How Effective Is Vole Wire And How Is It Used?

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:51 pm

Voles can cause a lot of damage in your garden. They first move unnoticed in the garden and tamper with your plants there. Underground, they eat new trees and plants.

If you are just planting new trees, however, you don’t have to be completely defenseless against the voles. As a gardener, you can take steps to effectively deter voles from attacking the trees.

You can use vole wire before planting to protect young trees. But how exactly do you need to proceed and how can the vole wire specifically help you?

Voles and young trees

Voles are constantly on the lookout for new food, traversing your entire garden. Especially in spring, voles are very active, which is particularly harmful for you as a gardener.

If you want to plant new trees in the spring, then you should consider the dangers of voles and not simply deliver the trees without protection.

For voles, the new and young trees are a real feast. This is because these trees are still relatively weak and are not a major obstacle for the vole. Although the rodent is only very small, it can already do some damage with its sharp teeth.

New roots are eaten away and the trees are made unable to form a healthy root system. This is because trees need a lot of nutrients, especially when they are growing. Thus, the attack of the vole can very quickly lead to the fact that the trees are permanently damaged and can no longer recover.

Where older trees are more resistant, young trees are very weak and vulnerable. Therefore, it will not be enough if you resort to other control methods. If you decide to use vole gas, for example, then you must remember that this will only have a delayed effect and will also not always be successful.

Therefore, the only way to protect newly planted trees from voles is to wrap the trees in a mesh of vole wire.

The vole wire in use

The application of the vole wire is very simple. You proceed as usual when planting the tree. The soil is dug out and enough space is created for the new tree. However, when you use vole wire, you should dig a little more soil.

For this, you should dig about 10 centimeters deeper than you would without vole wire. Now insert the wire into the soil and cover it with a layer of mixed soil.

This will provide the foundation for the vole wire. Now you can plant the tree and wrap the root system with the vole wire. Now the vole wire should fit tightly against the tree trunk and no longer provide a target for attack.

The vole has very fine teeth, but the wire provides effective protection. This allows the tree to develop and grow its roots, which promote growth.

How does the vole wire work

The vole wire provides mechanical protection that cannot be cut by the vole. Even with very thin wire, the small rodent bites its teeth and is not able to cut it.

So the effect of the wire is obvious and easy to understand.

However, when you plant the trees, you will probably wonder how the roots get through the wire. After all, the tree is growing and in a few years or decades the roots should be much thicker than the openings of the wire would allow.

The solution to this is quite simple, and you don’t even have to get the wire out of the ground to do it.

Ungalvanized wire will rust within a year or two if it has been laid in the ground. This gives the tree the opportunity to displace it with its roots and the wire dissolves into the soil as much as possible.

Roots are thus given the necessary space to spread in the soil. If, on the other hand, you rely on hot-dip galvanized vole wire, you will probably harm the tree more than you help it.

This is because hot-dip galvanized wire does not rust and remains in the soil permanently. The roots have no possibility to spread. Especially the important fine roots remain in the wire mesh and do not develop into the immediate surroundings. The tree will therefore constantly suffer from a nutrient problem.

Now, if there is a particularly harsh summer, with high temperatures and lack of rain, then it can quickly happen that the tree can not absorb the required nutrients and dies.

Therefore, you should always resort to a non-galvanized vole wire. This may seem less resistant at first, but it is precisely the greater susceptibility to rust is an advantage for the tree.

Long-term vole protection

So, the non-galvanized vole wire is not a permanent solution to protect the tree. If after one or two years the wire is more riddled with rust, then the roots are given enough space to grow.

However, this also means that after the initial period, there is no longer effective protection against the voles. The young tree may have survived the most severe and vulnerable period, but voles can still harm it.

To prevent this, you should now resort to other means.

The best way is to create a natural balance and create good conditions for beneficial insects. These can settle in the garden and fight the voles.

Among the beneficial insects in the garden that you can attract is, for example, the stoat or the weasel. These will feel at home if you build a small plant with piles of stones and dead wood.

Other animals that effectively combat voles are birds of prey, such as the kestrel or owls.

The kestrel requires a perch that you can set up in your yard. If you want to attract the birds of prey not only for a short time, then you can also build nesting boxes. Birds are very effective in fighting voles and also keep other pests away.

Owls, on the other hand, need small burrows and nesting places. You can also set up suitable nesting boxes for this purpose.

Conclusion

Voles are known to love attacking newly planted trees and plants. These are an excellent source of food and are at the top of the menu for voles.

While the young and fresh roots are a feast for the voles, for the tree this means that it takes a major hit from which it may not recover.

Moreover, the damage is not immediately noticeable. If you discover the vole in the garden, it will most likely already be too late and the usual control methods, such as vole poison or the vole trap do not represent an immediate measure.

Therefore, you should protect the trees before the vole is even noticed in the garden. You can use a vole wire to protect the roots and the entire tree well.

It is important that the wire is not galvanized and is tight against the tree. This way, the vole is not given any room to reach the roots. Nevertheless, so that the tree has enough space to develop freely, the ungalvanized vole wire will start to rust after one or two years. The tree can now easily eliminate the brittle wire.

You can achieve long-term protection by attracting beneficial insects. You can attract the kestrel or stoat with a perch or a small installation of rock and deadwood piles.

So better play it safe and protect your trees with a non-galvanized vole wire.