Voles
Voles are members of the rodent family and are extremely destructive to plants.
By burrowing under plants, they gain access to the plant's roots where they
feast. The result is the death of the plant. Voles are often the culprit when
people blame moles (see Moles Control with harpoon
and scissor traps) for damage to plants.
Vole damage identification.
You know you have voles when you see dime sized holes around
the roots of plants. Voles will also reuse mole tunnels which also helps to
continue to myth that moles eat vegetation.
Voles can be controlled in a variety of ways.
Trapping voles with Snap Traps
For a list of all our Rodent Traps click Rodent
Traps
Consider this e-mail I received 11/6/99
Hi...Living in Southern New Jersey...Having a huge problem with VOLES...Tried
traps, garlic, smoke, and lots of Havoc and Rampage rat poison ground up and
mixed with peanut butter and scattered over area and stuffed into every hole
I see. About 3/4 acre garden is involved...Anything else I can try?
This is how I replied
When people tell me that traps don't work, I have to think to myself how hard
did they try and what do they mean by the word "work" Don't be offended.
The fact is traps do "work" in that they capture voles. The trouble
is most people mean work as in I never have to trap again. It seems obvious
that you have excellent vole habitat. Have you tried, multiple catch mouse traps
like the
tin cat?
If you don't want to spend the time trapping, I would contact a local pest
controller and ask to get some poison stations put out. Be sure to find out
how much experience he has with voles....
You can use snap traps directly if you have a lot of ground cover in which
to hid the snap traps from birds and squirrels. Snap traps can be purchased
at your local hardware store. If you want quick kill snap traps, a trap designed
to kill the rodent more quickly than a traditional snap trap than click Quick
Kill Snap Trap We would recommend that you secure traps whenever you use
them to preven their being potentially moved by animals.
  Place snap traps inside to reduce interference from non-target animals.
Controlling Voles with Tin
Cats
Use a mouse trap baited with peanut butter. Place two traps
inside of a Tin cat. This will reduce catching non-targets as only mouse
sized creatures can get to the mouse traps. This will help eliminate misfires
caused by other animals smelling the peanut butter. We sell the Tin Cat
Click Tin Cat for on-line purchasing. These tin cats have a solid steel
lid for strength and privacy. to see if anything is caught simply look through
the breathing holes on the sides.
 Most
important. Be patient and add more traps as needed.
Always be concerned about diseases. Wear gloves when handling bodies. We don't
know enough about wildlife diseases, so treat all wildlife as potential carriers
of dangerous diseases.
Plant with Repellency for Voles
"Developing a Plant-Based Vole Repellent: Screening of Ten Candidate Species,"
the group reported that the following plants tested as the most effective feeding
deterrents to voles among the plant species tested. (Source Paul Curtis, Cornell
Univ.
- Pachysandra terminalis
- Buxus sempervirens,
- Narcissus pseudonarcissus
- Coronilla varia
Vole Damage Control Quackery
- Chewing Gum: We have recently heard of this technique as one to control
voles. Allegedly they eat it and it kills them by clogging up their intestines.
We don't believe this is true. However, we would love to hear more information
about this technique if someone has it.
Off-Line Ordering Information
-
While we encourage the use of our secure on-line ordering system. Click
Secure. We understand how some of our customers
have concerns with on-line credit card purchases prefer to pay with money
orders etc. For those of you who wish not to use on-line ordering please
follow the instructions below.
To determine the total cost of the purchase please follow these steps.
1. Click the purchase online link of the product you wish to purchase.
(Don't worry you will cancel before the transaction is complete).
2. You will be taken to the Miva Secure Server. Put the number of the items
you want in the Quantity form. Then Click Add to Basket. The page will reappear.
Then click in the upper right hand corner "Checkout"
3. You will be asked if you want to create an account. Simply click "Place
Order Without Account". Then type in whatever you want for your name,
street address, phone number and e-mail. Just be sure that with your fake
e-mail you set it up as fake@nothing.com. The computer doesn't know if it
is a real address or not. But it does recognize if it isn't set up properly.
4. Type in the correct City and State and Zip Code. This information is
used by the computer to determine shipping costs.
5. Click "Continue". When you submit the information, (most of
which is fake) you will be forwarded to a page that gives you options for
shipping. In the shipping section, click the arrow. A form will come up
that will list the prices of the various ways you can have the product shipped
to you.
6. Click "Continue" and you will be forwarded to a page that
will total the cost of the product and shipping. At this point, simply leave
the site or turn off your browser. Note you have not put in your credit
card number or even your full address. You can now send a money order to
our address below. Or if you wanted to fax or call in your order, you will
know what the total cost of the item(s) will be.
 
Wildlife Damage Control provides consultation, traps and information on controlling
wildlife damage in a safe responsible and effective manner. We also endeavor to
expose how animal rights activists fail to give the public all the facts on animal
damage control. "
**You may be wondering about how safe web commerce is. It is
certainly true that there are some unscrupulous people on the web. While internet
commerce would be safer with secure servers, (which we cannot afford at the
present time) remember that the waiter in the restaurant could also be misusing
your credit card number. It is important to put the potential risk into perspective.
However, if you have concerns, by all means use more traditional means to order
our products. We are certain you will be glad you did.
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Disclaimer: WDC seeks to provide accurate, effective and responsible information
on resolving human/wildlife conflicts. We welcome suggestions, criticisms to
help us achieve this goal. The information provided is for informational purposes
only and users of the information use it at their own risk. The reader must
consult state/federal officials to determine the legality of any technique in
the reader's locale. Some techniques are dangerous to the user and to others.
WDC encourages readers to obtain appropriate training (see our informational
literature at our Store ), and understand that proper animal damage
control involves patience, understanding that not every technique/method works
for every situation or even 100% of the time. Your use of this information is
governed by this understanding.
We welcome potential users of the information
and photos to simply ask for permission via e-mail. Finally, WDC welcomes
e-mail but understand that all e-mails become property of Wildlife Damage Control.
3/14/04
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