Melting snow reveals small rodents up to no good under this Kamloops lawn
- This story was originally published Feb. 23.
A Kamloops resident discovered interesting zig zag patterns on her lawn after a recent snow melt. The lawn was a mess of shallow tunnels and overturned dirt.
“I’ve lived here for eight years and it is the first time I have seen this,” Barbara Fuller of Kamloops said.
Fuller suspects the damage was done by some tiny, burrowing culprits called voles. The small rodents, which are often mistaken for mice, are herbivores and are known to live throughout Canada. They dig shallow tunnels, leaving evidence of their presence in the topsoil. The fuzzy little pests have been known to cause damage in the Kamloops area before.
When shown the photo of the lawn and asked to confirm the presence of voles, biologist and active member of the Kamloops Naturalist Club Rick Howie, said the little trails are quite linear like voles are apt to make, as opposed to more random, patchier patterns other small critters dig.
“I do not know where we are in the current cycle, but judging by the number of hawks around that feed on them, it may not be a high cycle this year as there are relatively few hawks. But the snow cover has made it hard for hawks to feed this winter so they may have moved on for that reason and not low vole numbers.”
He said the voles could have been active under deep snow and not visible to hawks.
While Fuller is not excited about the look of her lawn, she is curious about the voles and is hoping to see one, something she finds difficult to do having a big dog on watch.
“It is quite fascinating to see a whole underground village full of corridors and deep holes,” she said. “They didn’t know the ceilings and hallways would disappear with the snow melt. Rodents have always seemed cute to me in storybook kind of way.”
Fuller hasn’t noticed similar damage on her neighbours’ lawns.
“True confession time,” she said. “The neighbours take far better care of their lawns so that might have something to do with it," she said.
READ MORE: Unexpected problem: Rodents squatting in flood-evacuated Merritt home
When asked how many critters she guesses are living on the lawn, Fuller said she didn’t have a clue.
“I think maybe a dozen,” she said. “I’m blown away by the number of corridors. It looks like they might be trying to fix them up.”
Fuller is a long-time renter and will have to let her landlord know about the damage, and see what she can do to fix it.
Howie suggests pest control companies are likely equipped to do some local trapping.
A rash of voles were discovered digging around headstones and eating vegetation at a Kamloops cemetery last fall, leaving dirt mounds and obstructing headstones.
READ MORE: Kamloops cemetery has a pesky gravedigger problem
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