Posted on 12/19/2021 1:47:49 PM PST by Mean Daddy
Finding out that not much works for voles. Trying a product called Volex but not holding my breath. Tracking powders look promising provided they walk through it and groom but powders are hard to come by. Thinking about getting a car battery, putting two rods in the ground and picking them off with a pellet gun. I know they have rodent systems that puts propane and oxygen in the hole, ignites and instantly kills but can't find anyone in my area that does that. Not sure I want to go that route either since it's a neighborhood.
What is Voles? I have moles—is a vole a cousin?
We had a young orange cat who took out the whole population in short order. Find a young cat from good farm cat stock, orange ones are best, grey tabbies second, and let them have at it.
Get an outdoor cat. Works every time.
Get an owl.
My rat terrier takes care of things like this.
Go out to the back yard and in your loudest voice sing “Vole -la -re! Oh! Oh!”
Powders are ineffective; get a good mouser cat.
Our neighbor’s cat sneaks out at night and goes to work—I don’t even think our neighbor knows—and I am not telling them about the jailbreaks!
See post #8.
I have been at war with some voles/moles for a couple years. I have had some success trapping them. The traps are small spring traps that you place in active tunnels. I can try to find you link to see the traps. Just ask if you want me to.
mothballs
Ditto with a barn cat. problem is they take out all your birds if you like them.
Most people know them as field mice. 🙂
Had voles tunneling in the garden. At the time, the guy at the hardware store said to use pieces of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum placed near the tunnel openings. Said the voles would basically gum up their mouths with the chewing gum. Figured for under $1 I’d give it a try. It was also safe around kids and pets, which was nice. I didn’t think it would work, but I swear the voles were gone in short order.
Here is a YouTube video by someone who also said it worked...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCdH2ERagXY
My cats always caught voles like crazy, even the old lazy ones. If you don’t want a nice kitty, you can get yourself a passel of possums, a fine mole kingsnake, and a few owls. And foxes. Foxes are cool.
You can also plant borders of monkey grass. The voles will munch on it in preference to other things, and that stuff is unkillable.
The city re-did the streets and storm sewers in our downtown area one year and the adjacent residential areas were flooded with displaced mice and voles.
We had been feeding the bird for years prior to this and had never seen such rodent activity, and then, poof, the mice/voles were gone.
It turned out that a half-grown kitten had been dumped in the area and he must have been good farm stock, because he made short work of the varmints.
After his food source was gone, he showed up looking for a home and we obliged. RIP Jackson Silver
https://www.havahart.com/how-to-repel-voles
One interesting trait about voles is their diet. Some species live almost entirely on truffles.
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