Nobody likes voles in the garden, but how do you get rid of them? Control methods range from anti-vole plants to butyric acid and gunshot traps. Below we give you an overview of the ways to fight a vole and explain how to prevent it from coming back.

Voles usually occur alone

Table of Contents

Show all
  1. the essentials in brief
  2. Identify voles in the garden
  3. The control methods with their advantages and disadvantages
  4. Animal-friendly control methods
  5. Catch the vole with a live trap
  6. Killing traps for voles
  7. poison voles
  8. Keep vole away

    9. the essentials in brief

    • For animal lovers, gentle methods of controlling voles include water, buttermilk, vole repellents, and other noise and odor emitters to choose from.
    • Catching the vole with a live trap is only an animal-friendly option if you check the trap several times a day. Otherwise the animal can die here in agony.
    • Kill traps include snap traps, pincer traps, and shot traps. We generally discourage killing traps.

    Identify voles in the garden

    A vole is often discovered quite late, especially if you don't have a vegetable garden: its holes are not as conspicuous as those of a mole, and the damage is usually only visible when plants above ground die or nibbled vegetables are harvested. Here's how to recognize a vole:

    • Holes in the lawn or in the vegetable garden with small hills around them
    • Eaten roots, especially on clematis, root vegetables and fruit trees, the favorite food of voles

    digression

    Distinguish between voles and moles

    Voles and moles both litter and live in a subterranean burrow system. But that's where the similarities end: while voles damage garden plants, moles only eat insects, often even pests, and loosen the garden soil. Their damage is purely visual. Moles are protected and must not be caught or killed. Read here how to distinguish moles from voles by their holes. Before you fight the vole, you should be sure that it really is one.

    Molehills (pictured here) are larger and more numerous than volehills

    The control methods with their advantages and disadvantages

    control method benefits disadvantage
    vole scarecrow Inexpensive, easy to build yourself, pet friendly Limited effectiveness
    Scent bombs like buttermilk Made cheaply and quickly Limited effectiveness
    ultrasonic devices Pretty effective Also drives away other useful animals
    aisles flood Easy and fast Limited effectiveness
    live trap Success directly visible, animal friendly Must be checked several times a day
    snap trap Success directly visible Vole suffers, danger when putting up
    pincer trap Success directly visible Vole suffers, danger when putting up
    shot trap Success directly visible Danger when setting up
    poison Very effective Harmful to other animals and humans

    Voles are not protected and may therefore be driven away, caught and killed; nevertheless, suffering of the animal is to be prevented.

    Animal-friendly control methods

    Gentle control methods are particularly effective when they are used in combination over a longer period of time. The aim is to make the vole's stay as uncomfortable as possible and thus to drive them away. You have various options for this:

    aisles flood

    Who likes to get their feet wet at home? Even the vole doesn't like water in the passage. To flood the aisles, do the following:

    1. Locate a vole hole and dig it wide enough to fit your garden hose.
    2. Insert the hose and turn on the water.
    3. Wait at least 10 minutes.
    4. Then find another entry hole and repeat the process.

    This method alone will not be enough to control the vole. However, if you combine it with the following measures, it can certainly help the vole to flee.

    butyric acid

    Butyric acid stinks horribly as soon as it comes into contact with oxygen and moisture. Voles don't like that - and neither do humans. However, the fumes are caustic and harmful to both voles and humans. It therefore makes sense to use buttermilk instead of pure butyric acid, which has a similar but less harmful effect:

    1. Put the buttermilk on a rag and stuff it in a vole hole.
    2. Repeat the process for at least two more holes.
    3. If you do use butyric acid, be sure to protect your skin, eyes, and respiratory tract.

    vole scarecrow

    Voles have delicate ears and don't like noise. Therefore, they can be easily driven away with "noisy" wind chimes, which make hardly any noise to our ears. The purpose is to direct the vibrations into the earth. To make your own vole scare you need a metal rod and noise generators to attach to it. This can be, for example, two cans of threads that hit each other in the wind or a classic wind chime. You can also find vole scarers in specialist shops or online.

    ultrasonic devices

    Ultrasonic devices are not a good option when fighting voles

    Ultrasonic devices are advertised a lot in specialist shops. The problem: Not only voles don't like the high tones, other garden visitors such as moles, bats and pets can't stand the noise either. We therefore advise, as mentioned above, to build a vole scare yourself.

    Other smelly remedies

    Voles have a very fine sense of smell. Use it to fight them and get creative! Build your own "scent bombs" and place them in the vole tunnels. Here are a few ideas of what might make voles flee:

    • cat or dog excrement
    • Fragrant herbs such as lavender, mint or marjoram, especially in the form of essential oils
    • fish scraps
    • horseradish
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    tips

    Have you just planted a fruit tree and want to protect it from being eaten by voles? Surround the tree with a close-meshed wire basket that protrudes a few inches above the ground. So the vole cannot reach the tasty root.

    Catch the vole with a live trap

    Live traps are very popular because the success is visible and at the same time you feel good because you didn't kill the mouse. Nevertheless, live traps have fallen into disrepute among animal rights activists. Why? The problem is that you have to check a live trap several times a day. If a vole falls into the trap, it won't survive long without food and water. So if you only check the trap a few times a week, you run the risk of letting the vole die in the trap in agony.

    Set up the live vole trap correctly

    When setting up the vole trap, there are three things to consider:

    • human smell: Be sure to use odorless gloves and avoid any direct contact with the trap. So no "human smell" sticks to it.
    • attractant: Whoever wants to equip a trap probably thinks first of cheese and bacon. Voles are strictly herbivores. Fill the trap with vole treats, not mouse treats! Place root vegetables such as carrots, cabbage or other in the trap.
    • location: Dig a vole exit far enough for the live trap to fit inside. Many traps have entrances on both sides. If this is the case, the trap should also be accessible from both sides. Place the trap inside and bury it. Use gloves when doing this.

    Killing traps for voles

    snap traps

    A vole snap trap looks a little different than a classic mouse trap

    The vole snap trap looks a little different than the typical mouse trap as it is inserted into the passage from above. But the principle is the same: when touched, the trap snaps shut and kills the mouse.
    It's not a good option, because it can happen that the mouse doesn't get caught on the head but on another part of the body and thus doesn't die immediately, but dies painfully slowly.

    pincer traps

    In contrast to the snap trap, the pincer trap does not strike from above, but crushes the vole between two pincers. As you can imagine, the same risks apply here as with the snap trap: the vole may suffer for an unnecessarily long time before dying from the injuries.

    shot traps

    Shot traps are advertised by the manufacturers mainly because the vole allegedly does not suffer from them, but dies immediately. With this type of trap, which is loaded with a cartridge, there is a risk of injury to the user when it is set up. This trap is particularly dangerous for small children and pets, who may dig it up and be seriously injured when it is triggered.

    poison voles

    The worst method of all is to poison the vole. Vole poison is strongly discouraged for several reasons:

    • The vole dies in agony.
    • The venom is also toxic to other animals such as moles and pets.
    • The agent poisons the soil, microorganisms and water.
    • You must periodically inspect the corridor for success in order to dispose of the dead vole in time before it begins to decompose.

    Keep vole away

    So that your garden is not infested by voles again, you can maintain a few measures, such as the vole scare. You can also grow plants that voles don't like, such as crown imperials, mulleins, lilies, or daffodils. You can protect particularly valuable or endangered plants with a wire basket. Close-meshed wire should always be laid under raised beds to prevent voles from entering.

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Animals in the garden