Pest Insights: Understanding Voles

What Do Voles Look Like?

Surprisingly, voles look nothing like moles! Closely related to the hampster, voles share many of the same features, with brown and grey fur and short leg. They typically average 3-7 inches long, including the tail, and weigh in at about 2 ounces. To distinguish voles from the common mouse, voles have small, furry ears, very small eyes, and short tails. They have a blunt snout with chisel-shaped front teeth.

North America is home to a smaller variety of voles compared to their European cousins, with an average lifespan of 3-6 months, rarely living longer than a year in the wild. In captivity, these rodents can live to nearly three years of age.

What are the unique characteristics of voles?

Voles do not become active in a particular season, but are active at all times during the year, day and night. Non-hibernating creatures, voles are some of the most rapidly breeding rodents, producing between 5-10 litters per year with anywhere from 3-6 offspring in each litter.

Voles are semifossorial, meaning they live both above ground and in tunnels. Their burrows contain multiple entrances and may house multiple adults and offspring. The population of voles in one area can fluctuate from year to year, depending on access to food, environmental stressors, and predators.

Due to the vast number of voles across the globe, voles can differ quite drastically from one species to another. The European water vole can swim up to 50 ft. underwater, while the red tree vole is an excellent climber and can be found living in trees across the Northwest.

What are the habits of voles?

Voles are herbivorous, mostly consuming grasses and plants. However, voles can also consume the roots of your lawn, trees, and plants, as they make their way through their tunnels. Voles consume their weight in food everyday, gnawing away at their favorite vegetation until they kill the plant. You can often identify the presence of voles by their runway paths they leave on top of your lawn, often leading to the entrance of an underground tunnel system. The grass on their runways will be well maintained and free of obstacles, allowing them to quickly move from one entrance to another.

Where are voles commonly found?

Preferring plenty of ground cover, voles can be found in areas of dense grass and brush, like fields, meadows, woodlands, and along rivers and lakes. Their nests are underground, with a globe like center and multiple tunnels leading to entrances. Voles will store seeds in their underground chambers leading up to winter. To avoid being noticed when coming out of their nests, these entrances are also hidden in dense ground cover. Closer to homes, these entrances may be under shrubs, or everyday items that remain stagnant around the yard.

What are the risks of a vole infestation?

Voles pose no health risks to humans, as they rarely interact together. However, voles do pose a risk to your lawn, trees, and shrubs. By eating the roots of your trees and the bark near the base of the tree, voles can do significant damage to the health of your tree, causing a delay or total lack of fruit production.