How do you control voles?
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Vole Control with Gopher's Purge?
Comments (22)I'd like to clarify one point - the enemies here are the voles, which are herbivores; moles are carniverous and do not eat rose roots or roots of any other plant, they feed on grubs and insects. They do make unsightly tunnels and tear up the lawn, which is obviously why golf courses hate them. Castor oil may be effective against moles - but I can tell you I have tried it without success in controlling the voles. I have tried every known solution: poison, mothballs, vibrating stakes, castor oil, molemax and have found that the only reasonable solution is to plant everything in holes lined with wire mesh (thank you, Kaye). However, even that is not foolproof, as witnessed by the rose I lost last weekend which was planted this way. George...See MoreHow do you get rid of voles?
Comments (5)Jan - the only thing I know to do is go to Lowes or Home Depot and get some poison. I have used the kind that is peanut flavored and is in pellet form. The only problem is you have to find an active tunnel. Go to the Gardenweb hosta forum and search for voles. You will see other ideas there. The link below describes my vole problem. For hostas, instead of just planting them in the ground, I now put them in large pots and then sink the pot in the ground. You can also protect the area by digging out the soil and placing chicken wire in the ground and replace the soil. When I was at Carter's nursery in Athens last week, the owner talked of terrible problems with voles and he has found no way to stop them. They are supposed to multiply rapidly. Here is a link that might be useful: Embarking on a hosta rescue mission...See MoreVOLES! What do you do?
Comments (16)Years ago I started planting in wire cages to keep voles at bay, then I discovered that the voles tunneled around the outside of the cages creating air pockets and either stunting the plant's growth or killing them. I have since discovered Permatil, which is the same product as Vole Bloc but less expensive. If you have a vole-friendly environment you'd have to raid the local SPCA for enough outdoor/micer cats to kill the voles year-round. When using Permatil, remember to put 1-2" on the soil around the plant. I may try experimenting with regular gravel this year, as Permatil can get quite pricey. BTW, moles eat grubs and voles eat vegetable matter, (roots and stems), and, rarely, insects. Therefore, Milky Spore and nematodes will not deter voles. And, as far as moth balls go, they are quite toxic to animals, including the human animal....See MoreOrganic Control for Voles - Castor Oil
Comments (13)Okay. This is spring of 2016 in CO (got hit with some snow storms already). Anyway, I had vole infestation in 2014-2015 winter. I noticed the google maps of streets (runways) on my backyard in Spring of 2015 after snow cover had disappeared on my north facing backyard. Thought that some pipes had burst, only to see a small pipe running around in the runway. Then I found out what a vole was. Being softy and all, I didn't want to kill them. So I happened on this webpage and waited for Fall 2015. I applied castor oil (from laxatives at walmart) along with dish soap, 2-3 times on a weekly basis. Hoping that these critters would go away and I'll have a good lawn in 2016 spring. Here we are. 2016 spring and I have more runways than last year. So it definitely didn't work for me. I'm gonna man up and Kaput the heck out of these guys in fall 2016 now. These guys need to die....See Moremad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
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