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Just the other day, I got a text from my mom inquiring what was wrong with her tree. The text included a picture of her young sweet gum tree that was laying on its side on the ground. It took me about 2 seconds to know what was going on, and the culprit of the damage … Voles!

Voles are small animals that reside in our forests, orchards and residential landscapes. Although their size may be small, they can have a very disproportionate impact on our trees and landscapes. Often mistaken for mice, voles are stocky rodents with short tails and small ears that live primarily in grassy or densely vegetated areas. The most common species affecting local properties is the Meadow Vole, which thrives in fields, lawns and landscaped beds where ground cover provides protection from predators.

Voles feed mainly on grasses and herbaceous plants during the growing season. However, their impact becomes more noticeable in fall and winter when food sources decline. Under snow cover, voles create tunnel systems that allow them to travel safely while feeding on the bark and roots of shrubs and young trees. This winter feeding behavior can cause significant and sometimes fatal damage.

One of the most serious effects voles have on trees is girdling. Girdling occurs when voles chew away the bark around the entire circumference of a trunk, cutting off the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients between its roots and canopy. Young fruit trees, ornamental maples, aspens and other thin-barked species are especially vulnerable. Damage is often not discovered until spring, when trees fail to leaf out or show signs of stress such as sparse foliage and dieback. What I have seen this year is more burrowing and underground root damage, most likely due to the lack of snow that they rely on for cover.

In lawns and landscaped areas, vole activity is identified by surface runways — narrow, beaten paths through grass — and small burrow openings. These runways can make turf appear matted or patchy. In garden beds, voles may consume bulbs, root systems and newly planted perennials, leading to plant loss and uneven growth. Because voles reproduce rapidly and experience population cycles, damage can escalate quickly during peak years.

So, what can we do about these pesky underground marauders? Habitat reduction would be the easiest and most obvious method of control. Keeping your lawn shorter, clearing tall weeds and grasses around fences, sheds and tree lines, and avoiding dense ground cover around house foundations are all effective. Another effective method is by creating a mesh barrier around the trunk of the tree at the least, and preferably a mesh barrier that is buried 4-6 inches into the soil surrounding the root ball of young trees. Trapping and baiting them can work as well, but I caution against these if you have outside pets that could get themselves into trouble if they get too curious about the traps and/or poison.

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