I don't want to be a bad citizen

===>>> i would have a real problem with my neighbor harboring and encouraging vermin .... and would be calling the city about the situation ...

get rid of them ...

what are you throwing in the pile that is attracting them????

ken

Veeta unless you live outside of a municipal jurisdiction, I would call and report the problem. However, a very large percentage of the population lives without that kind of protection.

Ken, lots of compost fodder would provide a treat fir voles : veggie peelings, veggie scraps, tender weeds, prunings, and such other tidbits. Just last night, I contributed the stringy ends of beets and sweet potatoes, outer leaves of a head of lettuce, and an armful of weeds to the diet of any rodents that may be interested.

Veeta, keep your garden tidy and provide as little habitat as possible. Good luck!

A barn owl was found in someones barn very lethargic and was taken to a wildlife rehab senter where tests indicated the barn owl was suffereing from eating rat poison. After lots of Vitamin K and TLC that barn owl, a predator of voles and other small rodents, appears to be on the mend.
This kind of thing, as was pointed out many years ago by Racheal Carson in Silent Spring, is a consequence of the actions we take. Everything we do affects something else somewhere, good or bad, and we need to be aware of that.
In this instance one persons failure to keep the yard neat and orderly is, apparently, providing a haven for vermin that visit another persons yard. The question we need to ask is what is the long range affect of whatever action I might take, aside from maybe barn owls what other predators might my actions adversely affect.

If you do decide to lessen them, please use snap traps (baited with peanut butter), not poison. I place the traps across their trails and cover the trap with a pot and a heavy rock on top to protect other animals.

Voles are plant eaters and are not likely to invade your house like mice and rats. As prey increases, predators do too but with a lag time. And the prey may have and advantage with the extra food source and protection.

I had a rat living next to my preformed pond and left it alone. I enjoyed seeing it occasionally and since I back to woods, I felt it belonged with the wildlife. My dog eventually killed it but the babies got into my garage and gnawed a hole through the wall and got into my basement. I was able to get rid of them (I hope) but I did learn a lesson.

Well it is a compost pile, Ken, so it has vegetable peel and other assorted plant matter that voles eat. They were in the yard when we moved in, well before the pile was started.
I have no plans to use poison, because there are hawks and foxes in the neighborhood, and I have seen cats eat them with my own eyes.
If I start down the trap route, I'll be trapping every day for the conceivable future--not really an appealing prospect, and possibly not even effective for at least two large yards' worth. As I said, they can merely go through the fence where they live in the wilds of my neighbor's yard. He's a good neighbor otherwise, and it is his right to have--among other things--English ivy growing in his yard, which is the perfect vole habitat. I can't force him to have a neat yard. I do not have dense ground cover in my yard.
I still don't know the solution, but even the University of Minnesota Extension service says the following:
"Remember the voles are always there and for a great portion of the year they go unnoticed. In an average year it may not even be worth the effort to control the population."

I'm not sure why you are looking for a solution when there doesn't seem to be a problem.