For those of us who like to garden autumn is a busy time of year, as many of the fruits of our labor are now ready for harvest. While we work hard through the summer season to keep pests away from our plants, we can’t let our guard down just because it is fall, as some pest problems will persist despite the cooling weather.
One pest you may encounter in your garden this fall is the meadow vole. Meadow voles are sometimes called field mice due to their similarities in appearance. However, while mice are typically omnivores, meadow voles are strictly herbivores, which is exactly why you need to keep an eye on your garden. They’ll eat almost every part of a plant, including the roots, stem, leaves, flowers, and fruit.
They’re not only interested in a vegetable garden, though. Meadow voles are just as happy to eat the bulbs of flowers or the leaves of shrubbery, leaving your ornamental garden in shambles.
You may think you won’t need to worry about meadow voles if you don’t have a garden - unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Meadow voles will also eat the bark and roots around the bottoms of trees, which can eventually lead to the death of those trees. They can also carve trenches of chewed grass through your lawn. Give them enough time or a big enough population, and you may find your lawn resembling a series of veins where the voles have eaten through it.
It is also possible for meadow voles to get into your home. They don’t typically enter homes - first because suitable food sources are not usually readily available inside, and second because they are not good climbers and can only get indoors if they find an entry point near the ground. However, it is still possible for them to gain entry to your home and, if they do, they’ll leave behind contaminated feces and parasites such as fleas.
In order to make your property uninviting to meadow voles, there are several things you can do.
- Keep your grass trimmed short. Meadow voles prefer long grass and are not as likely to hang around in short grass.
- Build a fence around your garden that also goes into the earth by at least 10 inches. This will prevent the voles from burrowing into your garden from underground.
- Put protective skirting around the bottoms of your trees.
- Check around the outside of your home for any holes, gaps, or cracks that a vole could fit through to get inside, and repair them as needed.
- Keep landscaping neatly trimmed around your house.
If you do discover meadow voles on your Moline residential or commercial property, it’s a good idea to bring in a professional pest control company to take care of the problem. Meadow voles can reproduce quite rapidly and a small issue can quickly turn into a big problem. Here at Quik-Kill Pest Eliminators, we’ve been taking care of pest problems since 1929. We can help you eliminate your meadow vole infestation and keep your garden, lawn, and home in tiptop shape. Call us today to learn more about our residential pest control programs in your area!