Zone 5 KBG. Snow just melted and I found these weird tracks / growth? throughout the yard. These photos are in different spots across the whole yard. Some patches are connected with a winding path, but they are not all clearly connected. Whole yard is about 25k sq ft and it’s all over.
There’s one deep (ish) trench that seems to have appeared out of nowhere, too, which I thought was strange.
There’s no clear indication what could have caused this… Some minor surface damage / digging, roughed up dead grass…
Any ideas? Moles? Voles? Mice? Fungus? It’s very strange. It’s been buried under snow for months now. TYIA my fellow lawn nuts. 🫡
by Optimal-Strawberry79
14 Comments
Looks like voles to me, but I’m no expert.
Voles
Holy Voley Batman!
Those are from Voles and lots of them.
Voles. Rake it out lightly and you’ll never know it was there in a few weeks when it warms up
100% Voles. https://ag.umass.edu/turf/fact-sheets/vole-damage-to-lawns
Voles 10000%
You see all that scrub land around you? That’s where the live and just come into your yard to play.
Voles. That is an impressive infestation. Don’t bother with repellent — it doesn’t work. I currently have 10 traps out in their little trails. Catch a few every other day or so. You don’t even need to bait them. Just nestle them down in their trails — they don’t like getting out of their trails. I use the black snap traps.
The link below says to bait the traps and it’s probably a waste of time. Your call.
Woah- we don’t have that here in Oklahoma. That’s crazy!
“When Voles attack” the spring sequel.
As an unprofessional expert I can confirm… Voles
Oh man. I had voles at a house I had years ago. It was built on former farmland, so there were a ton nearby. Every spring we’d have their tunnels everywhere. About three weeks in, you never knew they were there.
There are 4 things certain in life.
Death, taxes, the answer is voles in lawn care, and the answer is barkeeper’s friend in stainless steel cooking.