You step outside one morning and notice something’s off. Maybe it’s a raised ridge snaking across your lawn, or perhaps there are strange runways carved through the grass near your flowerbeds. Either way, something’s been busy destroying your yard, and you want answers.
Here in Casper, we see plenty of both voles and moles causing headaches for homeowners. And while their names sound similar (and get mixed up constantly), these two pests are very different animals with distinct behaviors, damage patterns, and control methods. Knowing which critter you’re dealing with isn’t just trivia, it’s the first step toward protecting your property.
At Best Pest Control, we’ve helped countless Wyoming homeowners identify and eliminate these underground troublemakers. In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to tell voles and moles apart, what signs to look for, and when it’s time to bring in the professionals.
Why Identification Matters for Your Yard
Here’s the thing: voles and moles might both tunnel through your property, but they’re after completely different things. Moles are insectivores, they’re hunting grubs, earthworms, and other soil-dwelling bugs. Voles? They’re rodents with a taste for plants, bulbs, roots, and tree bark.
This distinction matters because the type of damage they cause (and how you prevent it) varies significantly. Treating your yard for moles when you actually have a vole problem won’t get you anywhere. You’ll waste time, money, and probably a lot of patience while your lawn continues to suffer.
We’ve seen Casper homeowners try every DIY method in the book, only to realize months later they were targeting the wrong pest entirely. Proper identification saves you from that frustrating cycle. It also helps pest control professionals like us develop a targeted strategy that actually works for your specific situation.
Beyond the practical reasons, there’s also the matter of timing. Both voles and moles can reproduce quickly, and what starts as a minor nuisance can escalate into a full-blown infestation if left unchecked. The sooner you know what you’re dealing with, the faster you can take action.
Physical Differences Between Voles and Moles
If you’re lucky enough to actually spot one of these creatures (or unlucky enough, depending on how you look at it), their physical appearance makes identification pretty straightforward.
Vole Appearance
Voles look like stocky, compact mice. They have small, rounded ears, short tails, and blunt snouts. Most voles measure between 4 to 8 inches long, including their tail, and they’re covered in dense, brown or grayish-brown fur.
Their eyes are small but visible, and unlike moles, they’re perfectly functional. Voles spend a good amount of time above ground, so they need decent eyesight to navigate and watch for predators. If you see a mouse-like critter scurrying through grass runways in your yard, you’re almost certainly looking at a vole.
One more thing, voles have the typical rodent teeth you’d expect. Those prominent front incisors are what make them so destructive to plants and roots.
Mole Appearance
Moles, on the other hand, look almost alien compared to voles. They have elongated, cylindrical bodies built for a life underground. Their most distinctive feature? Those massive, paddle-like front paws with prominent claws designed for digging.
Moles have tiny, nearly invisible eyes (some species’ eyes are actually covered by skin) and no external ears to speak of. Their snouts are long and pointed, almost star-shaped in some species, which helps them detect prey in the soil. Their fur is typically dark gray or black and has a velvety texture that allows them to move forward or backward through tunnels without resistance.
Adult moles usually measure 6 to 8 inches long and weigh around 4 ounces. They’re not rodents at all, they’re actually more closely related to shrews and hedgehogs.
Signs of Vole Activity in Your Yard
Voles are sneaky, but they leave behind some telltale evidence. Here’s what to look for around your Casper property:
Surface runways: This is the most obvious sign. Voles create shallow, well-worn paths through grass and ground cover, usually about 1-2 inches wide. These runways often connect burrow openings and lead to food sources. After snow melts in spring, these pathways become especially visible.
Small burrow holes: Vole burrows are roughly 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter, about the size of a golf ball. You’ll typically find them hidden under mulch, ground cover, or near the base of plants and shrubs.
Plant damage: Voles are voracious plant eaters. Look for gnawed bark at the base of trees and shrubs (called girdling), damaged bulbs, and chewed roots. They’ll also munch on garden vegetables, flower bulbs, and ornamental plants. If your plants suddenly start wilting or dying for no apparent reason, vole damage to the root system could be the culprit.
Dead patches in lawns: Those irregular dead spots in your grass? Voles may be feeding on grass roots and crowns below the surface.
Droppings: Vole droppings are small, dark, and rice-shaped. You’ll often find them along runways or near burrow entrances.
Voles are most active during dawn and dusk, though they don’t hibernate and remain busy year-round, even under snow cover during Wyoming’s harsh winters.
Signs of Mole Activity in Your Yard
Moles are solitary creatures that spend almost their entire lives underground, so you probably won’t ever see one. But their tunneling activity is hard to miss:
Raised surface tunnels: Moles create visible ridges as they tunnel just below the surface, hunting for insects. These raised lines of disturbed soil zigzag across lawns and garden beds, often appearing overnight.
Molehills: The classic sign. Moles push excess soil to the surface as they dig deeper tunnels, creating those distinctive cone-shaped mounds of dirt. Molehills are typically symmetrical and volcano-like, with the entrance hole often plugged or not visible from above.
Soft, spongy ground: Walking across your lawn feels uneven or squishy in spots? That’s likely due to mole tunnels collapsing underfoot.
Uprooted plants: Moles don’t eat plants, but their tunneling can accidentally uproot seedlings, damage root systems, and create air pockets that dry out roots.
Increased pest activity: Here’s an ironic twist, moles actually eat many lawn pests. But their tunnels can also provide easy travel routes for other critters, including voles.
Moles are active throughout the year, though their surface tunneling tends to be most noticeable in spring and fall when soil moisture levels are ideal for digging.
Habitat and Behavior Differences
Understanding how these pests live helps explain why they cause such different problems.
Voles are social animals that live in colonies. A single vole population can include dozens of individuals, and they reproduce rapidly, females can have 5-10 litters per year with 3-6 young each time. Do the math, and you can see how quickly a small vole problem becomes a big one.
Voles prefer areas with dense ground cover, thick grass, mulch, leaf litter, or low-growing shrubs that provide protection from predators like hawks and foxes. They create extensive runway systems both above and below ground, connecting feeding areas to their burrows.
Moles are loners. They’re fiercely territorial and typically only tolerate other moles during mating season. One mole can tunnel up to 18 feet per hour when searching for food, which explains how a single animal can create so much visible damage.
Moles prefer moist, loamy soil that’s rich in earthworms and grubs, their primary food source. They consume 70-100% of their body weight in insects daily, so they need to keep moving and hunting constantly.
In Casper’s climate, both pests remain active year-round. Voles continue feeding even under snow, while moles simply dig deeper during cold snaps to follow their insect prey below the frost line.
Common Damage Caused by Each Pest
Let’s break down the specific ways each pest can wreak havoc on your property.
Vole Damage
Voles are incredibly destructive to landscaping, and that’s not an exaggeration. We regularly see Casper yards with:
- Dead patches and irregular holes in lawns from feeding on grass roots
- Girdled trees and shrubs (bark stripped from the base, often killing the plant)
- Destroyed flower bulbs and perennial root systems
- Damaged vegetable gardens
- Leaning trees caused by root damage undermining stability
- Chewed irrigation lines and wiring
The financial impact can be significant. A severe vole infestation can destroy years of landscaping investment in a single season. And because they reproduce so quickly, damage tends to accelerate once a population establishes itself.
Mole Damage
Mole damage is more cosmetic but still frustrating:
- Unsightly tunnels and ridges across lawns
- Molehills disrupting lawn aesthetics and mowing
- Root damage from tunneling (indirect, the tunnels create air pockets)
- Tripping hazards from collapsed tunnels
- Disturbed seedbeds and newly planted areas
Here’s something many homeowners don’t realize: moles can actually benefit your yard by aerating soil and eating harmful grubs and insects. But when their tunneling gets out of control, or when their tunnels become highways for voles and other pests, the damage outweighs any benefits.
When to Call a Professional
Some homeowners try to handle vole and mole problems themselves with traps, repellents, or habitat modification. These methods can work for minor issues, but there are times when professional intervention is the smarter choice.
Call a pest control professional when:
- You’re seeing widespread damage across multiple areas of your yard
- DIY methods haven’t produced results after a few weeks
- You’re dealing with voles, their rapid reproduction makes population control difficult without professional expertise
- Damage is threatening valuable landscaping, trees, or garden investments
- You’re not 100% sure which pest you’re dealing with (or suspect you might have both)
At Best Pest Control, we serve homeowners throughout Wyoming, including right here in Casper. We’ve been battling voles and other yard pests for years, and we understand the unique challenges our local climate and soil conditions present.
Our approach starts with proper identification, because as we’ve established, knowing your enemy is half the battle. From there, we develop a targeted treatment plan to eliminate current populations and help prevent future infestations. Whether it’s voles destroying your landscaping, moles tearing up your lawn, or any other pest problem, we’re ready to help.
We also offer ongoing treatment plans to keep pests at bay long-term, which is especially important for voles given how quickly they can rebound.
Conclusion
So, vole or mole? By now, you should have a much clearer picture of how to tell these two pests apart.
Look for surface runways, plant damage, and small burrow holes? You’ve likely got voles. Raised tunnel ridges and volcano-shaped molehills? Moles are your culprit. And remember, it’s entirely possible to have both causing problems simultaneously.
The key takeaway is this: don’t wait to address the problem. Both pests can cause significant damage to your Casper property, and voles especially multiply at alarming rates. The longer you delay, the more challenging (and expensive) control becomes.
If you’re dealing with yard damage and aren’t sure what’s causing it, or if you’ve tried DIY solutions without success, Best Pest Control is here to help. We’ll identify the pest, develop an effective treatment strategy, and protect your property from further damage. Whether it creeps, crawls, or tunnels, we’ll eradicate it.
Contact us today to schedule an inspection and take back your yard.