All the methods and their advantages and disadvantages

the essentials in brief

• Animal lovers can choose from gentle methods to control the vole, such as water, buttermilk, vole scarecrows, and other noise and odor generators.
• Catching the vole with a live trap is only an animal-friendly option if you check the trap several times a day. Otherwise the animal can perish in agony here.
• Snap traps, pincer traps and gunshot traps can be used as killing traps. We generally advise against killing traps.

Recognize voles in the garden

A vole is often spotted quite late, especially if you don't have a vegetable garden: your holes aren't as noticeable as that of a mole and the damage is usually only visible when plants die above ground or when vegetables that have been nibbled on are harvested will. This is how you recognize a vole:

• Holes in the lawn or in the vegetable garden with small hills around them
• Eaten roots, especially on Clematis, Root vegetables and fruit trees that Favorite food of voles

Digression

Differentiate between vole and mole

The control methods with their advantages and disadvantages

Voles are not under protection and may therefore be driven away, caught and killed; nevertheless, suffering of the animal is to be prevented.

Animal-friendly control methods

Gentle control methods are especially effective when they are used over a longer period of time and in combination. The aim is to make the vole's stay as uncomfortable as possible and thus to keep it to evict. You have various options for this:

Flood corridors

Who likes getting their feet wet at home? Water in the corridor can't stand the vole either. To flood the corridors, do the following:

1. Find a vole hole and dig it so far that your Garden hose fits in.
2. Put the hose in and turn on the water.
3. Wait at least 10 minutes.
4. Then find another manhole and repeat the process.

This method alone will not be enough to control the vole. However, if you combine it with the following measures, it can certainly help the vole to flee.

Butyric acid

Butyric acid stinks barbarically as soon as it comes into contact with oxygen and moisture. No vole likes that - and neither does people. However, the fumes are corrosive and harmful to both voles and humans. It therefore makes sense to use buttermilk instead of pure butyric acid, which has a similar but less harmful effect:

1. Put the buttermilk on a rag and stuff it into a vole hole.
2. Repeat the process for at least two more holes.
3. If you do use butyric acid, make sure you protect your skin, eyes and airways appropriately.

Vole repeller

Voles have fine ears and don't like noise. Therefore, they can be easily driven away with "noisy" wind chimes that hardly make any noise to our ears. The purpose is to guide the vibrations into the ground. For the Self-made vole scarecrow you need a metal rod and noise generator to attach to it. That can be B. two cans of threads that hit each other in the wind or a classic greyhound. You can also find vole scarecrows in specialist shops or online.

Ultrasound equipment

Ultrasound equipment are touted a lot in specialist shops. The problem: Not only voles do not like the high notes, other garden visitors such as moles, bats and even pets cannot stand the noise. We therefore advise you to build a vole scare yourself, as mentioned above.

Other stinking agents

Voles have a very fine sense of smell. Use it to fight them and get creative! Build your own "scent bombs" and place them in the voles' passages. Here are a few ideas of what could make voles flee:

• Cat or dog excrement
• Fragrant herbs such as lavender, mint or marjoram, especially in the form of essential oils
• Fish scraps
• horseradish

Catch the vole with a live trap

Live traps are very popular because the success is visible and at the same time you feel good because you didn't kill the mouse. Still, live traps have fallen into disrepute among animal rights activists. Why? The problem is that you have to check a live trap several times a day. Because if a vole gets trapped, it won't survive here for long without food and water. So if you only check the trap a few times a week, you run the risk of letting the vole die in agony in the trap.

Set up the live vole trap correctly

There are three things to consider when setting up the vole trap:

• Human smell: It is essential to use odorless gloves and avoid any direct contact with the trap. So no “human smell” sticks to it.
• Attractants: If you want to equip a trap, you probably think of cheese and bacon first. Voles are pure herbivores. Fill the trap with Vole Treats, not with mouse treats! Place root vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, or other vegetables in the trap.
• Location: Dig a vault outlet so far that the live trap fits into it. Many traps have entrances on both sides. If this is the case, the trap should also be accessible from both sides. Put the trap in and dig it in. Use gloves when doing this.

Killing traps for voles

Snap traps

The vole snap trap looks a little different than the typical mouse trap because it is inserted into the passage from above. But the principle is the same: when touched, the trap snaps shut and kills the mouse.
It is not a good option because it can happen that the mouse is caught not on the head but on another part of the body and thus does not die immediately, but rather slowly dies in agony.

Pincer traps

In contrast to the snap trap, the pincer trap does not strike from above, but instead crushes the vole between two pliers. You can imagine that the same risks exist here as with the snap trap: The vole may suffer unnecessarily long before it dies from the injuries.

Gunshot traps

Gun traps are touted by the manufacturers mainly because the vole allegedly does not suffer from it, but dies immediately. With this type of trap, which is loaded with a cartridge, there is a risk of injury to the user when it is set up. This trap is particularly dangerous for small children and pets, who may dig it up and be seriously injured if triggered.

Poison voles

The worst method of all is that Poison vole. Vole poison is strongly discouraged for several reasons:

• The vole dies in agony.
• The poison is also poisonous to other animals such as moles and pets.
• The agent poisons the soil, microorganisms and water.
• You need to regularly check the passage for success in order to dispose of the dead vole in good time before it begins to rot.

Keep vole away

To keep voles from re-infesting your garden, you can maintain a few of the measures, such as: B. the vole repeller. You can also grow plants that voles do not like such as voles. B. Imperial crowns, mullein candles, Lilies or Daffodils. You can protect particularly valuable or endangered plants with a wire basket. Close-meshed wire should always be laid under raised beds to prevent voles from entering.