Last year we had a pretty bad problem with groundhogs and voles destroying our vegetable gardens. In our area…there aren’t many natural predators to take care of them, so we had an abundance of both running around and living in our backyard! They destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of garden plants and vegetables in just 2 short months!
After doing some research we learned a few things about Voles which really seemed to help. Here’s what we learned, perhaps it will help some of you who may be battling the same problem.
1. The love to eat grass, weeds and vegetables. Keep your grass mowed and get rid of weeds as much as possible!
2. Place a fence around your garden. We fenced in 2 of our smaller vegetable gardens and next year we’ll be fencing in the larger one too. The fencing doesn’t need to be 6 foot high, we used chicken wire about 3 1/2 foot to 4 foot high.
3. You can opt to trap them and relocate them to another area. We purchased a small, humane trap from Amazon and baited it with creamy peanut butter. Hubby successfully caught and released at least a dozen last summer in a new area 5 miles away.
4. A local gardening center sells red fox urine and we sprayed that around the perimeter of our yard. The only drawback to that was…it can be expensive and after it rains or you water the garden you’ll need to reapply it.
5. If you have an outdoor cat or dog…let them roam around your garden. Their urine and scent can scare voles away. Better yet, if your cat is a natural “mouser” let them catch and kill the voles naturally. Hey, it’s part of the natural food chain. Sadly, neither one of these were an option for us.
The photo in my post is of a newborn baby vole that my husband accidentally dug up. He was digging up sweet potatoes last fall and came across a den of baby voles. He didn’t have the heart to kill them so he scooped up all of the babies, caught the Mom and relocated them to another area at the back of our property.
* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!
This is the first time I have seen a vole. Your husband is a good man to go to the trouble of capturing and releasing them elsewhere.
Mole are horrible and even a cat who is a ‘mouser’ and feral spits them out – same for voles.
The only thing I have seen that will actually eat voles and or moles is birds of prey and they are not consistent.
Glad you are keeping yours at bay.
I think the reason people do not see voles is that they are very nocturnal and I would imagine look like mice until you see the tail.
I had never heard of a vole before we don’t have them in our area. The baby is cute but I totally get what you’re saying they can destroy hundreds of dollars worth of plants and flowers. We have moles and squirrels in our area and two badass outdoor cats that are ‘on patrol’ every single day. One day, one of our cats killed a huge rabbit and left it for us on the doorstep I was shocked. Thank you for sharing these great tips for keeping critters away from gardens.
I am glad you had a photo of a vole. Don’t think we have them in our area but we have raccoons and moles that will tear up the yard. I have used coyote urine which works well for awhile.
Your husband is a good hearted man. No garden now but 10 years ago I had flower beds and veggies and was lucky no problems. I have never heard of voles and it was interesting to learn about them
We have moles…. they tunnel and kill the grass everywhere. I can feel for you…. my husband’s pride was the grass until he had to chase the mole tunnels for the past three years. It is not as expensive as a vole’s damage but just and aggravating.
I’ve never seen a vole before. Glad to know there are ways to keep them from eating your garden.