Trapping Voles (Field Mice)

[Steve Albano 21]

Here's a short video clip I shot today of how I trap voles here in California. I'm not sure if there are voles in the UK or the rest of Europe, but I'd be willing to bet there are. I just thought I'd post this in case anyone here is interested.

 

[claybusers al 9]

good demo mate. but in the uk we have field mice and voles two different rodents. our voles are very rare highly protected as they are almost wiped out, they look similar to your voles but slightly smaller. as for field mice thousands of them but you wouldnt realy get them like that in gardens easier to catch but over here we would just poison them.

[zig zag wanderer 0]

We have two voles; the field vole and bank vole. Neither of which are rare or protected and I believe can be controlled as they come under "small ground vermin".

 

The water vole on the other hand is locally rare and definetely fully protected.

 

I have never trapped voles personally but have been asked a couple of times so the video was useful. The other alternative would be a live catch such as the Longworth trap and relocate away from human habitation.

[stubby 175]

good video,

[glass22 0]

Do bank voles(uk), cause much of a problem? I have seen one around my field, I choose to leave it alone and have never known a problem with it, it seemed to have very poor eye sight.

 

I walked right up to it and it did not seem to notice, I put a little soil on it and it started screaming at me.

[Rolfe 2]

Great Video clip Steve.......thanks for sharing that with us it looks an extremely effective method.

 

Regards

 

Rolfe.

[Steve Albano 21]

Thanks, Rolfe. The voles are funny in that their populations run in cycles over a period of three or four years. So we'll get two or three years in a row where we only see an occasional vole on our accounts. And then we'll get a year where their population explodes, and we have to catch them in huge numbers.

 

We do mole on gopher control on hundreds of residential accounts on an ongoing basis, and in 2008 we caught literally thousands of voles on our properties. In most years, most of our accounts don't have any voles at all, but in 2008 we were catching more voles than moles of gophers. And they can do a lot of damage when their numbers are high.

[foxdropper 17,092]

Good set up there mate .Voles in this country are mainly found with a roof over their heads ,ie in long grass, under plastic or wood and dont cause much of a problem in gardens .Its also the main food of several raptors which are nice to see including the barn owl .

[00taz11 39]

did the run trap catch

[mole trapper 1,646]

Really interesting to see how pesties go about their work in other countries, my sister in law lives in the states and is always asking me to POP OVER and sort out her star nosed moles.

Thanks for that MT.

[Steve Albano 21]

No, the set-up on the run didn't catch anything, and wasn't touched. Hopefully that's because there was just one vole active in these tunnels. In February, their populations are pretty low, as they're not breeding this time of year. In the spring or summer, I'd be very surprised to catch just one in this type of situation, but this time of year, that's possible.

[stealthy1 3,964]

Very interesting vid, will you be posting more?

[zig zag wanderer 0]

I caught one in a mole trap this afternoon. So why not use mole traps to them in their runs?

[woodga 170]

good informative video clip powerful traps those victors keep the tips coming

[stubby 175]

I caught one in a mole trap this afternoon. So why not use mole traps to them in their runs?

 

time limit I would think would be a big factor, why make the job harder, watching the clip, traps and cover could be laid in seconds at each entrance/exit hole, rather than digging,setting,filling in, idividual mole traps, just my thoughts mind