I’m reviving this topic which was last posted in August. I walked down to the orchard to find that the voles were luxuriating in the soft wet dirt and leaving horrible tunnels to multiple trees.
As I described in other posts I have tried sound, vibration, baited traps, pellets, carbon monoxide, fire and explosions, all without success. I have multiple animals that help some with voles and I’m not willing to use poison. I lost a dog to rat poison once and I’m not going down that road.
I was wondering what traps seem most successful without putting pets at risk. I have caught a few previously with mouse traps but they were not much of a success.
The previous posts included this pic and I just have to include it here
My dogs murder voles in large numbers in the garden. They even keep pack rats on the move. We also have owls, hawks, coyote, and many other less known vole predators. Predators such as mink are very good at controlling voles and we do have them in my location. Mink stole furs fell out of popularity with the rich and famous ladies a number of years ago. The younger gentleman seldom trap in my area anymore. There was lots of money in trapping the predators in the old days so many people did.
Has anyone tried Muscovy Ducks? When I was researching ducks for my orchard I found this breed eats rodents. I was planning on trying this- hopefully there isn’t too much damage before I am able to get them. Raw chopped up onions worked but only temporarily - once it rains the onions don’t smell bad anymore and need to be reapplied. At this point for me now the voles seems rampant. While walking the dogs I notice big holes and tunnels probably pine and meadow voles.
I’m going to get the ducks however I can’t imagine they move fast enough to catch a bunch of annoying little voles.
Also- Any thoughts on a concrete trench around my orchard fence?
Again just brainstorming - I’d like to get advice from people who have done things from experience and not just the idea of the experiment lol
You can use hardware cloth around a perimeter to keep out voles, as long as you are a glutton for punishing work and spending money. The moat in this picture is not part of the defense system, just the result of a high water table and runoff from the hoophouse plastic.
We used 1/4 inch hardware cloth because voles can get through surprisingly small openings. We went with the 2-foot roll of hardware cloth because it’s common and therefor more economical. Most sources recommended at least 12 inches below the surface, but we went 16" with a 4" outfacing “L” at the bottom, and a few inches above the ground to attach to the hoophouse baseboard. Three seasons and zero voles (rarely, a mouse will sneak in through a gap and end up in a trap).
We did the same for the blueberry enclosure and it has worked equally well, but I’ve never installed this type of barrier on a perimeter fence.
I thought about a subterranean barrier but it would have added a lot of hassle to my high tunnel construction. this fall, I spread a layer of crushed stone several inches deep and about 2-3’ wide as a vole barrier. I think it will help quite a bit, but will have to wait and see
Keep us posted por favor. Hardware cloth is a pain to deal with, so viable alternatives would be nice. I’ve started jamming sharp gravel in vole holes around fruit trees and then filling in with sand. So far so good.
