Moles and voles never set foot in your house — they wreck what’s around it. Moles tunnel and heave the turf; voles eat the plants and girdle young trees under the snow. Different animals, different damage, and a program built for each.
They get lumped together because the damage shows up in the same yard — but a mole program aimed at voles (or vice versa) accomplishes nothing.
Raised ridges snaking across the lawn and volcano-shaped mounds are mole work. They’re insectivores hunting grubs and earthworms — they don’t eat your plants, they undermine them, along with the turf your mower scalps on every ridge.
Voles look like stocky mice but live outside — and they eat plants: hosta crowns, bulbs, root vegetables, and the bark of young trees. A vole-girdled trunk at the snow line kills the tree.
Under Upstate NY snowpack, voles run protected surface highways all winter. The snow melts and reveals a lawn full of worn runways and chewed bark — damage that happened invisibly for months.
Vole and mole networks are ready-made corridors for rats and shrews, and vole pressure at foundation plantings puts rodents against your siding-to-foundation gap — the entry point our exclusion systems guard.
Broadcast baits endanger owls, foxes, pets, and everything else that eats a poisoned rodent. Effective control is species-specific: active-tunnel trapping for moles, habitat pressure and targeted trapping for voles.
Ridges and mounds mean moles; surface runways and gnawed bark mean voles. We confirm the species and map the active areas.
Mole control targets active tunnels; vole control combines runway trapping with habitat pressure. No broadcast poisons.
Traps are set in confirmed active tunnels and runways — the only placement that works — and adjusted as activity shifts.
Mulch depth at trunks, ground-cover density, thatch, and grub pressure — the conditions that recruit the next generation get corrected.
Activity is rechecked and the program adjusted until the lawn stays quiet through the season.
Identify first, then control — because moles and voles don’t answer to the same program.
Ridge vs. runway, mound vs. gnaw mark — the program starts by naming the culprit correctly.
Mole traps only work in tunnels that are actually in use — we find and confirm them first.
Owls, foxes, and pets eat rodents. Our program protects the food chain your yard depends on.
Vole guards and habitat corrections protect young trunks, bulbs, and beds before the snow flies.
Vole pressure at foundation plantings gets flagged against your home’s entry points — we watch the building too.
Activity is monitored and the program adjusted through the season, not set-and-forgotten.
A defined outdoor program built around two very different animals.
Humane removal first, then we seal every way back in so it stays out. Serving Upstate NY & Southwest VT.
Raised tunnels and volcano-shaped mounds are moles. Worn surface paths, gnawed bark, and eaten plants are voles. Moles undermine; voles eat. It matters because the control programs are completely different.
Rarely by themselves — earthworms, not grubs, are a mole’s primary food, so a grub-free lawn can still feed moles indefinitely. Active-tunnel trapping is what actually removes them; grub reduction just lowers the attraction.
If the bark is gnawed away in a band near the ground — girdling — that’s classic under-snow vole damage. Trunk guards and fall habitat prep are how we protect trees before the snowpack hides the damage in progress.
They’re close cousins but behave differently: voles are stockier, live outdoors, and eat plants. But vole populations at your foundation plantings put rodent pressure right against the house — worth pairing lawn control with sealed entry points.
Broadcast rodenticides move up the food chain — owls, hawks, foxes, and pets eat poisoned rodents. Our program is targeted trapping plus habitat correction, which works without collateral damage.
Eco Haven provides mole and vole control across Upstate New York and Southwest Vermont — lawns, gardens, orchards, and camps.
Still not sure what you’re dealing with? Real local people answer — no call centers. Same-day help on urgent pest or wildlife calls.
The best time to act is while the tunnels are active — and before the snow gives voles all winter to work unseen. Tell us what the lawn looks like.
Free inspections. Transparent pricing. Local team.
Ground rodent pressure near the house is a reason to check the building’s entry points, too.
Below-grade barrier that stops digging wildlife beneath decks, additions, sheds, slabs, and foundations.
Learn moreHeavy-gauge custom-fabricated metal reinforcing the siding-to-foundation transition — the most common rodent entry point.
Learn moreWhole-home sealing of pipe penetrations, utility entries, and other entry points, paired with a snap trap program.
Learn moreExplore the full Eco Haven family of prevention-first, structural exclusion services.
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Species-specific trapping and habitat correction — no broadcast poisons, no guesswork. Call or text for a free lawn and landscape inspection.
