Question
I live in Southeastern PA, new home development, prior farm.  Front of my house has a few juniper shrubs, azaleas and other bushes. We put mushroom mulch down every year.  Last year noticed round tunnel like holes all through the juniper shrubs. Upon examination saw small creature, like brown in color, large front teeth & I think long tail, found one dead. Can't really see a raised mound because of the mulch. What is this and how can we get rid of it, it is killing our shrubbery. Put down Mole/Gopher granules, insert/larve pestiside and sonic deterer, but no luck! Please help!  I can't imagine trapping these things, where would I begin?

Answer
Sounds like voles. If it was pocket gopher, I guarantee you would see the mounds. Read our literature on vole control before doing anything. Keep an open mind.

If voles visit  http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/Voles.asp  If pocket gophers visit http://www.icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/PocketGophers.asp  If moles visit http://icwdm.org/wildlife/mole.asp . Moles eat insects and worms. Their damage to plants is inadvertent and only occurs if they separate the roots of the plant from the surrounding soil. They don抰 eat plants. However, voles eat plants and will work above and below ground. Voles don抰 make soil mounds but can dig small dime sized holes that disappear under the soil (this is true of the Pine Vole). Pocket gophers eat plants and make numerous boils on the surface of the ground and live primarily in the Midwest to the west in N. America. Moles are twice the size of mice and rarely if ever come to the surface. Voles are the size of mice. Voles will use a tunnel dug by a mole. Make sure you know what the problem is. By the way, if you have moles you don抰 have many of them. On average, you will have 3 moles per acre. But remember they can dig 100 feet per day depending on soil conditions.