Moles or Voles?

I have read the thread about voles further down the page and that got me thinking.....I have tunnels all over the yard and in my flower beds. These seemed to appear overnight about a week ago. I assumed this was a mole. And I was under the impression that moles might be beneficial to the beds so I had not done anything to kill them. I have 2 cats in the yard and was hoping that the cats would do something.
So how would I tell the difference in voles and moles? I live in East TX and I don't even know if voles live here or not.
If it is a vole I really don't want it to eat all my lily bulbs.....

I think voles live pretty much everywhere in the US. If you're seeing raised tunnels though, those aren't from voles (not to say you couldn't also have voles though). Moles will build raised tunnels, and gophers will build tunnels as well but the whole thing isn't raised, just mounds here and there with the dirt they excavate. With voles, you will sometimes see a little hole in the ground but no raised tunnels/mounds.

Thanks, ecrane. We don't have gophers in this part of Texas so must be moles. Should I get too concerned with trapping them? Or do you think they will harm my plants? I did notice that one lily VANISHED overnight. No stem, no bulb, poof gone. It was 12" tall yesterday.

Moles eat insects not plants, but their tunneling can definitely cause damage to plants so most people prefer to get rid of them. Not to mention if you have a lawn and they start making their tunnels all through the lawn it can be a recipe for a twisted ankle!

You could have voles as well as moles if you're seeing a lot of plant damage--they make small little holes in the ground but can be easy to miss since they don't have visible tunnels or mounds. I have problems with gophers and have the exterminator out every now and then to take care of them, and a couple times they've told me I had voles too even though I hadn't noticed them.

The lily disappearing overnight sounds more like a larger above-ground pest though...since moles don't eat plants they might have damaged the roots and killed it but the plant itself would still be there. And that sounds like a pretty large plant for a vole to have eaten completely, although if it was just a little skinny plant vs being nice & full then maybe could be a vole.

We live in a meadow/pasture type setting in a rural location. It is possible to see skunks, rats, rabbits, foxes, and raccoons. Coyotes are not likely because my property is fenced entirely for dogs. The yard where my garden is located has a hotwire down low on the fence. A deer could jump in and have done that before....But a smaller varmint could come thru the 6" x 8" squares easily. I would have hoped my two huge dogs would have alerted me to such a critter! Perplexing.