Do Voles Eat Garlic

If you’re finding your garlic bulbs disturbed or missing, you might be wondering: do voles eat garlic? These small, mouselike rodents are indeed surprising garden visitors that can cause headaches for growers. While they don’t feast on garlic like a gourmet meal, voles are known to nibble on bulbs and can damage your crop as they tunnel and forage. Understanding their behavior is the first step to protecting your harvest.

Voles are primarily herbivores, feeding on grasses, roots, tubers, and bulbs. Their relationship with garlic is more about opportunity than preference. A vole’s main goal is to eat constantly to support its high metabolism. They won’t seek out garlic like they would a juicy tulip bulb, but if it’s in the path of their tunnel, they will sample it. This sampling can lead to ruined cloves, either from direct eating or from the cloves rotting after being gnawed.

Garlic’s strong scent and flavor, caused by the compound allicin, act as a natural deterrent to many pests. For voles, this can make garlic less appealing than other options in your garden. However, in lean times or in gardens with heavy vole pressure, they will ignore the taste and eat what’s available. Young, freshly planted cloves are especially vulnerable as they haven’t developed their full protective potency yet.

Signs Voles Are Targeting Your Garlic

It’s easy to blame other pests. Here’s how to tell if voles are the culprits:

Surface Runways: Look for narrow, beaten-down paths in the grass or soil surface, often leading to planting beds.
Small Holes: Look for clean, golf-ball-sized entry holes to their burrows near the base of plants.
Gnaw Marks: Damaged bulbs will have irregular chew marks, not the clean cuts of a tool. You might find partially eaten cloves.
Plants Heaving or Wilting: Tunneling can disturb roots, causing plants to loosen or wilt unexpectedly.

How to Protect Your Garlic from Voles

Protection involves making your garden less inviting and creating physical barriers. A combined approach works best.

1. Physical Barriers and Planting Tricks

This is your most effective defense. Voles are poor climbers but excellent diggers.

Plant in Hardware Cloth Cages: Line your planting holes or trenches with 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth. Form a basket that surrounds the bulb, leaving room for roots to grow down but keeping voles out. Bury it completely.
Raised Beds with Protection: If using raised beds, staple hardware cloth to the bottom before filling with soil. This stops them from coming up from below.
Gravel Trenches: Bury a trench of coarse gravel around your garlic bed. Voles dislike digging through sharp, loose material.

2. Garden Hygiene and Habitat Modification

Make your yard a less cozy home for voles. They thrive in clutter and dense cover.

Keep grass mowed short and remove thick mulch from directly around garlic beds in the fall and winter.
Clear away piles of weeds, leaves, and debris where they can hide and nest.
Prune ground-level vegetation to eliminate protective cover. They feel exposed in open areas.

3. Natural Repellents and Deterrents

While not foolproof, these methods can add a layer of protection and may help reduce activity.

Castor Oil Granules: Sprinkled around the bed, these can irritate a vole’s digestive system, encouraging them to move elsewhere.
Ultrasonic Spikes: These emit vibrations that can disturb burrowing rodents, but their effectiveness varies widely.
Predator Urine: Fox or coyote urine granules can create a scent barrier. You need to reapply after rain.

What to Do If You Have an Infestation

If voles are already established, passive prevention may not be enough. Here are active steps.

Identify Active Runways: Press down small sections of their runways. Check next day to see which are reopened.
Use Traps: For a humane approach, use live traps baited with apple slices or peanut butter placed directly in the runways. Relocate far away. For population control, standard mouse traps set in runways and covered with a box are effective.
Encourage Natural Predators: Avoid using broad-spectrum rodenticides that can poison owls, hawks, foxes, and cats. Install perches to attract birds of prey.

Plants That Can Help Deter Voles

Companion planting can be part of your strategy. While no plant is a perfect shield, some are known to be less palatable to voles due to their strong scents or textures. Consider interplanting these with your garlic:

Crown Imperial Fritillaria (its bulb has a skunky odor)
Daffodils (toxic and unpalatable)
Alliums like onions or ornamental alliums (similar deterrent effect)
Mint (invasive, so plant in containers nearby)

Common Misidentifications: Vole vs. Mole

It’s crucial to know your enemy. Moles and voles are often confused, but they cause different damage.

Voles: Look like stocky mice with short tails. They eat plants and leave clean runways. They are the ones who might eat your garlic.
Moles: Have large, digging forepaws, pointed snouts, and tiny eyes. They eat insects and worms, not plants. They create raised, volcano-like mounds and surface tunnels but won’t touch your bulbs.

If you see damaged plants but no surface runways, consider other pests like field mice or even squirrels, who are known to dig up freshly planted cloves.

Seasonal Considerations for Garlic Protection

Your tactics should change with the seasons. Voles are active year-round, but their pressure peaks at certain times.

Fall (Planting Time): This is critical. Install physical barriers at planting. They are foraging heavily before winter.
Winter: Under snow cover, voles are protected from predators and can feed freely. Barriers installed in fall are essential now.
Spring: As snow melts and they breed, populations can grow. Check for damage and reset any disturbed traps or barriers.
Summer: Focus on habitat modification—keeping areas clean and tidy to discourage new families from moving in.

FAQs About Voles and Garlic

Do voles like garlic?
Not particularly. They will eat it if other food is scarce or if it’s directly in their path, but its strong taste makes it a less preferred food source compared to many other bulbs and roots.

What is eating my garlic underground?
Besides voles, it could be field mice, certain beetle larvae, or even squirrels digging up newly planted cloves. Inspect the damage and look for the signs like runways or holes to identify the pest correctly.

Will garlic repel voles?
Garlic alone is not a reliable repellent. While the scent may offer some minor deterrent effect, hungry voles will ignore it. It’s better used as part of a broader strategy with physical barriers.

How do I keep voles away from my garden bulbs?
The single best method is to plant bulbs inside underground cages made of 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth. This physically prevents them from reaching the bulbs while allowing roots and stems to grow freely.

Protecting your garlic from voles requires vigilance and a mix of methods. By understanding that they do sometimes eat garlic, you can take proactive steps. Focus on strong physical barriers at planting time, maintain a tidy garden to reduce habitat, and use traps if needed. With these strategies, you can enjoy a full, healthy garlic harvest without sharing it with these surprising garden visitors. Remember, consistency is key, as vole populations can fluctuate from year to year.