Date Posted: January 25, 2017
Category: Maine Pest Control
Voles, sometimes referred to as ‘field mice’, are perhaps one of the most misidentified rodents here in America. These poor little creatures have a bit of an identity crisis as they are often considered to be moles or mice, but they are neither. While voles look more like a mouse than a mole, the body of a vole is plumper than that of the mouse. The voles head is rounder, their ears and eyes are much smaller, and their tail is shorter than that of a mouse and is covered in hair.
Proper identification of this creature in your South Portland yard is very important since two little voles can quickly become a severe infestation. The female vole is capable of 10 litters a year resulting in approximately 100 offspring. The offspring of this one pair are capable of reproduction in a month, and set to work on their own families. It doesn’t take a math major to figure this exponential growth chart!
Voles will create burrows in your yard, and each burrow will have several exit holes, similar to those of the gopher albeit a bit smaller. These burrows will weaken the ground in your yard and can eventually cause small dirt pile, holes, and divots throughout your lawn.
The vole’s favorite food is small plants and root systems. They will burrow under the plant and eat until the plant dies and quickly move on to the next. They also like to feast on bulbs and ground cover and quickly destroy lawns, gardens, and ornamentals. They will cause further destruction to trees and shrubs when they girdle these plants leaving a ring completely around the branch or trunk as they eat away the bark typically as deep as the cambium layer. This girdling will quickly bring death to the tree or shrub. Voles are also known to eat dead animals, nuts, and fruit.
You can look online and find several DIY procedures to try and combat voles on your property; but at best, the traps will only manage to capture a few unlucky voles that wander into them, the poisons are very dangerous to use, and a cat….well cats can only do so much!
If you find that voles have decided to live in your South Portland yard, give us a call. The pest experts here at Big Blue Bug Solutions have effective and safe solutions for voles. Big Blue Bug Solutions has been successfully eliminating pests in New England for more than 80 years, and we have the tools, technology, and hands-on experience to deal with voles. Our specialists can successfully identify all areas on your property where voles are nesting and feeding, humanely removing each and every one.
Don’t let voles destroy your South Portland yard and harm all of your expensive plants and ornamentals when experienced, successful solutions from Big Blue Bug Solutions are just a call away.
