Voles

have a friend with a very limited budget. will staked mouse traps on the runs do an o.k. job?

Try it and tell us how you do. The death clutch or Macabee traps work by impeding passage in the tunnel. The vole trips the treadle by striking it. With the mouse trap, you're going to have the vole run up and over -- or set sideways and have him scrape into the treadle. A guy could do that, perhaps, by blocking the off side of the tunnel a bit. Still need room to have spring operate. Interesting idea though. Not sure...maybe voles like to run like mice...in contact with sides and corners. Sort of a bottom edge vole set in a very tight space.

I catch voles in my traplineproducts mole traps on occasion while mole trapping.
Never really considered stuffing them in a vole hole entrance, bet they would work well in certain circumstances...

I used to trap meadow voles for owl trapping bait and we would stick mouse snap traps in the runs and they produces very well. Put 2 back to back (one facing each way) so you get them no matter which way they are running. Look for clumps of cut grass to kn ow if they are highly active

Glue boards????

Maybe a baited Tin Cat? Multi catch trap with no springs to work.

An excellent vole trap is the Sherman or Safeguard metal trap. Both are 3 x 3 x 10 and work great on voles, mice, and chipmunks. For voles, set two traps on either side of an exit hole or bury them in the much beds with the opening exposed.

If you are going to use mouse traps, set two traps back to back (so strike bars fire away from each other)on the run and put a piece of K gutter over top of them. If you're putting bait on the triggers, I think it works better with the metal trigger but if you're putting bait between the traps the plastic triggers have a much larger surface area to fire when the vole tries to climb over it.

Also, if you use a bigger piece of gutter, you can place the two sets of traps on either side of the tunnel hole (set on a trial if possible) and cover the traps and hole with the gutter. This makes a blind set where the tunnel access is the attraction for inbound voles and allows for captures of voles leaving the tunnel system as well.

I would like to add that the Tomahawk Trap Company also has a very sensitive 3x3x10 trap that works very well on voles.

Paul,

That's the Sherman trap I mentioned.

Eric,

And here I thought Sherman just made tanks. The reason I mentioned Tomahawk is because the Sherman trap can by purchased at at least two other places, one of them being H.B. Sherman.

Yep... http://shermantraps.com/

Mouse snap traps staked with nails, with the larger plastic pans do a good job on voles if the active runs and dens are located. Just like trapping any other animal. Learn their habitat and the rest is easy.

I use the mouse traps and gutter setup myself and always get good results. A lot of times there is only the head left as the shrews tend to get to them pretty quickly. I tried the NO-MOLS with so-so results but the mouse traps win hands down. I charge $10 a vole if I trap them while I am mole trapping and usually get 5-10.

I have had good luck with the mouse traps. Drill a hole in them and anchor them down with a nail like what was already said.