How to keep the voles away

SALT LAKE CITY — Are you seeing voles around your house or lawn? Voles are rodents that typically live in areas where there’s a permanent water source available.

One of the reasons why more people are having problems with them lately is because our communities are expanding into their home territory. If this is an issue that concerns your home, there are steps you can take to keep them away.

 

Voles can cause damage to lawns by eating patches and creating little tracks through them. They can also damage newly planted trees.

“Everywhere that there’s snow, the meadow voles tunnel through the snow and get to the tree trunks and they girdle the trees by eating the bark.” said KSL Greenhouse Host Taun Beddes. “It’s a food source, so the snow melts off and every tree that you planted the last few years is debarked anywhere from a foot to 18 inches up.”

How to avoid voles

The easiest method is habitat modification, said Taun.

“If you build a new property and you’re out in the middle of nowhere … keep a strip around your property a good 15 or 20 feet wide, free of weeds.”

Wrapping hardware cloth or aluminum flashing around the tree trunks could also help keep them out during the winter.

Although it doesn’t happen often, voles can get inside your house. When they do, they tend to chew through cardboard containers or plastic to get to any food that’s in there.

If this happens, it helps to have door sweeps and make sure that all open cracks are sealed up with a concrete sealer.

“The more you can do to seal up your house, the better off you are,” Taun said. “A lot of times these small rodents only need about a quarter to a third of an inch of a gap to squeeze into new buildings.”

Baits and traps

There are baits that you can use around your house, but keep in mind that there are regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency. Taun said it’s justifiable considering the dangers they might come with.

“I’ve seen situations [where] you actually need a bait station about every 15 feet around the perimeter of your property so that you can get them all.” said Taun. “I’ve seen in agricultural situations [where] people will get a PVC pipe, cut a length [of] about 2 to 2.5 feet, make it wide enough [so] that they can get in and out, slide the bait inside that pipe, and then peg it down.”

Doing this keeps the baits in place and safely away from kids and pets.

Taun said the best time of year to put those baits out is when everything’s turned brown and before snow covers the ground. He also said not to worry too much if you see voles this year because they are cyclical.

“If you do get them, they usually are cyclical every 3 to 4 years. So if you have them really horribly, a lot of times the next year they’re not nearly as bad”

Read more from the KSL Greenhouse show:

• Time to winterize those gas-powered garden equipment
• Video: Gardening basics: How to wrap tree trunks for winter sun protection
• Video: Gardening basics: How to wrap your trees for winter

KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on our website.