study, it is believed that about 88 percent of voles die during the very first month of their life. The gestation period lasts for three weeks and a mole achieves sexual maturity in a month. They can give birth to five to ten babies at a time. The breeding season starts in March and lasts till September. Voles create a special “birthing” nest of grass, which is the only place where they will give birth to their babies. The baby voles are born without fur which grows in gradually for ten days until their fur comes in completely. After around 16 days of birth, the babies are ready to move out of their parents’ home to start their own separate life. Voles are known to control their reproduction rate based on a number of factors including population level and quality of food and light.
Diseases Voles Carry
Voles are carriers of Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome in humans. This virus causes fever and renal failure along with hemorrhagic manifestations.
Damage Caused by Voles
Voles cause a lot of damage to the vegetation of the area as they consume a large number of plants including spinach, potato, tomato, turnip, cauliflower, carrot and cabbage. They damage the tress as well by eating the roots which stops the flow of nutrients and water to the trees. They also damage the fields by their borrowing.
How To Get Rid of Vole - Tips and steps for getting rid of voles.
