A vole scare is a pet-friendly option to keep pesky voles out of your garden. Such scarecrows are available in specialist shops or online, but you can also build your own vole scarecrow. You can find out how this works and how a vole scarecrow works below.
Plastic bottle windmills keep voles and moles away
How does a vole scarecrow work?
Like most animals, including humans, voles like their homes to be quiet and peaceful. They don't like vibrations and noise - and this is exactly where the vole scarecrow comes into play. Unlike scarecrows, it is not the movement itself that should scare the voles, but the vibration that the scarecrows trigger. Commercially available vole scarers are often solar powered and vibrate. The vibrations go into the ground and disturb the rest of the vole.
Build your own vole scarecrow
You can be creative when you build your own vole scarecrow. It is important that you generate vibrations that go into the ground. Here two ideas:
Canned Vole Scarecrow
A simple, if unfortunately somewhat noisy, option is to make the vole scare away from two or more cans. For this DIY vole scare you will need:
- two or three cans
- A bent metal rod (it must be made of metal to carry the vibration)
- rope
Then proceed as follows:
- Attach the ribbon to the cans by either drilling into them or anchoring them in the can with a long stick tied to the cord.
- Insert the metal rod as deeply as possible directly into an entrance of the vole.
- Tie the cans close together and tight to the vertical part of the pole.
When it's windy, the cans hit each other and the pole. This makes it vibrate. Vibration and noise tempt the vole to look for another home.
Vole scarecrow as a pinwheel made of PET bottles
Another, less noisy option is to build a pinwheel out of a PET bottle.
To do this, cut wings into the PET bottle or glue wings made of PET bases or strips to the bottle. Here's a guide:
Put your pinwheel on a metal rod, which you in turn place directly in a vole exit.
tips
It makes sense to build several windmills or can scarecrows and place them on different vole piles or combine them with other home remedies to drive away voles.