When a mole is not a Mole...........

[Rolfe 2]

Not wishing to state the "bleeding obvious" but embryo mole catchers might like to see these pictures of Vole activity. Client rang to say she had a mole causing havoc on her lawn ........so i duly answered the summons only to find it was a vole..........not a mole........albeit it had taken over some old mole workings as they are inclined to do. Notice the clean ping-pong ball sized holes........and the droppings just outside....a sure giveaway of vole activity. The client was quite happy to live with situation once she found out it wasn't a mole.

[Steve Albano 21]

Rolfe, what are the different species of voles in the UK? I added some vole trapping kits to my website a week or so back, and I had my first sale of a vole trapping kit to someone in the UK a few days ago. These aren't the endangered water vole, I'm pretty sure of that, but do you know what species they are, or how many species there are in the UK? Looks pretty much just like the vole damage we see here in California, and in same situation, where they invade old mole runs.

[Steve Albano 21]

Here's a short video I shot a year or so back showing how we trap voles here. This is the most effective setup I have found for them. Really works well, and it's cheap and fast to set up. Hope the youtube video shows here.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9cFspBjb-U

[Rolfe 2]

Rolfe, what are the different species of voles in the UK? I added some vole trapping kits to my website a week or so back, and I had my first sale of a vole trapping kit to someone in the UK a few days ago. These aren't the endangered water vole, I'm pretty sure of that, but do you know what species they are, or how many species there are in the UK? Looks pretty much just like the vole damage we see here in California, and in same situation, where they invade old mole runs.

Hi Steve........long time no speak my friend. NO these are bank or field voles the same as you trap in the states i think. The endangered water vole is a much larger animal and frequents riverside banks, and has been decimated here somewhat by mink predation. The two species that we come across in a pest capacity are field (or short tailed voles) and bank voles......but they seldom cause a big problem in garden areas. The longer tail and slightly smaller size helps distinguish the bank vole from the field vole. The pictures in my post are of field vole activity as far as i can tell...but they can and do frequent very similar areas. So in answer to your question, as far as i know, we have 3 types of voles over here.

 

Rolfe.

[Steve Albano 21]

Thanks, Rolfe. So you think the same traps and set up would work the same on the bank voles and the field voles? I mean I assume they're close enough in size and behavior that you really wouldn't have to do anything differently between the two? Over here, voles can do quite a bit of damage to residential gardens, by the way. Some years we don't see many of them, but some years we see a lot of damage from them here.

 

I forgot to mention that we also catch the voles with our mole traps set inside the tunnels, but that takes longer to set up, and I prefer doing it with the mouse traps and the covers. Also, we sell some of our gopher sized traps for the Water Voles, but elsewhere in Europe, not in the UK of course.

[stubby 175]

steve, watched that videa a few times last year, very informative, and a great way of making a cheap little trap, EVEN BETTER, just one question, why the flag marker, as its not like your going to miss seeing that in a garden

[Rolfe 2]

Thanks, Rolfe. So you think the same traps and set up would work the same on the bank voles and the field voles? I mean I assume they're close enough in size and behavior that you really wouldn't have to do anything differently between the two? Over here, voles can do quite a bit of damage to residential gardens, by the way. Some years we don't see many of them, but some years we see a lot of damage from them here.

 

I forgot to mention that we also catch the voles with our mole traps set inside the tunnels, but that takes longer to set up, and I prefer doing it with the mouse traps and the covers. Also, we sell some of our gopher sized traps for the Water Voles, but elsewhere in Europe, not in the UK of course.

 

Yes the trap would work exactly the same over here Steve, but as i alluded to earlier, we get very little call for this type of pest control work.

 

Rolfe.

[Steve Albano 21]

Stubby, did I put a flag on the vole trap set up? Ha, probably just habit from flagging the mole and gopher traps.

 

We see the moles and voles both using the same tunnels all the time. The moles will go through and close all the open holes, and then the voles will come back and open them all up again. Somewhere I have a picture of a vole caught in a snap trap as it was coming out of a hole, and a mole has eaten off the whole body of the vole, with just the head left in the trap.

 

We get a lot of vole work here partially because we include that free as part of our mole and gopher control service. We don't charge extra for adding moles onto the list of target animals, and we do our jobs for a flat fee, we don't charge per animal. So if we charged extra to do the voles, maybe we wouldn't get so much vole work. But they really can do a fair bit of damage in some cases.

[stubby 175]

Stubby, did I put a flag on the vole trap set up? Ha, probably just habit from flagging the mole and gopher traps.

 

 

 

thought that was the reason

[Axholme Ferreter 0]

This unlucky chap paid the price for using a mole tunnel

All the best

AF

[Rolfe 2]

Never ever caught a vole in a mole trap..........but have caught many weasels........I am always saddened in a way if i catch a weasel as they are helping me with the mole control so to speak. Weasels are prolific mole and vole hunters and as such often fall foul of the mole traps.

 

Rolfe.

[J Darcy 5,871]

Let us not forget that the water vole has full legal protection...

[Axholme Ferreter 0]

Let us not forget that the water vole has full legal protection...

 

What about a bank vole?

All the best AF