You can help eliminate voles by limiting the amount of mulch you use and by pulling it away from the base of trees and shrubs. Of course the best way to prevent winter lawn and plant damage from voles and moles is to reduce their populations during the growing season. What Can You Do to Avoid Damage This Winter? While moles don’t eat plants, they can accidentally uproot them with their extensive underground tunneling (see Moles Can Make a Mess of Your Yard). Moles are often blamed for the plant damage caused by voles. Unlike plant-eating voles, moles feed on earthworms and insects and won’t harm your plants (see The Difference Between Moles and Voles). During winter, voles also chew the bark on small trees, especially bark that is at or below the snow line where it is available to them in their runways. Sometimes even young trees will suffer root damage. Voles will chew up bulbs and the entire root systems of perennial plants. Voles don’t hibernate in winter, they remain active just under the snow cover and feed on birdseed and any plant material they can find. Pine voles live in a series of connecting underground tunnels while meadow voles move through grass in surface runways or in tunnels just under the snow, or sometimes use existing mole tunnels. In our region we have both pine voles and meadow voles. This year with a little forewarning, you may be able to head off winter damage from tunneling voles and moles. When the snow finally melts and all is revealed, mounds and ridges and grooves and bumps are present where your lawn used to be. We usually discuss this topic in early spring when our customers are first noticing damage to their lawns. Stop Winter Lawn Damage From Voles and Moles By Chris Williams on December 25, 2015.
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