Moles vs. Voles: Who is Destroying Your Lawn?

You worked hard on your lawn, but suddenly it looks like a road map of raised veins or dead grass trails. You have a burrowing pest, but the treatment depends entirely on identifying the culprit: Moles or Voles. They sound similar, but they are very different animals.

The Mole: The Meat-Eater

Moles are not rodents; they are insectivores. They live almost entirely underground and are hunting for earthworms, grubs, and insects.

• The Damage: Raised ridges of soil running across the lawn (feeding tunnels) and “volcano-shaped” mounds of dirt (deep tunnel excavation).
• The Motivation: They aren’t trying to eat your grass roots; they are swimming through the soil to find worms. However, their tunneling disturbs roots, causing grass to turn brown.

The Vole: The Vegetarian

Voles (also called meadow mice) are rodents. They look like chunky mice with short tails.

• The Damage: Surface “runways.” Voles create snake-like paths of dead, chewed-down grass on the surface of the soil. They also dig small, clean holes (golf-ball sized) around the base of trees or flower beds.
• The Motivation: Voles eat plants. They will gnaw on the bark of young trees (girdling and killing them), eat flower bulbs, and chew grass roots.

Identifying the Difference

• Test: Step on the ridge. If it collapses and feels spongy, it’s a Mole tunnel.
• Test: Look at the damage. Is it a raised tunnel (Mole) or a ditch/path cut through the grass (Vole)?

Control Strategies

• For Moles: Since they eat worms/grubs, grub control treatments can help reduce their food source, but trapping is the most effective way to remove specific problem animals.
• For Voles: Habitat modification is key. Keep mulch layers thin and remove ground cover. Trapping and exclusion around trees (mesh guards) prevent bark damage.

If your lawn is under attack, HWCS can identify the invader and implement a trapping program to save your landscape.