Vole and Pocket Gopher Control in Colorado Springs
Some rodent problems stay outside. Voles and pocket gophers don't move into your kitchen, but they can wreck a lawn, a garden bed and young trees. People mix the two up all the time, and the fix depends on which one you have.
CSU Extension counts eight vole species in Colorado, including the prairie vole of the eastern grasslands and the montane vole, found from about 6,000 feet up in the western half of the state. Pocket gophers are a different animal, a burrower that rarely comes above ground.
Voles or gophers? Read the yard
CSU's PlantTalk lays out the difference. Voles leave narrow runways through matted grass, small open holes and spongy soil. Their damage shows up on bark: narrow, irregular gnaw marks low on trunks and stems, sometimes going all the way around and killing the plant. Pocket gophers push up fan-shaped or round mounds of soil with the hole plugged. In spring, as the snow melts, you may find solid tubes of soil on the lawn where they tunneled under the snow, and plants that wilt suddenly because the roots got eaten.
- Open holes and surface runways: voles
- Plugged dirt mounds: pocket gophers
- Bark chewed low on shrubs and young trees: usually voles
- Plants wilting with roots gone: often gophers
Why it shows up after the snow
CSU says most vole damage happens in winter, when they travel through grass runways under the cover of snow, and that the worst damage tends to come in heavy-snow years. Vole numbers also swing, often peaking every three to five years. That's why some springs the lawn looks like a road map and other years you hardly see a trail.
What helps
For voles, CSU's advice starts with habitat: mow closely and often near trees and beds, and clear vegetation about two feet back from the trunks of fruit trees. Wrap young trees and shrubs with quarter-inch hardware cloth, about 18 inches above ground and 3 to 6 inches below. Snap traps can work on a small lawn population set in the fall, but CSU notes trapping isn't practical for big areas.
Gophers are tunnel work. A provider will find active tunnels and trap in them. Tell them about pets and kids so they can plan around them, and ask what they'll use before they use it.
Questions people ask
Do voles come in the house?
Rarely. They're a lawn and garden problem. If something is in the house, it's more likely a mouse.
Do repellents work?
CSU says products like capsaicin and thiram exist, but there's not much data on how well they work, and they have to be reapplied.
Available in Briargate, Rockrimmon, Black Forest, Monument and Tri-Lakes, Falcon and Peyton, Broadmoor and Cheyenne Cañon, Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and the West Side, Fountain, Security-Widefield, Powers and Stetson Hills.