14 Steps to Get Rid of Voles in the Garden

April 14, 2024

It was two years ago when I had my first run-in with voles on my flower farm. The damage that voles have caused on my flower farm, and in my backyard at home, has been horrific to say the least. Voles have caused thousands of dollars in damage to my cut flower crops, not to mention, in the beginning, I probably lost years of my life stressing over how to get rid of voles for good.

In this post, I will finally take the time to write about my experiences with voles on my farm and the conclusions I’ve come to in how to control voles and their damage when growing crops.

Related: Vole-Proof Tulip Planting

Whether you’re growing crops for profit or for pleasure, voles can suck the fun right out of it and make your job as a grower a lot harder than it already is. I hope that the wisdom I’ve gained in the past few years will be helpful for someone out there who is suffering from their own Volemageddon, which is what I named my own early battles with the voles.

first, we must understand the vole

What exactly do Voles eat? Voles are vegetarians. They eat plants, which is utterly horrible if you’re a crop farmer with a vole problem. Voles eat both the roots and leaves (specifically, tender new growth) of plants. Annoyingly, voles tend to avoid plants that grow as weeds and they prefer eating crops, with the exception of Narcissus (daffodils) and Alliums (onions/garlic). In my experience, they have also avoided Lavender, I assume due to the pungent oils present in every part of the plant. On the other hand, they’ve chewed the Thyme patch to oblivion so not all pungent plants are in the clear.

Another pain point when dealing with voles is that they do not hibernate. Which means, if you are a farmer and have a fall-planted crop that voles find delicious, they may consume the entire crop over winter. This happened to me in early Winter 2022 — voles ate my entire crop of fall-planted Snapdragons, Campanula and Rudbeckia, meanwhile doing a number on Delphinium, causing thousands of dollars in crop loss on my flower farm (which is not a side hustle, but my full-time job). I had no idea what a vole was until this happened, so meltdowns and fruitless battles against the voles ensued. How I wish I had the information I have now!

Two more relevant things to understand about voles are that they create nests just underneath the soil line, and they love to burrow in covered areas. Understanding these two details have helped me immensely in keeping voles under control on my farm. I’ll explain why below.

identifying vole damage in the garden

Voles make their presence known by leaving behind characteristic “runs” through the soil and sod. They use the same runs over and over again, which impresses a sort of half-tunnel into the ground. Voles are the only animals that do this, so if you have any of the following damage like in the photos below, you can be sure you have a vole population.

Vole “runs” always lead to a nesting area. Voles create nests by collecting dead grass and fashioning it together underground so they have a nice cushy burrow to give birth to their babies (which they do unrelentingly, several times per year). Vole nests look a bit like bird nests made exclusively out of dead grass. Below is a picture of one I dug up on my farm.

Remnants of a vole nest I dug up and broke apart. Earthworms love digesting old nests.

how to know voles are eating your plants

If you’ve noticed plants are disappearing in your garden (you planted them, then the next day they’re literally gone), voles could be the reason. This has happened to me so many times I can’t even count. Sometimes it will be obvious that voles ate the plants because the tender top green parts will be eaten off and the roots will be in tact (this could also be rabbit damage). In this case, sometimes the plants will grow back — if they are perennial plants, they will usually always grow back.

Sometimes the damage is more sinister — the plant will be gone in its entirety — top growth, roots, and all. This is the most mind-boggling of plant loss, in my opinion. When this has happened to me (ie. when I lost thousands of dollars worth of plants in Winter 2022), it has always been voles that have consumed the entire plant as if it was never even planted.

Learn About: Permanent No-Till Raised Beds and Clay Soils

To confirm whether it is voles eating your plants, look for their “runs” around the planting area (refer to photos above).

the problem with vole bait

There are plenty of vole-killing poisons out there that do an effective job at killing voles. Specifically, this Ramik Green and Top Gun Rodenticide both do a quick job at eradicating entire colonies of voles when added inside these Exterminator Bait Boxes; however, if you are a farmer or gardener with voles in an outdoor, uncovered space, you must take care and be respectful of other harmless and beneficial creatures that also inhabit this space!

Vole poisons and vole bait are poisonous to all birds and cats. If a vole that has ingested poison is running across the yard and is picked up by a predatory bird, and that falcon, hawk or eagle eats that vole, the bird will most likely also die of poisoning. Same with outdoor cats. So please, please refrain from using these harmful poisons if you are trying to eradicate voles in an outdoor area (which, quite frankly, is usually where they’re living).

I’d also question whether you would want dead, poisoned voles living among your edible crops, if you grow an edible garden or farm. When voles die of poison, they are usually dying underground in their burrows, which could be in your planting beds. What happens to that residual poison once the vole carcass decomposes? What is that poison doing to soil microbiology? These are questions I cannot answer myself, but I think are worth asking for environmental and human health.

Side note, Vole-X does not work, at least in my experience. Vole-X is toted as a more harmless vole killer — the main ingredient is castor oil, which supposedly is not poisonous to other animals. I spent a lot of money on Vole-X with zero results.

how to get rid of voles without chemicals

So if we’re being mindful of not poisoning other animals in the garden, how do we get rid of voles without using poison or other harmful chemicals?

The honest answer is, we don’t get rid of the voles entirely. I know that’s not what you want to hear. It’s not an answer I love to give. But it’s reality. Voles are a part of our ecosystems and soil food webs — despite the damage they cause to our yards, farms and gardens, they do serve an ecological purpose. At the very least, voles are a valuable food source for predatory animals.

So the real question is… How do we better manage vole populations so they don’t entirely decimate our crops?

14 Steps to Reduce Voles in the Garden

Finally, here are 14 ways you can reduce vole pressure in your farm or backyard garden, without using harmful poisons. Using all or most of these methods will surely reduce vole pressure for you.

Remove Landscape Fabric from the planting beds and pathways at the end of every season
Voles love living underneath Landscape Fabric and Silage Tarps (and High/Low Tunnels). If they could live anywhere, this is where they would go because they are completely protected from predatory birds. If you leave landscape fabric or silage tarps down all winter, voles will prefer live and procreate underneath it. If you have landscape fabric with tender plants growing in it, this is a problem because the plants will be eaten by the voles. So do yourself a favor and take the landscape fabric off at the end of every growing season. This is the #1 step to take that will make the biggest difference in vole damage.
Related: The Best Landscape Fabric for Killing Weeds
Consider not using Landscape Fabric at all around highest risk crops
I stopped using landscape fabric on my growing beds entirely because whatever was planted in it, voles would eat it. They can travel underneath the fabric with no worries of being eaten by predators, so they just move along down the fabric and munch whatever is growing in it as if it’s their own personal greenery buffet. I now only using landscape fabric on tougher perennial plants, and in pathways.
Use Silage Tarps strategically to create concentrated vole population areas
Voles also love living underneath the protection of Silage Tarps. You can use this to your advantage by leaving a silage tarp out at all times — the voles will prefer to live under that than in your uncovered planting beds. If the silage tarp is right next to your planting beds, you’ll have a problem because the voles will still come out from under it and eat your plants. Keep a buffer of at least 20 feet between the tarp and your planting beds — and keep that buffer mowed low to the ground so the voles have nowhere to hide.
Related: Using Silage Tarps on the Farm
Get an outdoor cat to keep voles away
This is advised only for rural farm properties. I do not advocate letting your indoor cat outside, or getting an outdoor cat if you live in a city or suburb. There are too many hazards for outdoor cats in city/suburban environments. If you do live in a rural area and have a farm where voles are a problem, a cat can be the best defense against voles. I do not live on my farm so I don’t have a cat, but anyone who is able to care for a farm cat on a regular basis will tell you their cat is their best weapon against voles.
Find vole nests and remove them from planting beds
Voles create nests a few inches under the soil line. Nests can be found by first identifying “runs” in the soil, then finding holes that are approx 2” wide, leading down into the soil. Put on some gloves, grab a shovel, and gently dig down into where the holes lead. You will most likely find a vole nest. Make sure there are no voles in it, and remove it with your hands (gloves on!) or shovel. The voles will be forced to move on to build another nest somewhere else.
Keep areas around planting beds mowed: A low grass buffer to prevent vole traffic
The lower the grass, the better. Voles are afraid of being eaten by predatory birds (as they should be), and won’t travel very far when the grass (or clover!) is mowed low. Keep a buffer of mowed area around your planting beds that is 10-20 feet wide. The wider, the better.
Learn: How to Plant Clover Pathways
Strip tillage may keep voles at bay
I am not a fan of tilling repeatedly, but some farmers swear by strip tilling for vole control. By tilling a buffer around your planting beds (as opposed to mowing a buffer of grass), any voles living or traveling in that area will be destroyed. I’m not sure how well this works; it is just something I’ve been told.
Establish a meadow/overgrown area for natural vole habitat
The meadow vole’s natural habitat is a meadow. So plant one and they might just move into it. This could be as simple as letting a part of your farm, yard, or garden grow tall — just skip mowing it. You could also intentionally plant wildflowers or native plants into it for the added benefit of attracting native and beneficial pollinators. My farm is surrounded by a meadow on several sides, and we have about 5 acres of open meadow that voles happily live in. A few of them have found their way onto our farm, but we keep that valuable meadow habitat going for the ones who haven’t.
Add Oyster Shells to planting beds to deter voles
Crushed Oyster Shells are gritty and voles dislike the texture when oyster shells are incorporated into planting soil. Rake it out onto your planting beds in a thick layer and cover with a thin layer of organic compost on top. Oyster shells will also add calcium to the soil and will help with drainage in clay soils if incorporated further down into the soil. Keep in mind that voles inhabit the top 5” of soil so any oyster shells incorporated below that won’t have any effect on voles.
Saturate planting beds with Castor Oil solution to deter voles
Castor Oil is toxic to voles, so if you saturate your planting beds with a castor oil solution, it is said that voles will not go anywhere near it. I have not tried this yet, but I plan to try it if I have issues with voles in my new high tunnel.
You will need: Castor Oil, Biodegradable Soap, Hose-Attachment Sprayer.
Mix 1 cup Castor Oil with 2 tbsp Soap in the Ortho Sprayer Bottle (link above). Fill the rest of the bottle with water. Shake it up. Attach the hose and saturate planting beds with the castor oil/soap solution with the dial opened entirely. Make sure the solution soaks the beds several inches down, or it won’t work to keep voles away.
Dip rootballs and cover plants with Cayenne Pepper in Fall/Winter plantings to deter voles
Another way to keep voles off your plants is to cover your plants with cayenne pepper so it burns their mouths. When planting bulbs such as tulips, I recommend powdering them all before planting. To powder existing plants, I use a mesh sieve filled with cayenne powder and dust it all over. The downside to cayenne powder (or spray, even) is that it washes off after a rain. You also cannot put this on edible greens. It’s great for cut flower crops, though!
Add Owl Boxes to your property — Owls eat voles!
Lastly, add Owl Box Housing to fence posts or trees. Owls eat voles at night — I have found owl pellets that have been in the form of voles on my farm!
Add Predator Urine around your planting beds to deter voles
Spraying bobcat urine or coyote urine around your planting areas will keep voles at bay. I devised a way to keep predator urine in the garden permanently, without it washing away in the rain — read about my method here. Keep in mind that coyote urine will also deter cats, which are natural predators of voles.
Set out live Mouse Traps
It’s gross when you actually trap and kill voles, but it works. We bait live Mouse Traps with peanut butter. These work well in covered areas, such as low tunnels and high tunnels, and can also be placed just outside vole hole entrances to their burrows.

I hope this post has shed some light on how to help keep your vole populations in check. After incorporating most of these 13 steps into my farming routine, I have many less problems with voles eating entire crops of plants.