Voles can be addressed through a trapping program in the spring, or a winter baiting program during the snowy months.
Limiting tall grasses and densely wooded areas on your property goes a long way towards controlling the available habitat. Limiting landscaping walls of rock, block, boulder or stone will also limit their available harborage areas. Lawns should be trimmed mid length too short to avoid creating an environment in which they can safely range out from cover.
Voles will continue to plague the same area unless an extinction event occurs. They reproduce more prolifically than any other mammal in the United States, with the possibility of over 100,000 multi-generational offspring from one pregnant vole over the course of a year. Luckily, their high mortality rate leads many local populations to settle in the neighborhood of 1,800 voles. That does not lend to them “going away.”
By the time homeowners discover the damage to their lawns, the voles have already retreated to denser cover for the summer. If a homeowner has continued issues with them in the gardens, or plans to plant fresh sod, it makes sense to trap. Otherwise, it is often more effective to simply wait for fall and begin a seasonal baiting program.
Stations will be serviced every 3 weeks until activity decreases. We have found that if the population is controlled early on in the winter it will hold through the frost. Control is typically achieved in 4-8 visits each winter.
Voles do not hibernate. They are active year round, ranging out from their summer harborages under cover of snow.
Voles will travel along the surface of the ground where the grass meets the dirt, trampling the same paths and eating anything they can along the way. This creates the maze of dead grass runs.
Voles walk along the surface of the ground, while moles will burrow up to 4 feet down into tunnel systems they have created. Entrances will look like holes in the ground surrounded by mounds, like an ant hill.
This is not typical, but can occasionally be witnessed here in Minnesota.
Please fill out this form if you are interested in vole control services. All of our services are fully warrantied! A representative of Abra Kadabra Environmental Services will be in touch with you shortly.
