The vole is perhaps one of the most destructive mammals in the home landscape, but seldom gets blamed for its damage. Since few of us have ever seen a vole up close, we tend to blame problems on mice and moles. In many parts of the country, there are more voles on the property than mice and moles combined. It is time to learn about the vole.

What Voles Look Like

Typically, voles are brown or gray, though many color variations exist. There are 27 species of voles throughout the world. The one in the lower 48 which provides most problems, resides in the eastern portion of the U. S. is the woodland vole. The woodland vole ranges from Maine to the middle of Texas and northward.
Voles have beady eyes, small ears, blunt head and short legs. The tail is only one inch long. Very different from a mouse! It digs shallow tunnels, leaving in its wake ridges that look like the work of a mole. The vole has been clocked digging at 15 inches per minute. They are slightly larger than a mouse and by the time you are aware of them, they have multiplied to the point to where they are a problem. As with most rodents, if caught in a trap, they can be a meal for another vole. They like to work underground but do venture forth to forage in leaves or mulch.
Voles are prolific breeders averaging three or four litters per year, with each litter containing four to seven baby voles.
Voles are active day and night year-round. They construct extensive tunnel systems and surface runways. Several adults and young may live in one tunnel system. Populations seem to peak every 2 to 3 years, depending on food availability, climate and other stress factors.

Distinguishing Voles from Mice and Moles

Both voles and mice belong to the family of gnawing mammals commonly called rodentia or rodents. The mice belong to the broad group of pointed-nose, long-tailed rodents and the voles belong to the other group of blunt-faced, short-tailed rodents. There are, what seems like millions of different mice and voles, and to describe each would take a book in itself. However, if you remember the blunt-nose, short-tail and the pointed-nose and long tail, you are 80 or 90 percent there on identification.
Moles will be bigger than most mouse or vole. Depending on their sex and age, moles vary in size from 4 to 9 inches long. Their low-slung, streamlined bodies are covered by a thick, velvety fur that is gray to blue-gray. The big difference are the front feet. Moles have very distinctive large thick-clawed forepaws which are their digging tools.