How to Get Rid of Voles in Yard

Voles are furry, little, burring ground vermin. They dig like moles but are cute like mice. But they come straight from hell on a mission to disrupt your yard and eat the roots of your newly planted trees. The voles have killed one too many saplings here at One Hundred Acres Home by chewing through the main root. Now it’s war. This post will show you five various, often low-cost, and sometimes creative ways to get rid of voles in your yard so you can enjoy your grass and trees in peace.

Note: this post does not cover using actual poison pellets to get rid of voles. That type of poison can kill or hurt other animals, such as foxes, skunks, and owls, that eat the dead voles. I don’t want to hurt those furry friends. Only the cute little evil devil voles must go.

1. Kill Voles with Car Exhaust:

The carbon monoxide in car exhaust is toxic for humans, and, well, it’s toxic for voles too! You just need to find a deep hole that hopefully has an open path to the voles. Connect a tub to your vehicle exhaust pipe. Then shove the other end down the vole hole.

How do you find a deep vole hole or the main den hole you ask? Well, I used a garden hose and soak all the vole holes I can find. Eventually you’ll find a hole that seems to take water forever. That is the mother well. That’s the deep den. Wait a few days after soaking to confirm the voles are still in residence. Then attack with a method of you choosing.

Below is a photo where I am using our truck exhaust to exterminate some voles. Those are hoses are from an old vacuum cleaner and a small shop vac. I put some plastic and bucket over the vole hole to help keep the car exhaust underground.

I let the truck run for over 10 minutes in each hole.

You won’t see any dead voles with this method. The only way to know that this works is a stop in vole activity. After our main mouser cat passed, we had a massive explosion of the vole population. I did notice a slow down after trying the car exhaust method. However, they also inhabit areas that are difficult to drive to, plus I was feeling bad about burning gas. So I moved on to other methods.

2. Get Rid of Voles with Juicy Fruit Chewing Gum:

The next method is a tip from a long-time local, a vole war veteran if you will. It’s easy and cheap: just stick a bit of Juicy Fruit Gum down a fresh vole hole. That’s it. They’ll eat the stuff up because it smells so nice and fruity. Too bad for them though as it will stop their digestive system. Give it a few days. Then no more voles!

3. How to Kill Yard Voles with Baking Soda:

This next method is also low cost. All you need is a box of baking soda, some mini marshmallows, and a small bowl. How does this kill voles? Well, supposedly voles do not fart. So when they eat baking soda, it creates a deadly amount of gas in their digestive system. The marshmallows used to sweeten the bait. Let me show you.

Take a mini marshmallow and slit it open down the center with your hands. This reveals the sticky inside of the marshmallow, seen in the photo below.

Dip the sticky marshmallow into the baking soda to collect just enough to be deadly for a vole.

Next, smash the marshmallow back together to create a sweet dumpling filled with baking soda. You don’t need a lot of baking soda, just coating the sticky part of the marshmallow will do.

Then collect your vole-murdering sweet treats in a small bowl. Once you’ve made a sufficient amount, drop these into fresh holes. Done and done.

4. Remove Voles with Poison Gas:

This next option does use poison, but it s a gas so it won’t travel up the food chain and kill our beloved owls. Check out the photo below of The Giant Destroyer, The Supper Gasser poison gas sticks. There are four tubes and four lighting sticks per pack. You light the end much like fireworks or dynamite, stick it down a fresh vole hole, cover, and wait.

This is a video where I light a gasser and then awkwardly try to find the perfect vole hole, but you get the idea. I cover the gasser hole with dirt once its in a deep hole so the smoke stays underground.

5. Kill Voles in Your Yard with a Gopher Hawk Trap:

This last method actually results in you seeing a dead vole. Buyers beware. I like this method best because while the other methods do seem to result in less vole activity, we still have voles. UUUUUGGGGGH! So I like confirmation now then that my efforts are not in vain. This last method is a mechanical trap you place in the vole tunnel called a Gopher Hawk. So yes, this works on gophers too.

A photo below shows the gopher hawk trap and a poker tool. You can buy them together as a kit. Basically, you use the poker tool to poke a hole in the ground along the vole tunnel. Then set the GopherHawk in the hole.

The photo below shows the trap extended.

Here is a close up of the actual trap that catches the vole in its tunnel. They trigger the small black arm and the metal ring spring back towards the tube, killing the vole in the process. I like this method because it is quick and you get confirmation of a dead vole.

Below is a photo of the gopher hawk that has triggered by catching a vole. The trap pops up to reveal the yellow area when it has a catch. You can see it set the trap in the vole tunnel very near the entrance to a fresh vole hole.

Warning, below is a photo of a dead vole caught by a gopher hawk! You just pull the trap up out of the ground and the vole comes with it. Release the trap and dispose of the vole.

Here is a video I took of how to find a vole tunnel and set a gopher hawk trap. They are pretty easy to set. I’ve caught over 14 voles this season with these traps, so they are my favorite method for getting rid of voles.