Vole

The United States is home to 23 species of voles. Meadow voles and Pine voles are most commonly found in the northern and eastern states of America.

Identifying a Vole

Voles are often known as meadow mice or field mice. They are small mouse-like rodents with short legs, tails and small eyes and ears. Although similar in size and activity, meadow and pine voles have distinguishing characteristics:

• Pine voles are smaller with shorter tails. Fur is soft and auburn in color.
• Meadow voles have larger eyes and have coarse, dark brown/black fur.

Damage

Voles may be small in size but they can cause substantial damage to lawns, orchards, trees and golf courses.

The first indication of vole infestation is damage to lawns. Extensive subsurface runways with burrow holes resemble a roadmap carved in the ground. These trails are dug out by, foraging greens and chewing up roots.  

Dying plants and trees caused by voles are a result of girdling of seedlings and mature tree trunks and roots. Girdling damage is more common in fall and winter months as the vole gnaws on the roots and eats the bark of trees. A healthy, fruit bearing tree will quickly become ill or die as a result. If the tree survives, the yield of fruit will be decreased.

Habits

Voles occupy a wide variety of habitats.  They prefer areas with heavy ground cover including grass and other plants.  When two species of voles are found together in an area, they usually occupy different habitats, for example,

• Pine voles burrow underground, creating an underground pathway and damaging the root system.

• Meadow voles are most active above ground, girdling tree trunks. They create above ground runways. These paths are 1 to 2 inches in width.

Early detection and control is important as population number can reach high levels quickly. Although, voles are prey for a number of predators causing population to decrease rapidly, they reproduce just as fast