Mole or Vole and does it matter?

Holes about the size of a golf ball throughout the "steppable' ground cover. No soil mounds at entrance to hole -- mole or vole do you think? And, does it matter with regard to prevention or solutions to rid? No grubs in soil there so food source is not good in that area ( all around flagstones is espcially upended) -- buggers!

Moles are carnivores, tunnel under the soil looking for worms and other critters that live under the soil. The damage is indirect: Roots that are in the way of the tunnels may be chewed, and the large air ways that are opened in the soil may divert the water from the plant.

Voles are more mouse-like, and generally do not tunnel under the soil, but most often under the mulch or fallen leaves. They can dig a bit if the soil is very loose. Around here, voles are almost always on top of the soil. Voles can chew the bark and tender stems of plants pretty much right at the soil surface, or within an inch or so of the soil.

Gophers can tunnel under the soil, and can come up and not make a volcano of soil, though this is not so common. They eat plants, roots and tender growth at the soil surface.

It may be that all three will make holes about golf ball size, though I think voles are the smallest of the 3.

How about squirrels digging a hole to store a nut or acorn? No tunnel, just a hole.

I think moles best bet then. I can't imagine the squirrels would be so perfect and so numerous in one area. Did't think about the worms being food source. Plenty there. I am so disquieted. It looks like the ground erupted around every flagstone. I can walk and settle the soil 3 inches or more. Those holes are huge

Seeing the soil raised like shallow tunnels is classic mole damage. They almost never break through into the air. They can, though, or something that is hunting moles might go after them that way... I had a Doberman that thought she was a terrier and would 'plow' up the mole tunnels with her nose (her nose was all that would fit in the tunnel)!

Volcano-like holes, but not really seeing the loose soil of tunnels running all over is more typical of gophers. They more often surface, but push the soil out ahead so it becomes a volcano. However, if the soil is very shallow, perhaps hardpan or bedrock close to the surface, gophers also will show up as tunnels along the surface, and occasional openings.

Ground squirrels are another option. They seem not to push out so much soil, but have much larger holes. (I have no idea what they do with the dirt) They are way larger than gophers or moles. Ground squirrels are rare deep in a residential area. They seem to invade from open fields.

We are surrounded by woods on all sides. Moles must be the culprits. I guess we will have to make peace and do better control over food source.

Unfortunately, the healthiest soils will be loose, easy to tunnel through, and will contain such good animals as earthworms and many other desirable livestock. To try to control some (the 'bad guys') while keeping the soil healthy for earthworms and other 'good guys' is a difficult path to walk.

Good luck!

Well if those moles are so inclined, they have a real nice path to walk - very wide and thick flagstones! -- if I could get them to carry a rosé in their mouth -- we could get along since they have devastated my attempt to add florals.

Have you heard about clicker training? Might get those moles into a circus!

Charge admission too.

Try laying aluminum screening under the area's you are trying to protect. that's what I did, and it's worked so far. I had voles - who DO make MILES of tunnels that don't raise the ground as they are about 2 inches under the surface. They DO make volcanos of dirt when they come up to toss out the dirt they are displacing, and look around or run out into the garden on top to munch. They also DO make golf-ball sized holes with no volcano if they are just popping up from a previously made run for a look-round. That's when my dogs catch them and toss em around till they die....which is how I know they are voles - little critters that look like tailless, squishy-looking, mice. Because I see them then. So far, the 4footx25foot rolls of aluminum door and window screening I bought at the local hardware store and laid down in a basket shape in the ground, with bricks and boards along the top 4 inches of the baskets, and all the dirt and plants safely inside these underground baskets, has worked to keep them at bay. But the trial period has only been about 4 months long so far, so we'll see if it works for years or if those littler buggers figure out a way in. another lady said to plant miniature daffodils all around the area perimeter as their bulbs are poisonous, the critters know it and can smell or taste it in the ground, so they leave that area alone. I can't vouch for that, though, as I haven't had a chance to try it yet. OH...another side note to that .... I ttried in another area just putting screening 2.5 feet straight down into the dirt to keep the voles from going past it to the garden (not screening the bottom of the garden, just around the edges) and that did NOT work...they tunneled up from under it....so you do have to make a basket that is tight with no openings...that much I have learned. Hope this helps. YOu keep fighting the good fight, and so will I.
UpNorthGardener

Baskets will work against all these pests. Might need to put something across the surface, too, in case the invaders walk on the soil surface, cross the barrier then try to dig inside the protected zone.

My problrm area is in a space where there is huge river birch, pieris, cedar, abelia etc.. A flagstone walkway in wooded area so cant dig up to put the screening

Hi Folks: Quick update on the window-screening, underground baskets as a mole/vole/gopher deterent. Yeeehaawwww - it works wonderfully. And a 4-6 inch high barrier between that area and the yard seems to keep them out aboveground. We made it through two years so far with no mole/gopher/whatever damage in the window-screening underground screened baskets I mentioned in Dec 2013. All this while the mole/vole volcanoes were popping up all around outside the screened area like a case of "ground zits". The neighbors (yards just riddled with the little buggers) are openly jealous....chuckle..... It looks like the underground wire (window-screening size) baskets are working. I'm so confident about it that I've extended my garden from the original to another 200 feet of garden (fully underground screened). Seems that raising the bed to a level of 4-6 inches above the ground as well (I use those decorator bricks to accomplish this), with the screening going up the inside of this area, keeps the little guys from getting into the garden during their above-ground excursions.....course, the occasional dog patrol in the yard doesn't hurt either.

Good for you. Sounds like a solution for planting out in the open in a cultivated area.
Now put on that thinking cap for those in a woodland setting. I bet folks would pay at the community college gardening classes to have you come to speak and demonstrate.