How to get rid of Voles??
 

These little jerks are destroying our yard, have been active for what seems like s year and love our fresh sod. Tried traps, pads, flooding holes with water, wife freaked out and poured gas down the holes, nada, still going.

Any suggestions? Have put up with the dirt moundd and soft grass area for way too long, am tired.

Have u tried the sonic spikes that go into the ground and send sound and vibrations into the ground supposed to keep them out and get rid of them. I know there is solar ones not sure if there are plug in ones as well. There are also smoke bombs to gas them out.

Had them! Not no more! Works Great!
https://i.imgur.com/6ERjB3H.jpg

https://www.halfordsmailorder.com/go...-acblackholetr

I have never had a trap out for more than 12 hours without a catch. All you do is open up the tunnel and stick the trap in so the white end is sticking out.

We used the sulphur gas bombs you get at home depot. Most effective and easy to use.

You can hire my wife, she just beat one to death with her broom. Thank Christ she had it in park. We have a serious infestation and are setting out traps.

Moles or voles??? Two different animals.

Pocket gopher or vole? Big difference.
Those traps work well for pocket gophers

There is some confusion it seems

I’m thinking you mean moles, not voles. If you use traps they are very easy and effective. Find the hole dig it out in the direction of the tunnel that shoots off of the hole and stick trap in with the little hole in the one end of trap sticking out. Don’t put a pail or board over the hole you stuck the trap in or they will just backfill your trap and it won’t get them. A mole tries to cover up the light so that’s why you need to leave the little hole in the end of the trap uncovered, it’ll shine light down the tunnel and the mole will try to go cover the light and “wammo” you have yourself a mole.
Caught hundreds this way and if set properly they’ll hit it in a few hours. Moles hate the light shining in their tunnels. Flooding holes isn’t very effective unless u can rush gallons of water at one time as they will have a fail safe for floods, set of tunnels dug deeper for heavy rainfall to go so it doesn’t drown them out. Just like gophers do.

If it is actually a vole They are a different creature (big mouse like) and I don’t have any suggestions.

We don't have moles, voles or pocket gophers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTEzqB5wjcE

Grizz

Thought they were moles but they were very active over winter...guy who supposedly knows a lot about critters said they were voles. To be fair he drink a ton so who knows if he is right.

Not my specialty but dirt mounds and what I had read seemed to match what we see. Redid lawn last year with new sod, wasnt cheap and looks like crap, was a waste. Should have made a huge concrete pad for my old junk like wife suggested.

Thanks for tips will try them out, nothing to lose!

Get a cat

If you have dirt mounds it’s not voles! Voles leave little trenches throughout the grass almost surface level and every so often a hole will be dig down but no mounds.

In mild to semi cold weather moles will be active through winter especially if the ground is softer (fresh yard/sod). Whereas voles are active through winter as well but you won’t see mounds you’ll have them trenching the grass under the snow and when the snow melts you’ll be left with lots of zigzag lines in your grass.

Ok maybe it is moles? Either way we will try the poison and gas bombs and hope for the best..thanks again.

Voles like fruit. Place a small piece of apple on wood victor trap right in front of their hole. If you have moles,(dirt mound) piece of plastic pipe on quad tail pipe with choke pulled. The CO does nice job of putting them to sleep forever, already buried.

If a dirt mound they are easiest to trap. Can get the leg hold or the ones with a tunnel and a small hole. Leg hold you just dig into the mound to find the hole then put it in the hole. Then put a board or cardboard over it and cover the board with dirt. Leave a very small opening with light and they will go to fill it back in.

Unconventional my uncle used to swear by wrigleys doublemint gum. Needs to be the old style which comes in the tinfoil wrapper. Don't open it at all and put the whole piece on top the dirt mound.

Now I have the issue with voles. Been trapping them under my cement walkway. Fed them the green poison blocks and they just ate it all daily for a week so I started trapping them on the way to the poison. Ate so much they were crapping green so obviously wasn't working. Going to try the type mentioned above to see if it works better but may be the same poison.

Your post took me back many years ago when I bought my place.

Bad Pocket Gopher problem.

One place they had dirt piles on both sides of the lane way.

So, I opened up 6-8 holes & put my Tiger Torch end in each hole & run it for a few minutes - unlit.
Idea is, the Propane will displace the O2 & kill them. It works.....

But then I had the (dumb) idea of lighting the torch & touching off a hole, after about 4-5 minutes running.

What I didn't expect was all the holes connected.....BOOM / Earth Quake !

Scared me big time ! Didn't know which way to run :sHa_sarcasticlol:

After I calmed down...... I started grinning & went to another part of the yard to repeat :sHa_shakeshout:

Death Klutch 1
 

If you have pocket gophers I would highly recommend a trap I bought from Wildlife Control Specialists (Ontario) I could not find them available any closer. The trap is called the DK-1 (Death Klutch - 1) I thought I had moles and tried every mole trap known to man without success. Once I got the DK-1 traps problem solved in a day or two. I bought 2 in order to put 1 in each direction of their tunnel.

Revees, enjoyed your story, agree the propane should work but without a lighter. You must have been like the movie with Chevy Chase and golf course grounds keeper getting rid of gophers with dynamite.

The wife dosen't want me to use kill traps because of all the other critters that could get caught, so I mixed up a Lambs Navy rum and coke, put the lawn chair 5 feet from the door to vole central, got my trusty 10 pump pellet pistol and after 2 hours had me three trophy voles. Time to mix up another rum and coke and get ready for the evening hunt.

This is the only quote you need - Dean2 nails it. Its called a "Giant Destroyer". My wife and I periodically deal with voles at our place and the only thing that really knocks the population down is these things. Make sure to look for any holes, plug all but one (wetting the surface helps to trap gas below ground) and have a bit of dirt on-hand to backfill the hole you shove the bomb into. You can hear this thing emitting gas for a few minutes - very effective.