A vole in the lawn is not a pleasant thing. Not only does it destroy the beautiful look of the lawn, but it also eats away at roots and vegetables. Find out below how to recognize a vole in the lawn and how to get rid of the animals.
How do you identify and remove a vole in the lawn?
To recognize a vole in the lawn, look for small piles with entrances, broken passages under the lawn and nibbled roots. Drive them away effectively by using unpleasant smells or plants, flooding corridors or using live traps. Killing is not recommended.
Identifying a vole in the lawn
A vole can be recognized by several features in the lawn:
- Small piles with entrances, similar to molehills, only a little smaller
- Corridors just under the lawn that collapse if you walk in them
- Nibbled roots and dying plants due to root damage
Getting voles out of the lawn
Voles love their home, which is why you have to strongly convince them that they need to move. All measures must therefore be carried out repeatedly over a longer period of time. It is also advisable to combine different methods to increase the likelihood that the vole will run away. The most effective displacement measures include:
- Add strong smells from enemies (cats, dogs), essential oils or butyric acid to the hallways
- Build your own vole scarer
- Grow unpleasant smelling plants for voles
- Flood vole exits
The use of an ultrasound device is less recommended, as the “noise” is also unpleasant for other animals such as useful bats.
Catch a vole
Another option is to catch the vole in the lawn. To do this, use a live trap from a specialist retailer. If the live trap is correctly equipped and placed in the lawn so that no human smell clings to it, this method can be successful. To ensure that the vole does not starve or die of thirst if it is successfully caught, the trap must be checked several times a day.
Killing a vole
A less animal-friendly method is to kill the vole. Since this is not protected, this is allowed, but it is not a recommended measure. Among the killing traps, there are pincer traps that crush the vole and, in the worst case, do not kill it immediately, so that the vole dies a painfully slow death. On the other hand, there are shot traps that pose a great danger to pets and children and must be set up correctly to avoid injuries. Classic mouse traps with a snap trigger are extremely unfriendly to animals as a painful death is quite likely. Therefore, this method should definitely be avoided.
Tip
Beware of moles!!! Make sure that the animal in the lawn is really a vole. Moles are protected and must not be killed under any circumstances!
