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Scientific Name: (Genus) Microtus

Photo Credits:NEBRASKland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Photo

Vole Control

Univ. Publications

Vole Control Video

Misguided Vole Control

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Biology

• Voles do not hibernate.
• They also can live in a variety of habitats including marshy and dryland areas.
• They are diurnal.

Signs

• Pine vole hole	Prairie vole runway	Vole sign in grass

Damage

• Turf damage is usually temporary as roots rapidly grow into runways with the onset of spring.

Trees can also be girdled by voles underneath the winter snow.
Photo Credits:University of Nebraska

• 1 to 2-in wide runways in turf;
• Alfalfa, grains, potatoes, sugar beets consumption.
• Burrow hazards

Control

Habitat Modification

• Mow, till or burn habitat to reduce overhead or dense vegetation.

  Tree guard
  Description:Plastic wraps can prevent rodents from gnawing thin bark on young trees and shrubs during winter and early spring.
   

  Hardware cloth
  Description:This useful material, also called hail screen, comes in mesh sizes down to 1/4-inch which are useful to exclude mice from young trees or shrubs.
  Photo Credits:Dallas Virchow

Repellents

None that are effective enough

Shooting

• Not applicable

Trapping

• Low numbers or densities of voles can be trapped using "mouse traps" baited with peanut butter and oatmeal mixture.
• Mouse and Rat snap traps
  Description:Voles can be captured best in the larger traps. "Museum special" sized traps are useful.
  Photo Credits:Dallas Virchow
• Place traps in runways or along foundations: box traps or multiple capture traps for mice, glue swabbed inside 1 or 1 1/2 in. X one foot black plastic pipeVole trap set perpendicular to runway
  Photo Credits:U of Nebraska
• Multiple-catch mouse traps can also be effective in controlling voles.

Toxicants

• Zinc phosphide-treated baits, if legal, can be hand applied directly into vole runways, preferably before spring green up.

University Publications

Control Vole Damage, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln

Control of Voles in No-Till Corn--University of Tennessee

Managing Voles in Colorado--Colorado State University

Vole Control--Alabama University 

Vole Images--Washington State University 

Voles (Meadow Mice)--University of California

Voles in Orchards--North Carolina State University 

Voles in the Vegetable Garden, 1999--Rutgers University  

Video