Voles
Short-tailed mouse-like rodents that live in runways under grass and mulch. They chew bark off the trunk at ground level and eat roots and bulbs, mostly hidden under winter cover.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Keep a bare circle at the trunk
Hold mulch, weeds and grass back at least a foot or two from every trunk. Voles avoid crossing open ground.
Try this first2Hardware cloth guards
Quarter-inch mesh cylinders set four to six inches into the soil and standing 18 to 24 inches tall protect trunks from girdling.
1/4 inch hardware cloth roll3Mow it short going into winter
Cut grass and cover crops low in late fall so the runways lose their roof and hawks and owls can hunt them.
4Snap traps in the runways
For a small area, set mouse snap traps flush in a runway and across it rather than along it.
mouse snap traps5Test with an apple slice
Lay an apple slice in a runway and check it a day later. Tooth marks tell you they are active before you spend money.
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Which plants get voles
Every plant we cover that gets voles, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
shrub1
perennials2
annual1
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Rosaceae, with 5 of the 12 affected plants.
- Rosaceae5 plants
- Liliaceae2 plants
When to treat
Fall, before the cover mats down. The feeding happens under snow and mulch where you cannot see it, so pull mulch back and set guards before winter rather than reacting in spring. Moles get blamed for this, but moles eat grubs and worms, not roots; voles just use their tunnels.
On specific plants
- Growing
- Daily red-beetle patrol May-June where it's arrived; plant bulbs in gravel-lined holes vs voles.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for voles and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets voles, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.