Title: Mice, Voles, and Moles
Headings: Field Rodents: Mice, Voles, Chipmunks, and Moles
Field Rodents: Mice, Voles, Chipmunks, and Moles
Control

Content: Meadow voles are five to seven inches long at maturity and weigh twice as much as house mice. Their dense, shaggy fur is gray to brown with gray under-parts, sometimes mixed with yellow or buff. Their close relative, pine voles or pine mice, have smaller bodies, shorter tails, sunken eyes and underground burrow homes. Pine voles feed on plant roots and crowns. In Connecticut, meadow voles are more abundant and destructive than pine voles. Meadow voles eat a wide variety of crops and plants, with a preference for grasses. When vole populations are high, many field crops are eaten. Their extensive tunnel systems cause root destruction and interfere with crop irrigation, as well. In late summer and fall, voles store seeds, tubers, bulbs and rhizomes in their tunnels. Voles are active day and night the entire year.