3 ways to rid your lawn of voles
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This story is brought to you by LawnTech, a leading specialist for tree care, lawn care and landscaping in eastern Idaho.
A single female vole can give birth to up to 12 litters a season, with two to 11 pups per litter. That’s up to 132 pups per female each season, and who knows how many females you’ve got tunneling around your yard?
As the snow melts in the spring, a virulent pest is exposed: voles. And they can sometimes seem impossible to get rid of.
A vole, or field mouse, is a rodent that lives in undergrowth and primarily eats the dormant blades of grass and sometimes the succulent bark of young trees. 
Their burrows and trails can be very unsightly in lawns, and they descend in large enough numbers to cause significant damage.
You may, in fact, feel like the plagues of Egypt are upon you when these tiny pests swarm in. But you can fight the vole plague, and there are several particularly powerful options.
Trapping
This is probably the most common way to control voles. Just like with rodents in your house, you can set traps in areas they frequent and help reduce the population this way. Any kind of mousetrap will work. The snap kind and the no-touch are both effective, they just need to be placed where the voles are and where other animals will not disturb them.
You will need to regularly keep the traps cleared, and keep it up for a while in order to put a dent in the population and keep it from growing. A single female vole can give birth to up to 12 litters a season, ranging from two to 11 pups per litter.
Baiting
Baiting can be very effective, but it is not without risks. Poison bait pellets are placed directly in holes and in areas they find food. If you have pets or small children this is not a good strategy as humans and other animals should not handle the bait or rodents killed by it.
And those dead rodents that are above ground should be removed promptly so stray cats or birds of prey that naturally hunt voles won’t eat them.
Get a Cat
The last option is the oldest, and in many cases the most effective. A good outdoor cat has been an asset in farmyards and homes for many years. They will both hunt the voles, and the presence of a cat will often keep them at bay, at least keeping them away from the house where the cat stays most of the time.
Keep in mind you have to have a cat that actually goes outside and hunts for food. A fluffy cat that stays inside all the time usually won’t do the trick.