Wondering which pest is damaging your lawn and garden? Here’s how to tell the difference.

Voles are small, chunky creatures that look like mice, except with short tails. They have short, blunt noses and small paws. In spring, brown trails in the grass indicate their presence, but in summer the trails disappear as the grass grows.

Damage
Voles eat bulbs, girdle plant stems, gnaw bark on young trees and shrubs, and eat roots. When voles do surface damage to trees and shrub stems, the plants will probably survive. But if voles chew deep into the trunk—damaging the cambium, where plant growth occurs—or destroy too many roots, plants will decline or die.

Control
Use barriers to save your plants from voles: put up mesh fences around vegetables and bark guards on small trees and shrubs.

Moles, on the other hand, don’t eat plants. They have very tiny eyes and large front paws that look like flippers. These serve them well as they tunnel through soil looking for grubs, insects, and worms.

Damage
Mole tunnels are unsightly but generally don’t harm plants. If you can tolerate their burrows, moles will control insects and aerate your soil.

Control
Don’t bother with common home remedies such as chewing gum or laxatives placed in their burrows—studies have shown moles ignore these substances. Instead, consider shrinking your lawn (in favor of flower or vegetable beds where tunnels are less obvious) and trying to get rid of the beetle grubs that moles love.

—photo courtesy of the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden.