Voles drive gardeners and home owners crazy! You’ll know voles by the snakelike tunnels all over your lawn. Here’s advice on how to identify, prevent, and control your vole population.
What’s the Difference Between a Vole and a Mole?
First off, voles are not moles! People confuse the two animals because they both tunnel through your yard. You might not have seen either critter since they’re usually underground, but they look very different. Voles (Myodes) are small, stocky rodents similar to field mice. In fact, a vole might look like a mouse at first glance. In contrast, moles are NOT rodents. Moles are all nose and mouth. And they have big feet used in digging! See our Mole page.
Voles have small rounded ears that are often hidden by their fur, small eyes, and short tails. Their fur is generally thick and light brown to gray. Two common species of voles in North America are the prairie vole and the meadow vole. Meadow voles are more widely distributed, but prairie voles are more common in prairie areas. They are very similar, and methods for controlling them are mostly the same.
Vole Diet: Plants!
Voles, similar to other rodents, have a mainly vegetarian diet. Voles mainly eat stems and blades of lawn grass—so it’s usually vole tunnels that you’ll see near the surface of the yard. Moles have a mainly carnivorous diet. (Moles are beneficial in many ways. They help plow the soil and eat grubs and insects!)
It’s helpful to know this difference not only because it will help you identify the damage (see below) but also because a vole bait would use peanut butter whereas moles would be more interested in an insect or earthworm.
If it helps, remember that their frenzied activity does subside. Vole populations cycle, and about every 3 to 5 years there will be a population boom. Mild winters with good snowfall can help to increase vole populations.
Photo Credit: Washington State University. Many of the same methods that you use to get rid of mice can be used to get rid of voles; after all, voles are commonly referred to as “meadow mice” or “field mice.”
Reader Comments
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Voles
Here in the High Desert of Central Oregon we have both voles and sage rats. Your photo looks like what we call sage rats. Are they one and the same? I have gotten rid of quite a view with the vole poison, but the best way is to shoot them with a BB or pellet gun. Some of the guys here actually go out on a "hunting trip" for sage rats. LOL
voles
I believe sage rats are a type of ground squirrel. Voles look like meadow mice (though they are not rodents). Also, moles are usually more prevalent in early spring when they eat grass stems and start breeding. You’ll see mamas with their babies right around Mother’s Day.
what worked for me
When our NC yard was full of tunnels I ran across a suggestion that work for me. Whirligig flowers, bought at the dollar store. The little colorful flowers on a stick that spin with the wind. The article said that the voles would not like the vibrations underground. I "planted" those around the garden, and affected areas of the yard and it worked!
Voles
Will predator urine cause established vole population to move away from yard to the woods, or does it just repel future vole infestation?
Urine
I have gophers voles and moles...i fill up a water bottle of urine once a month...yes..mine...and edge my flower beds..it is the only place free of damage!
Vole
Would the ultrasonic devices work for voles?
ultrasonic repellers
Some ultrasonic pest repeller devices are meant to repel voles along with mice and certain other rodents. Check the instructions of the manufacturer, and if you are using it outside, make sure that you get one for outdoor use. In general, these devices have mixed reviews as to their efficacy, but it might be worth a try!
The sonic vole deterrent
I purchased a dozen of these solar powered sonic rodent deterrent devices that you shove in the ground for $200 this summer to fight off a vole infestation and I’m sorry to say they were totally useless against the burrowing voles here.
In fact after 2 days I found 2 new tunnels dug right next to one of the devices with their den being literally right beneath one of the sonic waste of money devices.
(And please dont catch and release this horrible disaster on someone elses property. One pregnant female vole can turn into a colony of over 1,000 voles in a single year. They must be killed)
However, if you have a pond with fish, do not place any of these sonic devices within 75 feet of the pond. As soon as i set the sonic devices out my fish started going crazy trying to crowd into the farthest corner of the pond away from the devices. I moved the devices and the fish instantly relaxed.
gophers
no article on them??
I think I have both!
I have the mounds of earth for the moles. I can see the runs in my beds where the voles tunnel while they chew the roots off my plant's. They destroy the plants and do not eat the vegetables. They've destroyed tomatos, eggplants, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and more, much more. We've tried repellents, poison beans and worms none worked!
Put hardware screen in the bottom of the beds, that worked! Now we have to do the whole garden.
I have two cats out there too. We tried milky spore to get rid of the grubs. Not sure if it's working yet. It takes a while for that to happen.
Hey I'll try peanut butter and the bucket ideas what do I have to loose.
I kid you not, these critters shoved a poison worm back up through the hole I put it in. I think they were trying to tell me something.
moles--> voles
In the last paragraph, you say "moles", I think it should be "voles"?
Shadow the Vole Hunter
I have very few in my yard anymore since I have a cat (Shadow) that will kill every one she gets her paws on. :)
Voles
Whether it's my shady northern exposure or my backyard wildlife habitat with no tilling and lots of groundcovers, I have always had voles everywhere. And I was going to add to your list until I saw the last point--a cat who can patrol the garden and yard. I don't let my cats roam, but one or two go outdoors with me for a time nearly every day when I hang out the laundry and work outside. Once they discovered the garden had voles they decided voles existed as an important supplement to their diet, and the problem was, for the most part, solved. When we haven't been able to go outdoors for a period of time, my work schedule usually, the difference is noticeable. But then they manage to find a way into the basement, so at least the cats still have some environmental enrichment.
Vole elimination
I have been thinking the past few years that grubs are what attracts voles so if I use grub repellent voles won't have anything to come to.
Your vole control, wrong animal
Vole are vegitarians. Not carnivor. Mole are carnivors.
Voles are both vegitarian and carnivor
You are 99% correct in that plant material is the primary food of voles but they actually eat their own dead and they will eat other dead animals they find in their area. At daylight one morning i noticed movement at the base of a tree near my kitchen window. I quietly eased outside to see 3 voles scurrying away from a mostly eaten vole. There was not much left.
I later read that it is common for them to eat their dead which would explain why it’s rare to find a dead vole because most die in the underground dens where they become dinner for the family and the few that die while above ground are quickly eaten by those not-so-cute little demons.
In my yard they also completely devoured a small stuffed aligator head, bones and all over the course of a couple of months. I checked it daily watched the skin disappear fist, then i placed a drop light 8 feet above it so i could watch with binoculars from the house. Every night several voles spent hours chewing away at the heads.
The interesting thing is after the glass eyes of the stuffed gator head fell to the ground, other voles, what looked to be juvenile voles were pushing the red marble sized glass eyes around a large area just playing with fhem. Everyday after that and today i still look around to see where the “vole soccer balls” ended up after being played with again all night. Sometimes they’re 60 or 70 feet from where they were the night before. I wish voles weren’t so horribly distructive and didn’t carry so many parasites into my yard like ticks, fleas and lice. We’d become pals if not for all that.
Getting Rid Of Voles Safe And Cheap.
All you need is a plastic 5 gal bucket, 3 mouse traps and black oil sunflower seeds per set. Load and set the mouse traps close around the hole so the bucket will fit over all of them without tripping them then lift the bucket and sprinkle some sunflower seeds on and around the traps. Carefully set the bucket over the traps in the afternoon and you'll have them over night. Trap the same hole until you don't catch any more for a day or 2. To tell if they are Voles or Mole trails is easy, Voles will have a breathing hole in the run about every 4 to 6 feet, Moles won't. To get rid of the Moles use a spike trap on the fresh trails and keep moving them to the fresh trails. Patients and persistence will get rid of them without any poisons that could harm your pets.
Getting rid of voles.
This sounds like a great idea. I am going to give it a try.
voles
if you are (I assume) turning the bucket upside down, how do the voles get in? do you carve a 'door' opening or just prop up the bucket on one side?
Voles
Alice Duncan, The voles come up from their hole in the ground and the bucket makes a "dome" over the hole and set traps. So no doors in the bucket access is via the hole in the ground.
voles
I discovered a vole like animal in my house. However, it did not have any hair. The shape of the body and the nose were identical to pictures of voles I have seen. The body was black and shinny like one would see on a beetle.
What animal did I capture?
ANSWER "WHAT ANIMAL DID I CAPTURE?"
that is a mole.