Voles Digging Holes In Yard

Even though these little critters only grow to be 5 7 inches long they can cause massive destruction to your yard and garden so figuring out how to deter voles is paramount.

Voles digging holes in yard.

Voles myodes are small stocky rodents similar to field mice. By mixing gravel into some of the dirt in your lawn voles will likely turn around and head toward softer soil that is more conducive to digging. This guide helps diagnose what s digging tunneling feeding and otherwise disturbing turf grasses. Mole holes are covered by a hill of earth while a vole hole is not.

Moles are all nose and mouth. Vole holes may be even as small as a dime. Pesky voles and shrews create small holes with openings of about 1 to 1 1 2 inches while squirrels and chipmunks leave behind 2 inch holes. The grass immediately surrounding the hole will be very short.

The animals dig dime sized entrances to their burrows around the roots of plants. Birds make holes in sod as they search for food and earthworms make small little holes the size of pencils to aerate the soil and provide air to their tunnels. The only visible evidence of a vole burrow is the neat exit holes an inch or two across. In contrast moles are not rodents.

In fact a vole might look like a mouse at first glance. Some are commonly called meadow mice or pine mice. Voles are small little mammals that spend part of their lives underneath the ground which makes them hard to detect. The runways may be about one to two inches wide.

Evidence of a vole problem is easy to see but spotting these shy nocturnal pests is rare. A vole s burrow can be identified by holes found in lawns or around the base of trees. Voles look like mice. Eliminate entryways even though you re more likely to see other rodents like mice and rats inside your home voles are the same size and just as likely to make their way there.

Voles may travel through mole tunnels but also dig their own burrows. Holes throughout the lawn are usually sourced to small rodents like voles or moles or insects. Voles have small rounded ears that are often hidden by their fur small eyes and short tails. Signs of voles in your garden may include runways on the surface of the ground on in your lawn.

Use the links above the graphic to find more information about many of the offenders and be sure to check out our problem wildlife page for more details on other wildlife conflicts around homes and farms. See our mole page. Vole holes can be right out in the open or cleverly hidden under foliage or debris in the garden. And they have big feet used in digging.