Water vole traps: The 5 best traps to get rid of water voles!

Are water voles taking over your land, slowly killing your plants, trees, and crops?

We understand how stressful this situation can be. Maybe you rely on your fruits and vegetables for a living, or you’ve poured weeks of hard work into creating a beautiful garden.

Unfortunately, a few days are all it takes for water voles to destroy everything.

From just one pair, their population can explode to 120 in a single season if you don’t act fast. That’s why QuickTaupe is here to help. On this page, we’ll show you the five most effective water vole traps, ranked from best to a little less good—though all five are excellent choices.

When dealing with water voles, you can’t afford to wait. The longer you do, the more they’ll multiply. If you need expert advice or a quick professional intervention, our team is ready to help. Good luck!

The Putange trap for pest control

Water voles often leave mounds of soil on top of their tunnels, along with open holes leading outside. They dig in every direction, creating a chaotic underground network. The damage caused by these field voles is immense, and there’s no better way to fight them than with Putange traps.

Water voles are not picky eaters; they love fruits, vegetables, bulbs, and the roots of fruit trees. They can cause incredible damage in agricultural areas.

We’re starting with the Putange trap because it’s the solution you need right now.

This is a spring-loaded trap with two arms and a central trigger. When a water vole pushes the trigger, the arms snap shut, killing it instantly and humanely. The best part? It doesn’t need batteries, poison, bait, or any other supplies—just the trap itself.

To use it, find a soil mound made by a water vole and dig over it with a spade. This will reveal the tunnel’s path and its entrances. Place one Putange trap in each direction you see. Then, cover the tunnel with a slate to act as a lid. Make sure there are no gaps; pack dirt around the slate if needed.

Check back 24 hours later, and you’ll find a water vole in your trap!

Important: To get the best results, you need to age your traps by burying them in the ground for three weeks. This removes any new-trap smell that field voles would detect, so they won’t avoid them. As an added bonus, the trigger on an aged trap is less likely to slip, so it will only spring when an animal is there, not on its own.

The good news is that if you buy a Putange trap from QuickTaupe, it’s already pre-aged, saving you three weeks of work. Plus, it will arrive at your home within three business days of your order.

This small detail makes a huge difference. If your trap smells new, the vole will simply dig a new tunnel around it. It might even fill your trap with dirt, which is a common behavior when it finds a foreign object in its tunnel system.

The Putange trap is the one you need to get rid of these agricultural pests. Buy as many as you need—you can’t put a price on protecting your garden, plants, or fruit trees. And once you own them, you have them for life. We even offer a 15-year guarantee. If a trap ever has a problem, we’ll replace it for free.

Moving on to the Topcat, the second water vole trap on our list.

Topcat: The Vole Trap

The Topcat is another effective trap for water voles, but it works very differently from the Putange. It uses a sensitive, fast, and efficient guillotine system to eliminate pests. Like the Putange, it requires no batteries, chemicals, or external power.

This trap is also eco-friendly, as it won’t pollute your soil or release harmful substances. One of its best features is that it can catch pests from both directions.

How to Use the Topcat:

1. Find the tunnels: Use a stick to probe the ground until you locate a tunnel.

2. Dig a hole: Create a vertical hole in the tunnel, like a chimney.

3. Clean up: If any dirt falls into the tunnel, flatten it to clear the way.

4. Set the trap: Push the trap into the hole and pack dirt around it to keep it stable.

5. Arm it: Activate the trap and check back tomorrow to see if you’ve made a catch.

6. Keep trapping: Water voles are never alone. Always reset the trap after a catch to get the rest of the family.

The Topcat is a reliable, mechanical trap that you can use over and over again. It’s a practical and efficient way to catch water voles quickly.

When a water vole enters the trap, it triggers a mechanism that releases a guillotine, killing it instantly and humanely. This is an ideal solution for getting rid of the large field vole that is ruining your garden.

The ESAT-Made Trap

There is a third trap available to fight swimming voles (another name for these pests). This trap was invented by ESAT d’Objat (a service and support center for disabled workers) and captures these rodents without using chemicals or causing animal suffering.

It is made by disabled people in the south of Corrèze and works on two simple principles:

• A one-way trap door lets the vole into the cage but prevents it from getting out.

• A top trap door allows predators like wild cats, foxes, and birds of prey to come and eat the trapped vole.

This innovative aluminum invention was even pre-selected for the Lépine competition.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it for sale, or we would have included it on this page. It may still only be a handmade product.

The Talpirid to Fight Water Voles

This is the fourth trap to consider if you want to quickly get rid of this pesky rodent. The Talprid trap is effective against both moles and voles.

To use it, just follow these simple steps:

1. Find active tunnels: Look for signs of active tunnels, such as water vole droppings nearby. Poke the underground tunnels with a stick. If they’re filled in the next day, they are active.

2. Set the trap: Insert the trap’s jaws into the tunnel and arm it by pressing the yellow pedal. The trap is safe and easy to use. Once you make a catch, simply press the pedal to release the animal.

We’ve placed this trap at number four because it’s quite large and can cause the animal to suffer if it isn’t caught by the head. While still effective, we would naturally steer you toward the robust and reliable Putange trap.

Hiring professionals

The final solution for getting rid of voles and putting an end to crop destruction is to hire professionals. This guarantees you’ll get experts who know exactly how to trap water voles with precision every time.

At QuickTaupe, this is our specialty. We started out with moles, but after discovering that water voles were using old mole tunnels to get into our clients’ properties, we expanded our services.

We now trap both moles and water voles. We understand that this is an urgent problem and you need help. Don’t hesitate to call us for advice or a quote to finally get rid of these pests.

The faster you act, the faster you can get rid of them for good.

DIY Solutions against these pests

These animals reproduce very quickly, so it’s tempting to try homemade solutions to fight an invasion.

One of the most common DIY solutions is using poison to kill water voles. The problem is that while it kills the pest, it also risks killing predators like foxes or even your own dog or cat if they eat a poisoned vole.

Another idea is to use plants that repel moles and voles, such as:

• Eucalyptus

• Castor meal

• Crown imperial

• Mint

• Caper spurge

• Laurel

• Hyacinth

• Incarvillea

But these solutions are, at best, a temporary fix. Most of the time, they are completely useless. We mention them because some people will try to sell you anything, but the truth is, no plant will make an animal leave if it can find food on your property.

Vibration traps are also ineffective. Water voles naturally live in an environment full of vibrations, from the wind and outside noises to the footsteps of people and the vibrations from nearby roads. Ultrasonic or vibration traps will not make a difference.

Any solution that promises to simply scare a pest away is a false solution. The only real remedy against water voles is a good, old-fashioned trap—like a Putange or one of the others—that catches the animal and gives it no chance. What water voles eat are your plants, trees, and fruits. If they’re building a family in their underground tunnels, the only way to eliminate them is with trapping.

Conclusion

We hope this guide has given you a clearer idea of the solutions available to get rid of these pests. Remember, with just two rodents, it only takes one season to have hundreds, and their young mature very, very quickly.

We constantly receive emails, calls, and messages from people who are truly desperate about their water vole problem. We don’t know how bad your invasion is, but act quickly, because the problem can become massive.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us in the comments below or through our contact page!

Happy water vole hunting!