Voles.....

[Akzholedent]

So... I seem to have quite a large problem... My two rabbits, Butterscotch and Ellie have this wonderful rabbit condo outside. Every morning, we let them out of their house in the basement and put them in the outdoor condo where they play outside all day. There is a patch of dirt where they can dig, stairs to hop up and down, a concrete pad to sunbathe... It's basically a rabbit paradise.

However, over the last couple months, I have noticed digging activity in the yard. Holes throughout the yard, little ridges of dug up soil... After researching, I determined they were vole holes, rather than mole holes. Last week, I noticed the holes all over my flower gardens. I figured that as long as they left the rabbit area alone, I'd just let them be..

But today, as I was rounding up Butterscotch and Ellie to put them back in their house, I noticed dug up dirt all around the pen. We have these ceramic tiles that the rabbits can lounge on, and there was dirt piled all around them. The area underneath their outdoor hutch (which we don't use.. It's just out there so they can go inside for naps or to have shade in the summer) is also dug out (which isn't Butterscotch and Ellie digging.. It's definitely vole tunnels).

Any recommendations about ways to repel the voles? We are going to be watching Mom and Dad's farm for a few weeks next month, and we'll be taking all three rabbits with us, so any vole removal tactics would be best done then. I'd prefer not to kill them, but I also don't want them possibly getting Butterscotch and Ellie sick or giving them the idea to dig out of their pen. They haven't been remotely interested in that yet, and honestly, seem perfectly happy when we put them put for the day.

 

[Preitler]

Hm, although you prefer not to kill them I think that's what is most likely successful, I do it without any remorse - they are not easy to trap anyway.

You can try to destroy their tunnels every day with a spade, or try all that stuff that is said to work wonders, like putting carbide into their tunnels. But I haven't seen any of those work out, and I'm not putting up with just watching my vegetable garden being destroyed.

It's not like they are going extinct.

But be shure it's not moles, simply make a small holes in their tunnels, if they get repeatedly stuffed within half an hour it's 90% voles.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

The only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of the pest. My parents lived in the country and had chickens. We dug down more than 4 feet and put in aluminum siding along the outside wall as a barrier to foxes and other pests, but that's an extreme measure to do around a whole yard. And they are not easy to eliminate and do wreak havoc on yards and gardens.

 

[Akzholedent]

So.. Prietler, do you know of anything that would kill the voles and not hurt my buns in the long term? Most things i find that kill voles are also harmful to buns. :-(

I do live in town, so my yard really isnt that big. Its probably 50 feet at the longest, and about 30 feet wide. The front yard is even smaller, so it wouldnt take much of anything to take care of things up there.

 

[Preitler]

Well, the most successful traps I built were .223 cases filled with flash powder and an electric ignition, burried in the tunnel floor with a micro switch 2" in the direction of the hole I dug...
Worked great, burried deep with a big crate on top of all this to keep the dogs away, the earth did buldge noticeable anyway. Some of those I got were the size of rats.

I reckon that's not practicable, somewhat illegal, and a lot of work, so now I use commercial snap traps that get shoved into the tunnels. You don't wont any of those contraptions using live ammo.
Dig a hole disrupting a tunnel, take a twig about a foot long and stir somewhat in the tunnels, that somehow hides the trap, or makes it less suspicious. Insert the traps as far as possible, in both sides, or every opening you find in your hole (try not to touch them with bare hands, and let them in out in the weather for some days), an attached string well help to recover them.
Cover the hole you dug with a Stone, Tile, board, whatever, seal it with dirt - except for a 1" air hole to attract the voles. They do not like any draft in their tunnels.

Here, a local tree nursery offers vole trapping workshops, or you can find a lot about this topic on the net, like youtube.

 

[Akzholedent]

Thanks, Prietler! I figured I'd share pictures of what my front yard and rabbit area look like..

The first picture is the tunnel underneath the ceramic tile..

Second picture is one of the holes in the backyard.

The third picture is what I just found when rounding up the buns... Apparently my unwelcome visitor is digging around the outside of the bun pen... And I found a load of tunnels underneath the compost pile (which is just wood pellet rabbit litter with rabbit poop and pee in it.. My compost pile is looking rather fertile, though, so that's the good thing.)

The last couple pictures are holes throughout my flower garden in the front yard...

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[Akzholedent]

Sorry, I accidentally hit send instead of upload pictures.. Ugh.. These are the photos from my front flower garden

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[Akzholedent]

And the buns in question:Butterscotch (white) and Ellie (brown)

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[Azerane]

You can set humane live traps around their cage area to at least try and keep them away from there. But otherwise I don't see that they're really posing a threat to your bunnies at all.

If you're going away, any sort of repellent should be ok to use in that time. Traps aren't really suitable if you're not home to check and change them.

 

[Preitler]

Ah, the voles I had to fight were Arvicola terrestri, these holes look more like Microtus arvalis, normal mouse traps should do, I use a piece af walnut as bait, place them in front of the holes and put a crate over it to keep birds (!) and rabbits away.

 

[Akzholedent]

So glad the holes were able to tell you so much! Thank you for your help! We'll get ahold of some traps, and i'll update with our results! Thank you for your expertise, Preitler!

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[Preitler]

Get some local info anyway, since there may be different spieces where you life than here.

 

[Akzholedent]

Ahhh, I see you're in Austria. my parents are going to Pitztal in a few weeks on a ski trip. ^_^ I went on the trip last year... So gorgeous.

Yeah, I live in West Virginia in the US.. So, my voles are probably different. :-/