over run

[nagantguy]

A few days ago I noticed some type of critter running round outside the chicken fence didn't have time to get it before it went into a hole, forward 3 days and so far I've trapped 23 voles and whacked one with a shovel and one with a board and got one with the weed whip and one with the pellet gun. I'm using standard mouse traps and I put out a few bowls of flour sugar and bicabicarbonates of soda which is supposed to kill them cause it makes their stomachs swell haven't found and dead and bloated like Elvis yet but something is drinking the solution. Anyone got any tips or tricks that don't involve posion? Don't want chickens or dogs getting in it. Glad its not rats. The voles seem to be concentrated around the coop and the raspberry patches.

[bubba.50]

invite a few hungry cats or rat snakes or blacksnakes for a sleepover.

[nagantguy]

I've long paid kids including my daughter to catch snakes and bring them here, gardeners mostly but a milk snake and a blur racer. Guess I need some more.

[Fishman]

Don't voles eat bugs and such? Maybe you don't need to do anything?

[Bzcraig]

I thought ya'll were misspelling mole, had to look up what a vole is, still learning!

[RED333]

We have cats, at least once a day we get a "look what I did" gift on the front porch.

[Wayne Smith]

Moles eat grubs and worms. Voles follow in their borrows and eat roots and seeds and bulbs.

[oldarkie]

I hate voles they ate my entire sweet potato crop year before last. Find there holes and put rat poison down them.

[Hannibal]

I hate voles they ate my entire sweet potato crop year before last. Find there holes and put rat poison down them.

You DEFINATELY don't want voles around. I lost several plantings to them. I've got several outside cats now. And no more voles, mice or rats.

[Fishman]

This is good to know. Fortunately I live on a giant slab of limestone and nothing but fire ants live underground. Come to think of it, I would trade fire ants for voles.

[nagantguy]

Voles are bad ju ju for crops

[woody1]

This may not have anything to do with your problem, but I've found that using treadle feeders solves most of the attractiveness of chicken coops to rodents. Also sparrows and starlings. If they can't get to the feed, they don't hang around. My first treadle feeder, being not so well built, kinda quit working so I propped it open. Over that summer we built up a heck of a crop of mice in and around the coop. A couple of weeks of trapping and fixing the treadle feeder to work properly solved the problem. We live in the country and have mice and voles around but none eating chicken feed. YMMV Regards, Woody

[dead dog]

My Jack Russel loves digging them, up kills rats and mice all day. She tried to get a cotton mouth but ended up at the vet.

[dagger dog]

"I hate voles they ate my entire sweet potato crop year before last. Find there holes and put rat poison down them.
You DEFINATELY don't want voles around. I lost several plantings to them. I've got several outside cats now. And no more voles, mice or rats."

Yeah and rabbits, quail, song birds, flowerbeds used as litter boxes, and vehicles used as jungle gyms.

Don't know why cats get a free run but dogs have to be kept leashed or contained. If you want to cohabitate with a feline you need to keep them inside or leashed.

I talk from experience with a tom for 17 years, he was kept inside and was outside 3 times ,2 by accident and he returned by himself the 3rd was his burial, I miss my old Scratch he was a great mouser.

[Hannibal]

"I hate voles they ate my entire sweet potato crop year before last. Find there holes and put rat poison down them.
You DEFINATELY don't want voles around. I lost several plantings to them. I've got several outside cats now. And no more voles, mice or rats."

Yeah and rabbits, quail, song birds, flowerbeds used as litter boxes, and vehicles used as jungle gyms.

Don't know why cats get a free run but dogs have to be kept leashed or contained. If you want to cohabitate with a feline you need to keep them inside or leashed.

I talk from experience with a tom for 17 years, he was kept inside and was outside 3 times ,2 by accident and he returned by himself the 3rd was his burial, I miss my old Scratch he was a great mouser.

Last I checked, it was still legal to keep barn cats. You deal with problems your way, I'll deal with them my way.
I've had cattle dogs, too. Couldn't keep 'em from trying to herd vehicles. Never worked out for the dogs. Hence the pens and chains. Cows are gone, and now so are the dogs.
Have a nice day.

[leeggen]

Pour ammonia into the tunnels in several places to get rid of moles and voles. To get rid of fireants is rather easy but does take some persistance. Sprinkle cornmeal (yellow or white) on the anthill. They will carry it down the tunnel to other ants for food, mean while the cornmeal furments and kills the whole hill. Yes you all will laugh but it works and works very well, so before you jump on the post just try it you will be very surprised at the results. No harm to animals but deadly to ants.
CD

[Rustyleee]

Might try mothballs for the voles. drop the balls in the hole opening then put something heavy over it.
There are also devices that you drive into the ground that thump or vibrate and are said to drive them away.