Vole Damage to Lawns

The snow cover not only increased the incidence of snow mold on lawn grasses but also led to some areas experiencing vole damage. Voles are also known as orchard mice or short-tailed meadow mice and look like a stout, short-tailed version of a house mouse. They usually are not very noticeable in our landscapes unless we have a significant amount of snow cover. In such cases, voles will construct meandering pathways through lawn areas become apparent once the snow melts.

Though voles can cause significant damage, they often are more of a nuisance in Missouri and Kansas. In most years, we don’t even notice they are around. Predators such as owls, coyotes, hawks, bobcats and house cats help keep them under control. They may be attracted to bird feeders as they can feed on seed that falls to the ground.

Vole damage is most severe when snow cover protects the rodents from predators and they become less selective in what they choose to eat. In such cases, they may cause more than usual damage to the bark of trees and shrubs in your landscape or orchard. If they eat all the bark in a circle around the trunk or stem, everything above that point dies due to the girdling.

If you have noticed vole damage to trees in your landscape, you may want to provide protection by encircling the trunk of trees with 1/4 inch hardware cloth. The hardware cloth may need to extend 3 to 6 inches into the soil and 18 inches above it to exclude these rodents.

You can find more information on voles at:  http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/ro_b177.pdf .

Tags: Voles