Mange The Habitat - Plant Insect, Disease and Environmental Problem Information from PlantsGalore.Com

2. Manage habitat to discourage voles. Keep all vegetation away from the base of trees. Keep grass no longer than 3 to 4 inches. You may have to remove mulch from gardens and around trees if the vole problem is extensive. Keep the ground bare—voles do not like to feed out in the open. Till the soil to destroy runways and paths. Wire 3/8-inch hardware cloth fashioned into cylinders 18 inches high will protect trees when set 6 inches into the soil.

Habitat Modification

One way to effectively deter vole populations is to make the habitat less suitable to them. Weeds, heavy mulch, and dense vegetative cover encourage voles by providing food and protection from predators and environmental stresses. If you remove this protection, their numbers will decline.

You can reduce the area from which voles can invade gardens or landscaped areas by regularly mowing, spraying with herbicides, grazing, or tilling grassy areas along ditch banks, right-of-ways, or field edges adjacent to gardens. If feasible, weed-free strips can serve as buffers around areas requiring protection. The wider the cleared strip, the less apt voles will be to cross and become established in gardens. A minimum width of 15 feet is recommended, but even that can be ineffective when vole numbers are high. A 4-foot-diameter circle around the base of young trees or vines that is free of vegetation or a buffer strip 4 feet or more along a row of trees can reduce problems, because voles prefer not to feed in the open.


Chipmunks Deer in the Landscape Deer and Flowers Deer and Hostas Deer and Woody Plants Deer and Vegetables Deer and Rabbit Damage Deer Repellants	Dogs Foliar Nematodes Groundmole Types Groundmoles in Winter Mammals in the Garden Mice Pine Wilt Nematodes Rats Rodents Rodent Management	Sapsuckers Shrews Skunks Slugs & Hostas Snails Squirrels Voles Woodchuck Woodpecker

Note: We have provided some general information and observations on this topic aimed at the home gardener. Before you take any serious action in your landscape, check with your state's land grant university's Cooperative Extension Service for the most current, appropriate, localized recommendations.

Mange The Habitat

Habitat modification may lessen chipmunk damage. Try not to continuously connect, through vegetation and plantings, wooded areas with garden beds and homes. Such areas, wood piles, and debris provide protection for them, plus their openings are hard to find under such cover.

Spilled bird seed from feeders is a common attractant for chipmunks, as around my own home. Place bird feeders 15 to 30 feet from buildings or gardens. Keeping grass cut short around such areas will provide little cover for them and encourage them to burrow elsewhere.