BOGO Pest Control services homes and businesses all across the Twin Cities. Voles, moles, mice and shrews don’t stand a chance against BOGO’s Outdoor Rodent Management Plan (O.R.M.P)!

To protect your home against voles and insects, join our Insect Prevention Plan (IPP)

If you have any questions, concerns, or want to schedule an appointment

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

Voles are rodents that spend their entire lives outside. They are commonly mistaken for mice, but a few obvious differences include their short tails, rounder, stockier bodies, and small ears. Unlike mice, voles are not strictly nocturnal and remain active throughout the day and night. Voles and mice share similar traits: neither hibernates, and both breed year-round. They usually have around 1-5 litters a year, with the size of their litter ranging from 1-11 young.

As you may find out due to the damage to your lawn, voles love to eat grass. However, similar to other rodents, voles are omnivores. This means they’ll eat almost anything. You also need to watch out for them feeding on your vegetable garden, flowers, and even trees. In the wintertime, it’s common for voles to chew on the roots and bark of trees below the snow. Voles are capable of killing trees by suffocating them by chewing along the entire trunk or root system.

Vole habitats typically consist of areas with dense vegetation, such as prairies, meadows, riverbanks, and gardens. They can also be found living inside retaining walls. Unlike mice, voles very rarely make their way inside a home. They would rather stay outside all year. They make tunnels deep under the snow to stay warm in the winter.

Homeowners can mitigate vole populations by taking prevention measures such as trimming hedges and trees. We recommend trimming from the bottom up to take away any plant coverage for voles to hide under. It is also important to keep your grass trimmed short; in the fall, be sure to remove any fallen leaves and debris. Leaves act as insulation, keeping voles warm in winter.

BOGO Pest Control offers an Outdoor Rodent Management Plan (ORMP) to help reduce the population of voles around the property. The plan is a yearly commitment as voles do not hibernate and remain active all day and night. Since voles have no interest in going into your home, we place bait stations next to their natural habitats. This usually means placing them around the edge of the property line or near retaining walls. We check and refill stations every 1 to 2 months, depending on the level of infestation.

Read our Blog Post “Voles Live Under the Snow”

Moles spend the majority of their time underground and are rarely seen by humans. They have small eyes and ears with large front paws that are designed for scooping and digging. What they lack in hearing and eyesight, they compensate for with a heightened sense of touch and smell. They are capable of feeling vibrations in the soil that navigate them toward food. Moles are territorial and solitary, coming together only to breed. Their breeding season lasts from February to March. The females have one litter of 2-8 pups 45 days after breeding. The pups stay with the mom for only 4 weeks before leaving the nest.

Moles rely heavily on their sense of smell and touch to find food. They use their sense of touch to feel soil vibrations, allowing them to locate food and avoid predators or other moles. Over 80% of their diet comes from earthworms, while the remainder consists of other insects and shrubs. Moles eat around 70% to 100% of their body weight every day. They are known for decapitating earthworms to stop them from squirming away. This allows them to save the worm for later. They even build chambers in their tunnels to store earthworms as backup food. They have been recorded as eating over 50 lbs. of worms in one year.

Moles spend their entire lives digging tunnels. When they dig, they discard the soil they dig up to create molehills. Over time, these underground tunnels become complex systems that serve different purposes. Moles create rooms to store food, give birth in, sleep in, and dig tunnels designed to trap their food. The difference between mole damage and vole damage is easy to spot as a mole will usually have different mounds of dirt piled along the yard and the tunnels lift above the grass. Mole tunnels can be beneficial to an ecosystem. They aerate the lawn and the moles eat pest grubs and insects that kill plants and trees.

Most moles live in open grasslands, meadows, pastures, woodlands, and sometimes wetlands. The most common mole in Minnesota is the eastern mole. Their range extends from Ontario, Canada, south to Florida and west to the Dakotas and Texas. They are not found in areas with clay or gravelly soils; instead, they prefer moist, sandy soil that is easier to dig.

BOGO’s mole prevention service does not use traps. Spring traps pose a risk of injury to children and pets playing outdoors, and can also damage equipment like lawnmowers. Instead, BOGO uses poison bait. Our knowledgeable technicians strategically place bait in the most effective areas. This requires identifying which tunnel systems are currently in use by the mole and which are inactive. They then insert the bait into the tunnels, keeping them intact.

Read Our Blog Post “Controlling Moles in Your Yard”

Shrews are commonly mistaken for mice, but they have a few attributes that make them very different. Shrews have a very distinctive pointy snout, small ears, and tiny black eyes. Shrews, unlike nocturnal mice, are active around the clock. Even though they are similar in size to mice, shrews are one of the most voracious mammalian predators on the planet. They have a huge appetite and are capable of eating twice their body weight in one sitting. Shrews breed from May to October. With this longer time frame, female shrews produce at least 2 litters of 4-10 young each.

Shrews are opportunistic eaters and their diet consists of nearly everything. They have to eat their weight in food every single day; if they don’t eat within a few hours, they can die. They prefer to eat insects, slugs and snails, and earthworms, as well as seeds and nuts from trees. They are notorious for attacking and eating prey much larger than they are. They’ve been known to eat snakes, mice, small birds, and even lizards. When they bite into their prey, they excrete poisonous saliva into the wound that paralyzes the animal. Unfortunately for the prey, it doesn’t kill them right away. Instead, it keeps them alive for a few hours. This allows the shrews to keep the meat fresh so they can eat it later.

It’s rare to have a shrew inside your home, but it’s not unheard of. Given their aggressive nature, you will know quickly if one got inside. If one makes its way inside, it is likely searching for food and water. One great indicator is the presence of shrew droppings. Their droppings are dark in color and have a corkscrew shape to them. They are capable of eating small pets, such as birds or hamsters. They may even use their venom to get larger pets sick if they feel threatened. They also release a liquid from a scent gland that has a very pungent smell.

Shrews enjoy living in areas with heavy plant cover, such as long-grass prairies, meadows, and wooded areas. A few of the most common shrews in Minnesota include the pygmy shrew, the short-tail shrew, and the masked shrew. The smallest of the three is the pygmy shrew measuring about two inches and weighing only 1/8 ounce. The largest is the short tail shrew. They range from 4.0-5.5 inches and weigh around 0.5-1.0 ounces. The most common of the three is the masked shrew. They measure 4.0 inches and weigh 0.1-0.23 ounces. Their range extends throughout the northern United States and most of Canada.

The most effective way to prevent shrews from infesting your lawn or home is to reduce their food source around the property. Shrews devour a wide variety of prey, ranging from insects and seeds to rodents like mice and voles. BOGO’s Outdoor Rodent Management Plan will help cut back the number of mice and voles there will be for them to eat. One way to cut down the insect population is to keep the grass cut low and trees/bushes trimmed at least 4 feet from the house. BOGO also offers an Insect Prevention Plan to kill any insects that touch your house. Once their source of food is diminished, shrews will have no reason to live near your home.

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To protect your home against voles and insects, join our Insect Prevention Plan or IPP

If you have any questions or concerns or would like to schedule an appointment

Call Us Today! 952-404-BOGO (2646)

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