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Vole Control
If you have voles affecting your home, business, or exterior property you have come to the right place for professional help. We are professional vole trappers or wildlife control technicians. Our main line of work is to remove voles that enter into man made structures. Some examples are: Female voles that den up to have there young in a wall cavity, attic, or food facility. A vole that may enter a wall or ceiling where they bare there young and store up food cashes. voles that dig under a porch or a crawl space to bare there young, and sometimes die causing tremendous odor problems and contaminating the inside of a building. voles often will infest a building for years causing the building to lose its value, while creating health problems. We use the most current vole trapping, poison, cleanup, and block out techniques. If you have a vole problem, contact us or give us a call to schedule professional coaching or our vole removal services.
General Vole Facts
Voles are rodents about the size of a mouse that burrow underground. Voles have shorter tails and smaller ears and eyes than mice. Due to their similarities, they are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice. Voles are also often mistaken for moles. Using their teeth, front claws, or a combination of both, vole colonies act as rototillers under and on your lawn, golf course, grass and fields. Then voles use their hind feet and a somersault action to push away dirt and rocks that are in the path of their tunnel. Voles’ sense of touch must make up for their poor hearing and vision. Their tails and whiskers are very sensitive to touch and assist voles when they are burrowing through the dark earth. Voles are excellent swimmers, and the water vole swims in order to escape its predators. Some vole species are climbers, and others are not.
Vole teeth grow constantly; therefore, they have a great need to gnaw in order to keep their teeth ground to a short enough length.
Voles can be anywhere from four to eight inches long, and their fur color ranges from brown to gray.
Frequently Asked Vole Questions
Q-1. WHERE DO VOLE COLONIES LIVE?
A. Twenty-three species of voles, field mice, meadow mice or microtus, are found across the United States. Vole colonies prefer living in areas with heavy cover of grasses or litter. Voles may also live in orchards or cultivated fields. Since there is such a wide variety of vole species, vole colonies may be found in very wet and very dry areas of the U.S.
Vole colonies build underground nests for their babies which are lined with grass, moss and feathers. Voles live in colonies of hundreds. If you see one vole in your grass or yard, that likely means there are hundreds more.
Q-2. WHEN ARE VOLES MOST ACTIVE?
A. Voles are not known to hibernate. Some believe vole colonies are more active at night, but research more often shows they are busy all throughout the day and night, with rest periods in between. Spring and fall are the seasons where vole tracks are most often seen, and the vole tracks seem to slow down in the summer. In the winter, voles still dig, and voles mix the dirt from the ground with their snow tunnels. Vole colonies wreak more havoc in the winter than any other season, and you can see the numerous vole tracks in your yard or lawn once the snow melts off.
Most voles have one to five litters per year, and those litters usually average four to six vole babies. The months of March through June are usually the typical vole birthing times of year.
Q-3. WHAT FOODS DO VOLES EAT?
A. The majority of the vole diet is made up of vegetation, roots, grass and any animal matter they do eat is thought to be an unintended side effect of the manner in which they find their food. They eat berries, seeds, nuts, fungi, fruit, roots and bulbs.
Vole colonies eat bark and crops occasionally, as well. Snails, insects and animal remains are a rare treat for voles, usually when they are very hungry and vegetation is scarce.
Vole colonies locate food in various ways. They will either feed on roots they run into while they dig or pull above-ground plants into their tunnel from below. When voles make tracks in dirt above-ground, they will eat vegetation from your yard or golf course.
In their attempt to find food and sharpen their teeth, voles girdle trees and shrubs. This means they go to a tree and chew around the bottom circumference of it, much like a ring around a finger. Voles thrive in more lush areas, such as well-watered lawns and gardens.
Q-4. WHY SHOULD I LEARN HOW TO GET RID OF VOLE COLONIES IN MY LAWN, GARDEN, GRASS, GOLF COURSE OR FIELDS?
A. If you see surface tracks and the occasional burrow opening on your lawn, golf course or field, you most likely have a burrowing vole on your property. Some voles only burrow underground and do not make surface tracks. When voles dig, they create small mounds and tracks which, from an aerial view, resemble a roadmap or a tree with extending branches. Vole runways are usually one to two inches wide.
All in all, vole colonies under your lawn, golf course or field can do a lot of expensive damage to your landscape. You may wake up in the morning to find your whole front lawn has served as a vole feeding lot and playground, with dirt and grass uprooted and thrown about. Voles can do damage to your lawn and flower beds that is beyond repair.
Voles are root destroyers. In their efforts at digging and finding food, they will not only hurt vegetation by uprooting it, but also by eating it. They eat tree roots, flower roots and bulbs. Lawn-mower blades can be mangled and destroyed when they move over vole tunnels, vole tracks and vole mounds. Horses and other livestock can suffer broken legs when they run through fields full of vole holes and tunnels.
Vole tunnels are intricate underground systems that wreak havoc on your lawn, golf course or field. They usually dig a few deep burrows off their tunnels which they use as resting places, with even more tunnels branching off of those.
If voles should choose to die near your home or business, the dead-vole odor may emanate into the living quarters, causing headaches and nausea.
Vole colonies will tear into areas of your yard or golf course and haunt it for years to come. All these vole-pest problems will affect the value of your property. It is difficult to sell a home that has a vole infestation and actually, it’s required by law that you fix the vole problem before you sell your home. Property value can decrease between five percent and ten percent due to vole-colony problems.
Q-5. VOLE COLONIES ARE IN MY LAWN, GARDEN, GOLF COURSE OR FIELDS. WHAT OTHER VOLE DAMAGE IS THERE?
A. Voles in your lawn, golf course or fields will chew up water lines, which can lead to expensive flood damage. Voles chew and break cables, which can affect phones or any other utility you receive through underground lines. Voles destroy sprinkler systems by uprooting sprinkler heads, chewing sprinkler valve wires and warping underground water lines.
Vole tree damage is a huge concern. Their burrowing can expose tree roots, girdle and clip trees—all great ways to kill a tree in your yard or golf course. They will also prune tree roots with their teeth, which can lead to tree damage or death. Voles come in like plagues, affecting small areas where people take good care of their landscape. It’s important to get on top of a vole pest problem before voles hit root systems and kill trees, shrubs and ornamentals. Voles have been known to devour a tree’s entire root system, so that the unsupported tree falls over.
If voles are in your lawn, golf course or field, a plethora of other harmful animals will also be attracted to your property. Weasels, skunks, badgers, poisonous snakes, coyotes, foxes and bobcats all prey on voles and will enter your yard or golf course and cause their own pest problems in search of voles.
Q-6. I HEARD VOLES CARRY DISEASES. IS THAT TRUE?
A. Yes, voles can be carriers of rabies. Rabies, a virus, progressively paralyzes and can kill any mammal, including humans. Rabies is generally contracted through contact with an infected vole through biting. Though humans should avoid contact with any vole, if a vole seems especially fearless around humans, it could be infected. Call United Wildlife gopher control immediately for professional vole removal at 1-888-488-1415.
Plague is a vole disease spread to humans by a sick vole’s fleas or contact with a sick vole’s bodily secretions. Different kinds of plague can infect the lymph glands, blood and lungs.
Tularemia bacteria can be spread to humans that come into contact by touching an infected vole, an infected tick from a vole and inhaling dust from soil contaminated by voles. Tularemia can cause ulcers, pneumonia and sore throats.
Q-7. I HEARD INSECTS LIVE ON VOLES. IS THAT TRUE?
A. Voles are also heavily infested with pests, which can spread into your home or business searching for hosts. Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are all known carriers of disease.
Several cases of mites biting humans indoors have been reported.
If voles bring fleas near your home, most likely the biting bug will hop onto your house pet’s back. Once inside, large flea populations can build up quickly. Fleas live on the outside of their hosts’ bodies and need to feed on blood in order to produce eggs.
Ticks are very mobile and have been known to crawl into buildings that voles are living near, and travel great distances to attach themselves to people.
Voles carry two kinds of lice—one bites its host and the other sucks the host’s blood. Lice can cause hair loss and itching, and can transmit parasites.
A bug living in a vole tunnel can become an infestation in your pantry, kitchen or carpet in no time. One or two mites may stray from the vole nest burrow and crawl along your kitchen table. But if the voles abandon their tunnels for any reason, the whole caboodle of vole bugs may enter your home, looking for a new host. This is why it’s especially important to have our vole-control experts remove all dead voles and do any vole clean-up after the vole colony has been removed.
Q-8. WILL A VOLE COLONY HURT MY DOG OR CAT?
A. Voles can bite cats and dogs, and because of vole illnesses and vole pests, a vole lurking on your property can pose a danger to domestic dogs and cats. Your dog or cat will likely be tempted to dig voles to the surface in your yard, which will also cause more lawn damage.
Q-9. I WANT TO TRAP OR KILL VOLES MYSELF. IS THAT OK?
A. We understand the desire to take care of a vole problem yourself. It may be tempting to take matters into your own hands, but in the long run, you could put yourself, your family and your home at risk of damage, distress and disease.
Because of the unique behaviors of voles, it is very difficult for an amateur vole-trapper to know how to get rid of voles. Shooting is not a good option to get rid of voles. The vole-removal experts at United Wildlife will humanely trap or kill any existing voles, and then offer vole-prevention ideas and techniques.
Q-10. HOW CAN UNITED WILDLIFE’S VOLE PEST CONTROL HELP ME GET RID OF MY VOLE-COLONY PROBLEM?
A. United Wildlife’s specialty is the removal of voles from lawns, gardens, golf courses, fields and other hard-to-reach locations through special vole trapping, vole poisons and vole repellent-techniques. United Wildlife’s special vole-extermination techniques are extremely effective. Depending on city, county, federal and state law, the vole will either be relocated or euthanized once it is taken away. No matter the course of action, the voles will be treated in a humane manner.
If voles have already died in your yard or golf course, our professional vole trappers have dead-vole removal services and can also help clear odors caused by dead voles.
We’re professional vole trappers who will travel to any location to get the vole colonies exterminated, and we can do professional phone and Internet coaching for those who live in remote areas, but who want to perform pest control for voles by using digital pictures sent by e-mail. Either way, we will work with you to solve your vole invasion. There is not a vole problem that can’t be solved with United Wildlife’s professional vole-trapping and extermination service. Call at 1-888-488-1415.
Q-11. WHAT ARE UNITED WILDLIFE’S PAYMENT OPTIONS FOR VOLE REMOVAL OR TO GET RID OF VOLE COLONIES?
A. Call United Wildlife’s vole-trapping specialists at 1-888-488-1415 and we’ll give you our volees. We charge incrementally per vole and number of service calls. Prices will vary depending on severity of the vole problem. Depending on the amount of voles and where they are living, you may be able to assist us with the vole problem as we are dealing with it. There is no free government service that takes care of vole control. The good news is, insurance companies will often pay for some, if not all, of the costs incurred to get rid of voles.
United Wildlife vole experts accept Visa, Master Card and American Express. We also take purchase orders and cash.
Q-12. WHAT SHOULD I DO AFTER UNITED WILDLIFE VOLE CONTROL REMOVES THE VOLE COLONY?
A. Don’t entice other voles to return. We will help you make sure your lawn, golf course or fields are in proper repair and cleaned up to deter any future burrowing voles from entering.
United Wildlife’s vole blockers can install special products which block voles from burrowing in your yard or golf course. United Wildlife vole control can help you install vole slick fences to keep voles out.
Do remember that voles are wild and unpredictable. Though we have years of experience in the vole-removal field, a particular vole situation may require that we return more than once to get the job done right and to prevent voles in your yard or golf course in the future. Incremental pricing will apply for our professional vole removal and all vole solutions are custom-made and custom-priced.
Our mission at United Wildlife is to help identify your vole pest damage. We will remove the existing vole-pest and develop a custom-wildlife solution to stop or control the vole problem from occurring again.
In the end, if you’re happy with our experienced, professional vole trappers, any referrals are always appreciated.
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