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Please be sure to read the product label of any insecticide you choose to use to get information on the personal protective safety gear you will need. In most situations, it is recommended that you wear long pants, a long sleeved shirt, closed toe shoes with socks, chemical resistant gloves, and goggles. In areas where ventilation is poor, a manufacturer may recommend you wear a mask or a respirator. We have put together two different safety kits that will make selecting the correct safety gear easier for you.

Vole Identification Guide

Learn What Voles Are, What They Look Like, & What They Eat

By DoMyOwn staff
Overview

What Is a Vole?

Image of a vole
Voles are small rodents that are very common in fields and yards. They are often called field mice, meadow mice, or meadow moles, and create surface runways that help to identify their presence.

Since they do look like other small rodents, such as mice and moles, it's important to be able to identify voles so you can get rid of them correctly.

Physical Description

(What Voles Look Like)
vole anatomy characteristics
  • Voles have certain characteristics that will help you tell them apart from other common small rodents:
  • Voles can range in length depending on the species, but can be about 3-7 inches long, and weigh only a few ounces. They are about the size of a mouse.
  • They have small ears and very small eyes and short tails; these features help separate them from true mice.
  • They can vary in color from brown to gray.

Vole Habits & Habitat

Graphic showing the difference between moles and voles
Voles are active year-round, day and night. They can sometimes get confused with moles (see vole vs mole image above), since some species do create tunnel systems underground. However, they spend a lot of time above ground and they eat plants, not insects, like moles.

Voles create runways in grass, and keep these runways trimmed short, which helps you to find and identify vole presence.

Sometimes, voles will use mole tunnel systems to feed on plant structures underground, but you will find voles above ground much more often.

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