This Rodent Can Do A Number On Your Lawn

Melting snow can reveal damage to your lawn. One type of post winter damage is caused by voles. A vole, better known as a field mouse, is a small rodent with small ears and a short tail. They typically appear around late fall and early winter as they begin looking for food sources. During the winter, Voles spend their day eating grass on the surface of your lawn and making trails under the snow, which they use to move around while avoiding predators. 

Related: When to Fertilize Your Lawn After a Brutal Winter—Timing Is Everything

Damage from voles typically appears in the late winter as snow is melting away and warmer weather is arriving. These trails look like 1 to 2 inch wide open dirt pathways that spider web across sections of your lawn. You also might find small vole burrow entrances in your lawn. Voles create these paths during the winter when they have the extra shelter of snow. 

You also might find small mounds of dirt around your yard. Voles like to keep these runways clear, so they’ll clip the grass on top of them. You can tell if the voles are still active if you find fresh droppings and clipped grass.

How to Get Rid of Voles

Removing voles usually isn’t practical. They have such a high population that attempting to trap or control their population with pesticides isn’t effective. Not only do these methods fail to control the vole population, but they also end up trapping or killing non-target animals in the process. Luckily, Vole damage isn’t something that’s usually permanent and the fix is relatively easy. 

How to Fix Vole Damage

Vole damage is usually temporary. Since it typically appears in the spring, grass can quickly grow in to repair your lawn. You usually don’t need to reseed the area. However, you can take measures to speed the healing:

• Use a metal rake to rake up the dead grass created by the mole damage. This will open up the canopy allowing sunlight and heat to reach the grass and soil. 
• Collect all of the dead grass and remove it from your lawn. 
• Often, raking up the dead grass and removing it is all your lawn needs to recover. However, you can accelerate the new grass growth by applying a top dressing of top soil over the damaged areas of your lawn. 
• After raking the damaged areas and removing the dead grass, your lawn should begin to recover in about two to three weeks as the surrounding grass grows and begins filling in the damaged area. 

FAQs

How do I prevent vole damage?

While preventing moles from burrowing through your yard during the winter is difficult, there are few measures you can take. Keep grass trimmed short and remove any debris in your yard to eliminate cover from predators. 

How is Vole damage different from mole damage?

While voles and moles both burrow under the ground, the damage they cause is different. Voles create open pathways over your lawn under snow. Moles dig a little deeper. Their tunnels create raised ridges of soil that are about 1 to 2 inches high and feel spongy when you walk on them.