Jacob Lehman runs Destination Wildlife Control, a Northern Virginia-based wildlife control company that performs emergency service calls, nuisance animal removal, dead animal removal, exclusion services, cleanup services, handyman services, home inspections, termite inspections, and general pest control. Here, he explains the difference between mole damage and vole damage.
Moles
Many people confuse mole damage with vole damage. One way to tell the difference is that moles rarely come out from under the grass. They “swim” through the soil with their powerful front feet, chasing worms, grubs, and beetle larvae. This lifts the grass roots from the soil. And if the grass is not pushed back down, the grass will turn brown because it can’t get water. There are poisons for moles. However, since they could be dug up by cats and dogs, we highly discourage their use. Instead, there are many styles of traps for moles, but we have had the greatest success with spike-style traps. Used correctly, they are efficient.
Voles
Voles, also called meadow mice, eat plant roots. One of their favorite foods is the hosta plant. If you are growing hostas, especially if you live in a wooded area, be prepared to lose some of them. Many customers have reported watching their hostas being pulled into the ground by the roots, just like watching Bugs Bunny pulling carrots in cartoons! Oriental trees are also subject to root damage. The voles will eat roots until the only thing holding the tree in place is gravity. In the yard, you can often see what looks like a mouse hole with trails snaking through the grass. Unlike mole damage, vole damage is on the surface. The grass is clipped around the entrance of the hole.
At Destination Wildlife Control, when we receive a call about a nuisance animal, we try to determine over the phone what the animal may be. This helps choose the equipment we may need on the job. Once we get to your house, we look for clues to the animal’s identity if we have not yet figured it out. Our inspection may take a while because we not only look for the entrance, but also where other animals could possibly get in later. We set traps near the animal’s entrance to lessen the chance of catching a non-target animal, and then check the traps every day for about a week. And we don’t want you to have any animals coming to visit you after we are done. So we work hard to find every vulnerable spot in your house. It is up to you to decide which repairs you want us to perform, if there are any to do after we are done with the job. If an animal gets through our repairs during the warranty period (usually three years), we will come back to remove the new animal and perform the new repairs at no expense to you. But, in eight years I have only had two calls where animals beat my repairs — and these were early in my career.
