How do you know if you have voles or moles?

15 years ago

A month ago, after 24 years of living here pest free, I noticed I was sinking into soft spots in the ground; and since then, I have seen tunnels running thru all my Hosta beds in the back yard. In a previous thread, someone said that moles don't eat Hosta but voles do. If they're moles I'll just ignore them, but if they're voles I won't be so generous. I don't imagine I'll ever see one of these tunnelers in person, and I don't have a cat, so how do I know what I have???? I have been following the other post on voles but haven't seen an answer for my problem yet. Does anyone have a clue? Mary

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Comments (6)

woodthrush
15 years ago
Have you seen any small, quarter sized entry holes? Voles make very small holes. If you have tunnels in your hosta beds, and none of your hostas have disappeared, it's probably moles. Voles will start by eating the roots of the hosta and then the crown, then they leaves. I've seen them try to drag big leaves over to the entry hole. When they start eating the roots, it may take a day or two for the hosta to show any distress, but then it will start to droop without the roots.
If you can catch the damage in time and the crown is still intake, you can re-root the crown.
Pam
esox48
15 years ago
I have a lot of soft spots and tunnels too, and I think they may be shrews. I haven't had any hosta damage. Anyway, it's a good question and I'd like to hear the answer. Just how do you determine what little critter is making tunnels?
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Field mice ARE voles. At least around these parts that is the common name for voles. :-) Since they spend quite a bit of time underground, building networks of tunnels called "vole runs", they gnaw on tree and shrub roots to keep their teeth from growing too large, just like other rodents. They also find tasty morsels that we plant, like root vegetables, that give them the opportunity to gnaw and have a tasty meal. Voles seem to be particularly fond of potatoes and sweet potatoes. They completely devastated my small crop of sweet potatoes a couple of years ago. Not one single sweet potato was untouched by the time they were done. After that, I decided the root veggies will be grown in fabric pots, not the ground. If you have small beds, you could use hardware cloth around your garden. Voles can't climb very high so you only need about 12 inches above ground and 6 inches below ground. Most voles only burrow about 6 inches or less below ground level, unless you have pine voles, in which case the hardware cloth should go down about 12 inches below the ground at the garden perimeter. Of course, this could be both expensive and time-consuming if you have huge gardens. I grow all of my root vegetables in fabric pots or containers now. I hate those little spawns of satan. Moles, on the other hand, disrupt your ground but they eat grubs and worms, not plant matter. They certainly could disrupt young plants as they push through the soil looking for food, but they don't eat plants and won't eat your almost fully grown root vegetables. If it doesn't have eyes, it's a mole. If it looks like a mouse and has eyes, it's a vole. You can have both at the same time. I certainly do. I don't mind moles all that much and tend to leave them alone. Voles are rodents; moles are NOT rodents. Appearance-wise, voles are a bit different from a mice, but it's not immediately obvious. Voles have smaller ears and shorter tails. However, I don't care - they are still destructive little mice to me. They give me the creeps, like all rodents. So 1/4 inch hardware cloth, installed like a fence, except you put about 6 inches of it under the ground and the rest above ground. Make sure it surrounds the entire perimeter of the area where you want to grow root veggies. If you have pine voles (and they seem to be more common in the west and midwest) then go down a foot. The idea is to block them from getting in via underground tunneling. Like all rodents, they can "collapse" their bodies and get through small holes. Since they are small, 1/2 inch holes probably won't stop them, so use the 1/4 inch. Best of luck.
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Voles are a favorite snack of our cats. They're easy to catch since they do a lot of their tunneling on the surface under grass/vegetation mounds. Even in the winter here they will tunnel under the snow looking for food. We keep the cats inside once the temps get really frigid, but before that we will see them staring at and listening to the snow, waiting to pounce. I do mostly container gardening, but when I lived in the PNW and had an in-ground garden I would occasionally see coyotes hunting mice and/or voles in it early in the morning. They(voles)are a food source for many animals and birds.
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Watermelons! I never would have thought they could bother those. I am surprised they aren't eating your wife's tomatoes. Maybe the hot peppers being next to the tomatoes is deterring them. I did try making a garlic and hot pepper solution that I sprayed on the onions and soil. I think it worked for a day or two, but after that the voles were back at the onions. They are eating my onions, potatoes, and asparagus. I expect they will get into the sweet potatoes too. I never expected anything to want to eat the onions, that one surprised me!
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Grubs (in the lawn) are the icky and damaging larvae of beetles. A large population can result in serious problems with your lawn. Moles just happen to LOVE grubs! Put on your stomping shoes and keep the tunnels packed down. That way, you can keep an eye out on any new activity. Plus, you don't want your grass's roots to be left high and dry in those tunnels. I have a high tolerance for moles but many people don't. But I don't worship my lawn, either, lol. Attached is an image of a couple typical beetle grubs. If you live in a part of the country plagued by Japanese Beetles, you have 'em. Other pesty grubs would be from any of the other chafer beetles like the May or June beetle. Typically, at this time of year, grubs are overwintering several inches into the soil, but will come up to feed on grass roots in the spring. Here is a link that might be useful:
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arleneb
15 years ago
I don't know if this is universal or not . . . but in my yard, mole tunnels produced the surface humps in the grass that we're all familiar with. Voles tended to make more flat paths between the ground and mulch, so that when I pulled fall leaves or mulch off the hosta bed, I'd see a scooped-out path more on the surface of the ground -- mole tunnels were completely underground.

In the bigger picture, however, voles use mole tunnels to get around . . .
cincyhostaguy
15 years ago
Moles produce tunnels in the yard or garden that result in the soft ground that has been mentioned. At times moles will push giant mounds of dirt aboveground. In yards, the grass can be damaged due to disruption of the roots, so above the tunnels the grass can become yellowed or brown.

As to voles, I've never seen evidence that I know of that a vole has disrupted the ground other than at the point of attack. I know a vole has struck when I notice a hosta starting to yellow, and if I look more closely I realize I can lift it out of the ground and there's nothing much left but the leaves, which were sitting in a small hole.
greenthumbz4mn
Original Author
15 years ago
Thank you all for your input. I have decided from your descriptions of runways that I have moles right now, and the good thing is that they eat grubs and aerate the soil--lucky me. I read that the best means of disposal are traps or standing over a moving mound and using a pitchfork on it--like that's going to happen!!!!! If and when my Hosta are in jepordy, I'll plan a new method of attack. Esox48--I read that the problem can also be shrews which is also not a problem to H. Mary
kimtbritt_bellsouth_net
12 years ago
My mature bed (20 years) of hosta didn't come up at all this year. I pulled back the mulch and the pitiful plants that were trying to come up were barely laying on top of the soil. From what I'm reading I guess I have Voles. They have got to GO! How can I get rid of them?

How do you know if you have voles or moles?

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woodthrush

esox48

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How do you know if you have voles or moles?

Comments (6)

woodthrush

esox48

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