Voles aka mice in my backyard - what should I do?

[Hopeny]

Well we have ocassional deer, daily rabbits and now I found these strange holes in our backyard which from a few minutes of internet surfing seem pretty positively made by Voles, a type of mouse - as in mouse, the dreaded tick carrier. I have ripped out bushes in my back yard to reduce ticks - what should I do about these ***** Voles? I have a 2 and 8 year old, the 8 year old has full out Lyme (and PANDAS, in treatment, recovering) and the 2 year old has 2 IGG bands positive on Quest. We have a dog too. I am scared of Permethin but maybe I have to do this. The other options I saw are traps (gross) or crazy toxic other poisons that scare me. what would you do?

[philamom]

I would use the Daminix tubes. Just be careful with your 2yr old.

[Hopeny]

I would use the Daminix tubes. Just be careful with your 2yr old.

 

 

Thank you, I was not familiar with these but just looked them up. If you have used them do you know how long it took for the mice to get all the cotton out? I think I would have to keep the backyard off limits while they were out, my DD is a little explorer I have seen organic tick control advertised but this is certainly more economical. More evidence that the tick population is exploding due to more mice, I have never had anything like this before.

[JuliaFaith]

If there is not too many holes my dh uses the riding lawn mower exhaust. He puts a flexible metal hose on the exhaust and runs it for a while. This worked when we had fewer voles but now there are a lot more so does not seem to be very effective.

 

He tried a trap that was on a youtube.com video but with no success.

[EAMom]

Well we have ocassional deer, daily rabbits and now I found these strange holes in our backyard which from a few minutes of internet surfing seem pretty positively made by Voles, a type of mouse - as in mouse, the dreaded tick carrier. I have ripped out bushes in my back yard to reduce ticks - what should I do about these ***** Voles? I have a 2 and 8 year old, the 8 year old has full out Lyme (and PANDAS, in treatment, recovering) and the 2 year old has 2 IGG bands positive on Quest. We have a dog too. I am scared of Permethin but maybe I have to do this. The other options I saw are traps (gross) or crazy toxic other poisons that scare me. what would you do?

 

I would also Frontline your dog.

[lyme_mom]

I would use the Daminix tubes. Just be careful with your 2yr old.

 

 

Thank you, I was not familiar with these but just looked them up. If you have used them do you know how long it took for the mice to get all the cotton out? I think I would have to keep the backyard off limits while they were out, my DD is a little explorer I have seen organic tick control advertised but this is certainly more economical. More evidence that the tick population is exploding due to more mice, I have never had anything like this before.

 

I use granulated castor oil and it works well to get rid if the tunneling rodents. They hate the smell. Bought it at a farm supply store.I also use tick tubes -you can hide them where the kids won't find them but mice will like under rocks, in stone walls etc. we also have natural lawn spray the yard. You can do it yourself too w garlic mixture (mosquito barrier.com) but it is time consuming because u must use a hand held mister- the thing u use to spray a deck w stain.

[Bill]

We have herds of deer, plenty of rabbits, a groundhog or two, but I've only seen one sign that we have any mice in the area. That could be because we have a couple of very healthy black snakes living in the yard. My wife is not too happy but I asked her if she'd rather have the snakes (which for the most part we do not see) or the mice?

 

More seriously, we've removed a dozen plus ticks from our dog and selves since the season began and we really don't go out much anymore. My pandas/lyme son is still recovering. My 18 yr. old daughter just got lyme diagnosis confirmed. Fortunately - yeah right - she had a bite with a circular bruise around the bite. Never saw a tick of course. I've given up on Mother Earth and now am at full blown war with her. I've laid down poison around the house. Unfortunately, they rejected my proposal to blacktop the rest of the county. But - I understand especially with your young ones that using poison in your yard is not a good option. Use DEET if you are comfortable with it. There are some natural deterrents. I use an oil of geranium rose/almond oil mixture though I haven't decided if it works or not. Most of the ticks we've pulled were not when we were using DEET or the oil.

 

Perhaps playing video games inside really is healthier for our kids? Hmmm, I'm back to snakes being the best option.

 

Edited June 7, 2012 by Bill

[Hopeny]

Thank you everyone. I have discovered why I have so many holes/voles - our lovely neighbor is doing something in their yard and has half of their yard dug up. I am tempted to trap them and return the favor. Bill - hmm snakes or mice, that's a tough one. I am with you on the blacktop. I am so with you, DD8 is going to an indoor art camp this summer. The dog has the Lyme vaccine and Frontline every three weeks. I may go to two weeks. I may just go all out war with the Voles and keep the kids out of the yard for the week - it is going to be very difficult but the holes seem to be multiplying by the hour. Insane!

[philamom]

There is a company that uses tick boxes (Maxforce Tick Management System). I think they advertise to be better than the tubes, but also a lot more pricey. Boxes are child resistant.

 

www.tickboxtcs.com (not available in all states)

Edited June 8, 2012 by philamom

[Hopeny]

Well, the vole holes seemed to be multiplying everytime I went outside - from around 5 up to I stopped counting. I called a wildlife trapper - another major expense on the pile deeper into a financial Lyme pit but this sent me into a tailspin thinking about all the tick nymphs they are carrying. He is going to build a Vole motel that they won't check out of and take them all away. Then going to put down some tick poison. I am extremely tempted to give my neighbor the bill, I hardly know them at all. For the longterm I will use these other suggestions. You know how people faced with challenges in their life say they wouldn't change a thing because it made them who they are? I am not one of those people. Angry again today at the peditrician who so grossly misdiagnosed. Making serious medical decisions I am totally unqualified to make. Trying to put DD back together. Tomorrow will be better.

[Hopeny]

Just because I am sure we could all use a smile, my vole story has a happy/funny ending. Wildlife guy showed up 3 hours late. I will just add to this for informational purposes only that I was expecting sort of a swampy type guy and instead he was pleasantly GQ looking. Anyway turns out that my internet Vole diagnosis was wrong, even though these things look EXACTLY like what I googled, it is apparently a very hungry skunk or skunks digging up for grubs. So no voles, no ticks, and importantly $450 reallocated back to DD's treatment! A small victory in my Lyme war.

[philamom]

Just because I am sure we could all use a smile, my vole story has a happy/funny ending. Wildlife guy showed up 3 hours late. I will just add to this for informational purposes only that I was expecting sort of a swampy type guy and instead he was pleasantly GQ looking. Anyway turns out that my internet Vole diagnosis was wrong, even though these things look EXACTLY like what I googled, it is apparently a very hungry skunk or skunks digging up for grubs. So no voles, no ticks, and importantly $450 reallocated back to DD's treatment! A small victory in my Lyme war.

Yay! I'll take the number of your GQ guy - we have a couple of ground hogs that are driving me crazy. lol