Getting Rid of Voles: Buttermilk scares them away
Created: 09/10/2022, 17:30
By: Ines Alms
Voles destroy the vegetable harvest and eat flower bulbs.
That has to end.
Buttermilk is a suitable home remedy for the pests.
Voles have almost driven numerous garden enthusiasts insane.
Therefore, one gladly grasps every straw to chase the pests out of the beds.
You don't have to kill the animals, you can just reach into the fridge and pull out a mug of buttermilk.
Getting Rid of Voles: Buttermilk scares them away
Water voles belong to the vole genus and, like humans, love root vegetables.
© imagebroker/Imago
Voles, also known as water voles, are unfortunately active all year round and happily continue digging their tunnels even in winter.
However, since they form small mounds and holes similar to moles, you can discover them quite easily and use them for yourself.
First of all, the ultimate method to permanently drive voles out of the garden does not seem to exist.
But it is always worth trying to fight them with inexpensive home remedies before resorting to chemicals or traps, as reported by 24garten.de.
When buttermilk ferments, it develops a very unpleasant rancid odor of butyric acid, which is dreadful for the smell-sensitive rodents.
As
Plantopedia.de
explains, it is therefore better to pour more than a little buttermilk into the mice's corridors every few days.
Sun, heat and microorganisms ensure that this begins to ferment - the pests take flight.
Closing the passage with earth increases this effect.
Likewise, if you soak cotton cloths in a 1:1 buttermilk/whey mixture, stick them in the aisles and cover them with soil.
A small flag helps to find the positions again later.
Fight pests in the garden: 10 suitable home remedies
View photo gallery
Other methods to drive voles out of the garden
The
German Nature Conservation Union
recommends further environmentally friendly measures :
Plant garlic in the beds: the strong smell disturbs the rodents enormously.
Wire mesh and wire baskets stretched around plant roots or raised beds serve as a mechanical barrier
Offer a distraction: If there are many wild herbs in the garden, the interest of the voles in carrots, celery & co.
You can find even more exciting gardening topics in our free newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.
Also promote the natural enemies: Beneficial insects such as moles eat the offspring of the voles.
If you have a mole in the garden, then most likely no voles.
So if you find a lot of earthworms, a favorite food of the animal, on a walk, it is best to collect them and release them in your garden - they also improve the soil quality at the same time.