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How to Get Rid of Voles Without Poison

Voles can chew up your plants and form tunnels throughout your lawn. Learn how to identify and get rid of voles.

What is a Vole? How Can I Identify Vole Damage?

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Are your garden beds and lawn starting to look like a miniature subway system? You may have voles to thank. These sneaky little rodents tunnel just under the surface, feasting on your plants and grass roots as they go. Unlike their mole cousins, voles are plant-munching machines that leave behind winding, snakelike trails in your turf. But don’t worry, we’ve got everything you need to identify voles vs. moles, prevent further damage, and kick these furry squatters to the curb. Here’s how to get rid of voles and reclaim your yard!

What’s the Difference Between Voles and Moles?

First off, voles are not moles! People confuse the two animals because they both tunnel through your yard and are small, dark-colored mammals. You might not have seen either critter since they’re usually underground, but they look very different up close. Voles are small, stocky rodents similar to field mice. In fact, a vole might look like a mouse at first glance. In contrast, moles are NOT rodents. Moles are all nose and mouth. And they have big feet used for digging! See our article on dealing with moles here.

Voles have small, rounded ears that are often hidden by their fur, small eyes, and short tails. Their fur is generally thick and light brown to gray. Two common species of voles in North America are the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) and the meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus). Meadow voles are more widely distributed, but prairie voles are more common in grassland and prairie areas. They are very similar, and the methods for controlling them are mostly the same.

What Do Voles Eat?

Like many other rodents, Voles are omnivores, meaning they’ll eat almost anything. However, voles have a primarily vegetarian diet; they mainly eat stems and blades of lawn grass, so it’s usually vole tunnels that you’ll see near the yard’s surface. Moles, on the other hand, have a mainly carnivorous diet consisting of invertebrates. (Moles are actually beneficial in many ways. They help plow the soil and eat pest larvae and insects!)

It’s helpful to know this difference not only because it will help you identify the damage (see below) but also because a vole bait might use peanut butter, whereas moles would be more interested in an insect or earthworm.

If it helps, remember that their frenzied activity does subside. Vole populations cycle, and about every 2 to 5 years, there will be a population boom. Mild winters with good snowfall can help to increase vole populations, as the voles can travel beneath the snow cover, safe from predators.

vole in the yard, varmin, rodent
Many of the same methods that you use to get rid of mice can be used to get rid of voles; after all, voles are commonly referred to as “meadow mice.”
Photo Credit: Washington State University. 

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Identification

How to Identify Vole Damage

You’ll know voles by the shallow, snakelike tunnels that you’ll see all over your lawn. The tunnels are about 2 inches wide and very near the surface so they can eat their favorite foods: grass stems and blades. Voles are especially manic in the early springtime.

Moles, on the other hand, have deeper feeding tunnels that they use as a network. They do have secondary runways that appear on your lawn’s surface; however, they look more like raised ridges and have little volcano-shaped mounds. Voles leave no mounds behind. 

You’ll also be able to identify voles by the type of damage. Remember: It’s the voles who are plant eaters.

  • If you have partially eaten carrots, potatoes, or other root vegetables in your garden, you probably have a vole problem. According to one reader, “They dig under my carrots, pulling them down, and eating them. There’s just a row of holes where the carrots were. It’s kind of amusing, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon. They’re a real pest this year.”
  • Voles also eat flower bulbs from below the ground as they’re near the surface.  
  • If you see chewed-up bark near the base of trees and shrubs, look closely. A vole’s front teeth will leave ¼ inch side-by-side grooves in the wood as it gnaws away on the bark. (They’re rodents, after all!)
  • Voles also tunnel through any root system, causing damage to trees and shrubs. If you see young trees or shrubs leaning over, it may be due to vole activity.

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Control and Prevention

How to Get Rid of Voles

If you’ve come to this page, we assume you’re looking for immediate ways to deal with these crazy voles! If it’s too late for preventative measures, consider these control measures:

  • In small areas, trapping may be an effective way of reducing vole populations. Try Havahart live vole traps situated perpendicular to the widest vole runways or near the nesting sites at the base of trees and shrubs. Bait traps with peanut butter. Set baits midday to early evening when voles get more active. Reset the traps as often as necessary until you eliminate the population. Relocate voles if it’s legal where you live. (Note that it may not be!) The key to trapping is persistence. You may want to cover the traps so that pets and children do not accidentally find them.
  • Repellents have mixed results and need to be reapplied after it rains. Garden stores sell fox or coyote (vole predator) urine, which usually turns off voles.
  • Bulb control? You can discourage voles from nibbling on bulbs by adding gravel to the planting hole (surrounding the bulbs). When you plant bulbs, drench or powder them with a fungicide to keep voles at bay.
  • Vole damage to tree bark is best prevented by encircling the tree with a light-colored tree guard (mesh or hardware cloth). The guard should be tall enough to reach above the snow line in the winter, and the base should be buried in the soil or have a soil ridge around it. Make sure that the guard is loose enough so that it does not constrict the tree.
  • Voles in the veggie garden? These little critters aren’t very good climbers. Protect plants by fencing the area with a half-inch of mesh (hardware cloth), at least 12 inches above the ground, and burying them 6 to 10 inches deep.
  • Some readers have suggested a variety of irritants sprinkled into vole tunnels (from natural to chemical): cayenne powder, garlic, onion, castor oil, a little nitrogen fertilizer, and ammonia. In many cases, these ingredients can be mixed with water or soapy water and put in a spray bottle. However, you will need to reapply after it rains.
  • One of the best control methods is an outdoor cat or a dog that is a specialized ratter!
  • If you are desperate and about to sell your home, large vole populations have been effectively reduced with baits. However, most pesticides recommended for voles are restricted and can only be used by Certified Pesticide Applicators. Contact your local Extension educators for more information.
  • While the damage may look visible in early spring, it is rarely permanent. Vole activity is heaviest in the springtime in most regions and does subside! Simply rake up the dead grass and reseed the area. As the surrounding grass grows, it will cover up the trails. 

How to Prevent Vole Damage

Make your yard inhospitable to voles! Prevention is very important to keep vole numbers down.

  • Voles like dense, heavy vegetative cover, weeds, and meadows because they provide them with protection from predators and provide nesting material. Cut back brush, mow, weed, and create a clean space.
  • Remove woodpiles and hiding places for voles from near your garden, shrubs, and trees.
  • Keep your lawn mowed and bushes trimmed up from the ground.
  • Avoid putting dense mulch too close to trees and shrubs.
  • Keep snow cleared from the base of trees and shrubs. Protect young trees by wrapping the lower trunk with a chew-proof material (such as small-grade hardware cloth).
  • Bird feeders are another attraction for voles and should either be removed, or the ground kept very clean to keep vole numbers down.
  • Fortunately, voles are a prime food source for many predators, such as snakes, hawks, owls, foxes, and badgers!

Learn more about common garden pests like mice and groundhogs.

Garden Pests
About The Author
Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the website companion of The Old Farmer's Almanac. She covers gardening, plants, pest control, soil composition, seasonal and moon c...
Read More from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Kathy</span> Mon, 07/09/2018 - 15:25
I have the mounds of earth for the moles. I can see the runs in my beds where the voles tunnel while they chew the roots off my plant's. They destroy the plants and do not eat the vegetables. They've destroyed tomatos, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and more, much more. We've tried repellents, poison beans and worms none worked! Put hardware screen in the bottom of the beds, that worked! Now we have to do the whole garden. I have two cats out there too. We tried milky spore to get rid of the grubs. Not sure if it's working yet. It takes a while for that to happen. Hey I'll try peanut butter and the bucket ideas what do I have to loose. I kid you not, these critters shoved a poison worm back up through the hole I put it in. I think they were trying to tell me something.
<span>Alp</span> Mon, 07/09/2018 - 08:19
In the last paragraph, you say "moles", I think it should be "voles"?
<span>Jenny</span> Wed, 05/02/2018 - 15:40
I have very few in my yard anymore since I have a cat (Shadow) that will kill every one she gets her paws on. :)
<span>Bernadette</span> Sun, 04/29/2018 - 11:27
Whether it's my shady northern exposure or my backyard wildlife habitat with no tilling and lots of groundcovers, I have always had voles everywhere. And I was going to add to your list until I saw the last point--a cat who can patrol the garden and yard. I don't let my cats roam, but one or two go outdoors with me for a time nearly every day when I hang out the laundry and work outside. Once they discovered the garden had voles they decided voles existed as an important supplement to their diet, and the problem was, for the most part, solved. When we haven't been able to go outdoors for a period of time, my work schedule usually, the difference is noticeable. But then they manage to find a way into the basement, so at least the cats still have some environmental enrichment.
<span>Neil Hanson</span> Fri, 04/27/2018 - 17:09
I have been thinking the past few years that grubs are what attracts voles so if I use grub repellent voles won't have anything to come to.
<span>Roger Wimpfheimer</span> Fri, 07/06/2018 - 10:19
Vole are vegitarians. Not carnivor. Mole are carnivors.
<span>Stewart</span> Fri, 01/04/2019 - 07:42
You are 99% correct in that plant material is the primary food of voles but they actually eat their own dead and they will eat other dead animals they find in their area. At daylight one morning i noticed movement at the base of a tree near my kitchen window. I quietly eased outside to see 3 voles scurrying away from a mostly eaten vole. There was not much left. I later read that it is common for them to eat their dead which would explain why it’s rare to find a dead vole because most die in the underground dens where they become dinner for the family and the few that die while above ground are quickly eaten by those not-so-cute little demons. In my yard they also completely devoured a small stuffed aligator head, bones and all over the course of a couple of months. I checked it daily watched the skin disappear fist, then i placed a drop light 8 feet above it so i could watch with binoculars from the house. Every night several voles spent hours chewing away at the heads. The interesting thing is after the glass eyes of the stuffed gator head fell to the ground, other voles, what looked to be juvenile voles were pushing the red marble sized glass eyes around a large area just playing with fhem. Everyday after that and today i still look around to see where the “vole soccer balls” ended up after being played with again all night. Sometimes they’re 60 or 70 feet from where they were the night before. I wish voles weren’t so horribly distructive and didn’t carry so many parasites into my yard like ticks, fleas and lice. We’d become pals if not for all that.
<span>Ray Lewis</span> Fri, 04/27/2018 - 13:30
All you need is a plastic 5 gal bucket, 3 mouse traps and black oil sunflower seeds per set. Load and set the mouse traps close around the hole so the bucket will fit over all of them without tripping them then lift the bucket and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on and around the traps. Carefully set the bucket over the traps in the afternoon and you'll have them over night. Trap the same hole until you don't catch any more for a day or 2. To tell if they are Voles or Mole trails is easy, Voles will have a breathing hole in the run about every 4 to 6 feet, Moles won't. To get rid of the Moles use a spike trap on the fresh trails and keep moving them to the fresh trails. Patients and persistence will get rid of them without any poisons that could harm your pets.
<span>Alice Duncan</span> Sat, 06/09/2018 - 09:25
if you are (I assume) turning the bucket upside down, how do the voles get in? do you carve a 'door' opening or just prop up the bucket on one side?
<span>Mike</span> Mon, 07/09/2018 - 08:18
Alice Duncan, The voles come up from their hole in the ground and the bucket makes a "dome" over the hole and set traps. So no doors in the bucket access is via the hole in the ground.