You’re standing on your lawn, staring at a fresh pile of dirt or a jagged runway through the grass, feeling that specific brand of suburban rage. Something is destroying the yard. You grab your phone to snap a few photos of moles and voles—or at least the damage they left behind—hoping the internet will give you a straight answer. Most of the time, it doesn't. You get generic stock images that all look like "brown blur in dirt."
It’s frustrating.
Honestly, telling these two apart is harder than people let on because they both live largely out of sight, and their physical traits are often obscured by mud or shadow in most backyard photography. If you’ve ever looked at photos of moles and voles and thought they were the same animal, you’re not alone. They aren't even closely related. A mole is an insectivore that wants your grubs; a vole is a rodent that wants your hostas.
The Anatomy of the Blur: Identifying Moles in Pictures
When you look at high-resolution photos of moles, the first thing that should jump out at you isn't the fur. It's the hands. They have these massive, paddle-like front paws that look like they belong on a much larger creature. These are specialized tools for "swimming" through soil. If the photo shows a creature with tiny, delicate mouse-feet in the front, it isn't a mole.
Moles, specifically the Eastern Mole (Scalopus aquaticus) common in North America, have almost no visible eyes or ears. In a clear photo, the head looks like a continuous, velvety wedge ending in a pink, hairless snout. This snout is incredibly sensitive. If you see a photo of a critter with prominent black eyes and visible ears, you can bet your mortgage it's a vole or a shrew instead.
The fur is another dead giveaway. Mole fur is unique because it has no "grain." It can be brushed forward or backward without resistance, which allows the mole to back up in a tight tunnel without getting stuck. In photos, this often makes them look like a gray or silver-black velvet tube. There is a distinct lack of "shagginess" compared to the rodent family.
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That Weird Star-Nose Thing
You might come across photos of moles and voles that feature a creature with a literal "meat flower" on its face. That’s the Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata). It’s perhaps the most distinct animal you’ll ever see in a backyard photo. Those 22 pink fleshy appendages are Eimer’s organs, and they are faster at processing sensory input than almost any other mammalian touch organ. They like damp, swampy soil. If your yard is near a creek and you see a photo of this "alien," your identification job is done.
What a Vole Actually Looks Like (Hint: It’s a Field Mouse with a Bad Haircut)
Voles are often called "meadow mice," and for good reason. When you browse photos of moles and voles, the vole is the one that looks like a chunky, compact mouse. They belong to the genus Microtus. Unlike the mole’s streamlined, earless head, the vole has a blunt face, small but visible ears, and dark, beady eyes.
Their fur is coarse. It’s usually a mix of brown, black, and gray. While a mole looks like it was made of felt, a vole looks like it’s having a permanent bad hair day. Their tails are short. That’s a key marker. If you see a photo of a rodent with a tail as long as its body, it’s a mouse. If the tail is about an inch long and hairy, it’s a vole.
Voles are also much more likely to be photographed above ground. Moles are the introverts of the animal kingdom; they rarely surface unless a heavy rain floods them out. Voles, however, love to scurry through "runways" in the thatch of your grass. If your photo shows a creature nibbling on a blade of grass or a tulip bulb, it’s a vole. Moles don't eat plants. They want the worms.
Interpreting Damage: Photos of Tunnels vs. Mounds
Sometimes the best photos of moles and voles aren't of the animals themselves, but the structural damage they leave behind. This is where most homeowners get confused.
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Moles create "molehills." These are volcano-shaped mounds of dirt pushed up from deep tunnels. The soil is usually clumpy and fresh. If your photo shows a series of these volcanoes connected by slightly raised ridges where the grass feels "squishy," you have a mole. They are excavating.
Voles are different. They don't typically leave mounds. Instead, they create "runways"—1-to-2-inch wide paths where they’ve chewed the grass down to the roots. In the winter, they do this under the snow, and when the melt happens in spring, it looks like a miniature highway system across your lawn. If your photo shows a clean hole about the size of a golf ball with no mound of dirt around it, that’s a vole entrance. They often use old mole tunnels, too, just to make things more confusing for you.
Why the Difference Matters for Your Garden
You can't treat a mole problem the same way you treat a vole problem. It's basically biology 101. Since moles are insectivores, people often try to get rid of them by using "grub killer." This is a bit of a myth, or at least an oversimplification. Moles love grubs, sure, but their primary diet is earthworms. You aren't going to kill all the earthworms in your soil (and you shouldn't want to).
Voles are herbivores. They are the ones eating your expensive lily bulbs and girdling the bark off your young fruit trees. If you see photos of moles and voles and realize you have the latter, you need to focus on habitat modification—clearing away tall grass, mulch, and woodpiles where they hide from hawks and owls.
- Mole Strategy: Subsurface traps or specialized baits that mimic the shape and feel of earthworms.
- Vole Strategy: Standard mouse traps baited with peanut butter and oatmeal, placed directly in their surface runways, covered by a box to protect birds.
Nuance in the Wild: Shrews and Other Lookalikes
Just when you think you’ve mastered identifying photos of moles and voles, a shrew enters the chat. Shrews are tiny. They have long, pointed snouts and tiny eyes like moles, but they have mouse-like feet. They are hyperactive little predators with a venomous bite (in some species like the Northern Short-tailed Shrew).
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In photos, a shrew looks like a "mini-mole" but without the digging claws. They are actually beneficial because they eat an incredible amount of insects and even young voles. If you see a photo of a tiny, grey, twitchy creature with a very long nose in your garden, try to leave it alone. It’s doing the hard work for you.
Practical Steps for Identification
If you’re trying to identify what’s in your yard right now, start by taking a photo of the "entry point." Look for the presence or absence of mounded soil. A hole with a clean edge is almost always a vole. A "volcano" is always a mole.
Check your plants. Are the roots chewed off? Did your hosta just pull out of the ground like a loose tooth? That's a vole. Is the grass just pushed up in a ridge, but the plants are fine? That's a mole.
Don't bother with the vibrating ultrasonic spikes you see advertised everywhere. There is very little scientific evidence from universities like Michigan State or Cornell that these actually work long-term. The animals just get used to the vibration, or move five feet to the left.
Instead, focus on "exclusion." For voles, you can bury hardware cloth (1/4 inch mesh) around the base of trees or garden beds. For moles, you might just have to accept that they are aerating your soil and eating the Japanese beetle larvae that would otherwise kill your grass. Sometimes, the best way to deal with a photo of a mole is to realize it's a sign of incredibly healthy, nutrient-rich soil.
To get a definitive ID, set a camera trap at ground level near a fresh tunnel. Digital photos of moles and voles taken at night using infrared will reveal the truth. Look for the "paddle hands" of the mole or the "beady eyes" of the vole. Once you know which neighbor you're dealing with, you can stop guessing and start managing your landscape effectively.