How to Eliminate Voles Naturally
- 1). Confirm that you in fact have voles, and not moles, since the strategies in dealing with the two will differ. Voles make smaller, more numerous holes, which concentrate around gardens. The most significant difference is the mole's need to push up the ground above its tunnel a couple of inches because of its size. The vole is not large enough to make the long ridges the mole's tunnel makes.
- 2). Repel voles with castor oil pellets, which you can pick up at the local hardware store. Apply in the amount indicated by the instructions on the packaging. Alternatively, use capsaicin, the oil found in hot peppers. The aim is to make the vegetation taste bad to the voles.
- 3). Catch live voles using a double-door trap. Bait it with peanut butter and chocolate. Voles are shy of wide-open spaces, so cover the trap with leaves to provide them with cover. Release trapped voles into fields or forests at least a mile from your home. A block away is inadequate, since their hole network can extend up to hundreds of yards.
- 4). Affix a crossbeam some 8 to 12 feet above the ground, preferably near the garden. With time, an owl or hawk may come to roost on it and patrol the area for voles from then on. Alternatively, install an owl nest box, which you can purchase at hardware stores and possibly pet stores.
- 5). Rescue a shelter cat or get a Jack Russell terrier. The latter were originally bred as ratters.
- 6). Clean up ground cover, like leaves. The vole doesn't like wide-open spaces, which is understandable given that hawks and owls are its natural enemies.
