HELP! We have voles in our house!!!

[scarlet_red_uk]

Hi there! Ok this is my first post on here and I'm in desperate need of some help! We have a vole invasion in our house! I have tried searching online for solutions but everything seems to say that you don't get voles in your house. I'm sure that they are voles- they're defiantly not mice (I have a pet mouse and we had a couple of mice in the basement of my family home). Here is a link to a photo of one that I found in a bag of my hamster's food- http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d..._uk/Vole_1.jpg
so if anyone can confirm for me exactly what he is that would be great! We are animal lovers and really don't want to kill them but they're populating at a rate of knots and are also now EVERYWHERE in the house including the bedrooms! They started off in the kitchen and we bought some humane traps which do catch a few but don't really do enough and a lot of the time the voles take the bait and then wonder out the trap without setting it off. We though about getting one of those electronic pulse things but I have 5 pet hamsters, a mouse and 2 rats and I don't want them being affected. My mother in law is talking about getting a cat but I don't want to end up with a load of half eaten voles! I really don't know what to do and am at my wit's end- in the past 2 days alone we have had to destroy one of our surround sound speakers as one got into it and couldn't get out again, I found one in my bag and it had eaten my mars bar and now that they have made it to our room I'm a nervous wreck all the time cos I'm worried that one's going to get into the rat cage and I can't bare the thought of the outcome. Please help! All suggestions appreciated!

[Lance Morgan]

Its a woodmouse Poisoning is probably going to be the only solution :O(

[scarlet_red_uk]

Are you sure that it's a woodmouse? His their ears are very small and laid back-
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d..._uk/Vole_3.jpg
Don't know if this picture shows any better?

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

It’s difficult to know how to help. Catching them and releasing them outside won’t work as they will just come back in, you will need to release them a good distance from your property. It will also depend where your house is presumably it’s more of a country than town location? Do you know where they are entering the house, a start would be to block all the holes. Not much help I know I suspect for such an infestation, poison is the only solution. And it is a mouse.

BWD

[Lance Morgan]

Originally Posted by scarlet_red_uk

Are you sure that it's a woodmouse? His their ears are very small and laid back-
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/d..._uk/Vole_3.jpg
Don't know if this picture shows any better?

Definitely a young mouse. Strange that they should have moved into your house at this time of year. It has been very wet though and it seems they have a readily availble food source.
I think poison bait is going to be your only option. Sorry

[scarlet_red_uk]

Oddly enough we live right on the busy A6 in Leicester and the only thing that's wild locally is the next door neighbours horribly overgrown garden- which we susspect may be what brought them to us in the first place! Unfortunatly there's plenty of places for them to get in (my father in law is a rather stubborn architect who can never quite get round to finishing the house- whole other story for a whole other forum!). Is poisoning them going to cause them a painful death? They're very cute pain's in the oeoeoeoe's and I really don't like the thought of them suffering. Would a cat be effective? At least that would feel a bit more like it was just natural?

[mh68]

Both pics look like Bank Voles to me...the ears aren`t erect enough, nor large enough for Woodmouse, nor is the head proportions in relation to the body right for Woodmouse(Woodmouse head is a lot larger in relation to body size).Face isnt pointed enough to be Woodmouse either to my eyes.
If theyve reached the numbers you suggest then getting a Pest Controller in may be the only viable option unfortunately.


Mark H

[Lance Morgan]

Have to agree to differ.. Generally mice have pointy noses and prominent eyes and ears. Voles have blunt noses, small eyes and their ears are hidden in their fur.
Second pic is more vole like but nose is still pointed.

[mh68]

No worries, we`ll have to agree to disagree then
Anyway, the actual species ID isnt really relevant to the problem Scarlet mentioned in the initial post.

Mark H

[Colin Pumfrett]

I once had 9 mice in my house, in the kitchen and bedrooms , i used a humane mousetrap which was basically a cage with a hole at the top and a funnel shaped entrance going downwards, they climbed into the hole, through the funnel, and dropped onto the bait, which was chocolate, once inside they could not escape, caught 5 first night, 4 the next night. Best trap ever.

[Dogghound]

Definately a Bank Vole Clethrionomys glareolus, Tail lenght, eye and ear size in comparison to head size, fairly blunt face. Not herd of them coming into homes, but if theres easy food like hamster food around i dont blame them.

[mh68]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Definately a Bank Vole Clethrionomys glareolus, Tail lenght, eye and ear size in comparison to head size, fairly blunt face. Not herd of them coming into homes, but if theres easy food like hamster food around i dont blame them.

I`m glad someone else agrees with my ID

Mark H

[Gill Catton]

Thirded not mice, these are voles...

how strange though I've never heard of them in the house either!!

Yes you can buy humane traps try a 'longworth trap' google - (longworths are expensive but you should get taken to sites with a cheaper plastic version) and remove them to a field (some distance away) or riverside, its the peak time of year for them right now and they're very valuable to barn owls at this time of year when the young are learning to look after themselves

[C C]

I have known Field Voles to entre an house.

There was a vole plague, on a site near me. The area had been relandscaped, and seeded. Two year later, boom! they were every where. Thousands had appeared across the site. They were everywhere, entering houses that occupied the perimeter left,right and centre. It was really ammazing to watch. I even saw two woodmice on a picnic bench, trying to escape the commotion.

If you want to see a true mouse plague, check out youtube and type in mouse plague. I would put a link, but the video could cause a bit of distress, and it carries a PG rating.

[thunder]

I have had Bank Voles in my house! The only thing my cat caught was Bank Vole, that he caught on the landing!

henrya

[Meles meles]

100% a Vole. Great description Dogghound
The only way you will get rid of these is by catching them in a longworth, which will mean a long day and night constantly checking the trap. You will have to store the captured ones in a large plastic container. Bedding food, lid with air holes all the normal. When you realease them make sure you are quite a distance from home. If there is a reason why they are there, be sure they will be back if let loose localy. Check the net, there may be some current release programs localy. They may be happy to take them away for you.

Good luck though

[doris-seaslug]

Hi - I'm new to this site, having found it by putting 'Bank Voles' into the search engine. So - we are not alone in having these visitors. There is a lot of good advice here and we have had both Bank Voles and yellow-necked woodmice in the loft. For most of 2007 we have used a Longworth trap, checked morning and evening, but are wondering how long this invasion can go on! We always transfer the mice/voles to a plastic tank with food and bedding, then take them at least two miles away into woodland/forest before releasing them.
We thought we had the problem of entry into the house sorted when we had cavity insulation recently and also ensured the perforated zinc under the eaves was tightly into the crevices. But - they still get in and we don't know how.
Does anyone know how high these creatures can climb vertically? Do they go straight up the outside of walls of brick buildings?

[Ukwildlifeo]

Further to other Ids its definately not a house/Wood Mouse, the ears are wrong. Which leaves the bank/Field Vole or with an overgrown garden next door, the outside cahnce of a Harvest Mouse - but Im no expert so previous Ids are probaly more accurate.

Not sure about voles but in my uni house we just made sure there was no food out at night and everything was in seeled containers. Then laid down some mouse traps and had no problems after that

[Emma S]

Originally Posted by C C

I have known Field Voles to entre an house.

There was a vole plague, on a site near me. The area had been relandscaped, and seeded. Two year later, boom! they were every where. Thousands had appeared across the site. They were everywhere, entering houses that occupied the perimeter left,right and centre. It was really ammazing to watch. I even saw two woodmice on a picnic bench, trying to escape the commotion.

If you want to see a true mouse plague, check out youtube and type in mouse plague. I would put a link, but the video could cause a bit of distress, and it carries a PG rating.

Oh my goodness me... just watched the mouse plague clip..... *shudder*.... not for those with mouse phobia......

[honeybee]

Personally I wouldn't recommend poisoning. We have a mouse problem and my neighbours have put poison down. I realise you can't live with rodents running around your house but poison is horrible...You'll have them dropping down dead everywhere and have them dying in agony in front of you. The bad thing is from a practical point of view is if you have rodents in large numbers they'll be dead in large numbers in places you can't reach such as under floorboards etc and that wont be pleasant. It's the only sure fire way to get rid of most of them but it's not nice. Traps that kill them dead on the spot are in my opinion more humane and stop you having decopmposing corpses everywhere. I am wondering wether to move my hamster and get a sonic deterrant thingy but i don't know how well they work.anybody had any success with theses btw? I don't want to resort to killing.I hope they go when the weather warms up for you, strange to have lots of voles, do they stink as bad as mice?!

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Personally I wouldn't recommend poisoning. We have a mouse problem and my neighbours have put poison down. I realise you can't live with rodents running around your house but poison is horrible...You'll have them dropping down dead everywhere and have them dying in agony in front of you. The bad thing is from a practical point of view is if you have rodents in large numbers they'll be dead in large numbers in places you can't reach such as under floorboards etc and that wont be pleasant. It's the only sure fire way to get rid of most of them but it's not nice. Traps that kill them dead on the spot are in my opinion more humane and stop you having decopmposing corpses everywhere. I am wondering wether to move my hamster and get a sonic deterrant thingy but i don't know how well they work.anybody had any success with theses btw? I don't want to resort to killing.I hope they go when the weather warms up for you, strange to have lots of voles, do they stink as bad as mice?!

More importantly poison gets into other food chains and predators of the mice get killed too. Predators of the predators also get killed, not a nice thing.

[coasty]

I agree totally with the no to poison, The smell of even one somewhere unreachable is very bad,,, Either use dead or alive traps. Also check the walls etc for where they are getting in,,, As it wont matter what you trap as more will just enter, Is there any building work around you,,, sometimes this can disturb populations and cause problems for neighbours,,,,