Are Voles Dangerous?

If you’ve seen small, rotund, mouse-like animals living in your yard, you’re dealing with a vole infestation. So if it’s not a mouse, what is a vole? Voles are rodents just like rats and mice, but will not look to the internal structures of your home for shelter during the winter. Instead, voles burrow in our yards, causing destruction to our lawn and plants, costing us a lot of money in repairs, and potentially spreading dangerous diseases. It’s best to get ahead of vole problems in Florida before they get out of hand and expose the people around you to health risks. Read on to learn more about voles from Florida Pest Control.

How Are Voles Dangerous?

Voles aren’t dangerous in the direct sense of aggression. Although they can bite, voles are timid creatures who very rarely bite. However, the dangers that they do pose come through the trouble that they can cause in your yard.

Voles living in your yard will burrow underneath your lawn and garden and stifle or entirely destroy plant growth, depending on how many there are and how long you let them stick around. Their feces and urine are also potential harborers of dangerous diseases and parasites that can affect your pets as well as your family.

Preventing Voles in Your Yard

To avoid the risks associated with a vole infestation, there are a number of steps you can take. Here are some easy actions you can complete on your own:

1. Get rid of their food source: Voles eat a wide variety of grasses, plants, tubers, and bulbs. Although you won’t be able to get rid of all eligible food in your yard, you can set up fences or netting to protect plants in your garden that could be attracting them.
2. Keep your yard tidy: This could help to clear out voles that are using your compost pile or unkempt plant growth for food sources.
3. Use natural deterrents: Putting coffee grounds, pet waste, fragrant essential oils, fish scraps, or other pungent materials into the holes they’ve dug in your yard can drive them away.
4. Call a professional critter control company: Your problem will be best assessed by an expert with experience getting rid of burrowing rodents in Florida. They will be able to select the best vole removal strategy for your yard.

Professional Wildlife Control in Florida

If you can’t control the voles in your yard on your own and are worried about the dangers that they pose, reach out to your local critter control company. At Florida Pest Control, we train our vole extermination experts not only to remove voles from yards and gardens but also to assess our customers’ yards for vulnerabilities that could lead to future infestations. To learn more about voles or receive a free quote on our services, contact us today!