Vole Damage After a Snowy Winter: What to Look For and How to Fix It
This past winter’s deep, prolonged snow cover created ideal conditions for voles to tunnel unseen across Sherwood Park and Edmonton lawns. Here’s how to assess the damage and what to do next.
Aron Grykuliak - Spring 2026
If you’ve peeled back the snow this spring and found winding dead trails criss-crossing your lawn or gnawed bark on your young trees, you’re not alone. The phones at Greenland have been ringing with exactly this concern. This past winter’s heavy, sustained snow cover created near-perfect conditions for vole activity across Sherwood Park and Edmonton, and the evidence is showing up everywhere as things thaw out.
The good news: in most cases, the damage looks worse than it is. With the right steps, your lawn and garden can recover well.
What Is a Vole?
Voles are small, stocky rodents that are often mistaken for mice and are common across Alberta lawns and gardens. They’re herbivores, feeding on grass, bark, bulbs, and roots. They’re active year-round, breed rapidly, and do the bulk of their damage hidden beneath winter snow.
Why This Winter Was Especially Hard on Lawns
Snow cover is the single biggest factor in how much vole damage a lawn sustains. Under the snow, voles are completely hidden from predators like hawks, owls, foxes, and coyotes. With that protective canopy overhead, they can move freely across your lawn for months, feeding and nesting without interruption.
This past winter brought the kind of extended, deep snow cover that voles thrive under. That gave them an unusually long, uninterrupted window to build runway networks and feed on your turf. Add in the fact that vole populations cycle on a three-to-five-year boom pattern, and it explains why so many homeowners are seeing significant damage this spring.
How to Identify Vole Damage
- Surface runways
- Winding trails 1 to 2 inches wide running across the grass in irregular, intersecting patterns that are flat at ground level with no soil disturbance.
- Dead grass patches
- Larger flattened areas where voles nested or stored food. Often looks matted and brown, but the underlying crown is frequently still alive.
- Bark girdling
- Irregular gnaw marks at or just above ground level on trees and shrubs. If the damage encircles the entire trunk, the tree’s vascular system may be compromised.
- Small burrow holes
- Roughly 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter along runway edges or near plant beds, sidewalks, and driveways. Typically clean entry points with no surrounding soil mounds.
Your Spring Action Plan
Step 1 — Rake and assess
Once the ground is thawed and dry enough to walk on without compacting the soil, rake out the dead material from the runways. A firm-tined rake removes debris and lightly scarifies the soil, helping new seed make contact with the ground. After raking, tug gently on the dead grass. If it pulls away from a soft, living crown, the plant is likely still alive and will recover on its own.
Step 2 — Reseed bare areas
For sections where the grass is genuinely gone, choose a quality seed mix that matches your existing lawn. Loosen the bare area lightly, apply seed at the recommended rate, top-dress with a thin layer of topsoil or peat moss, and keep the top inch of soil consistently moist until germination. A starter fertilizer applied at seeding will noticeably improve establishment speed.
Step 3 — Check girdled trees immediately
This is the most urgent issue. If voles have chewed bark in a complete ring around a tree trunk, they may have severed the phloem, which is the layer that moves sugars from leaves down to the roots. A fully girdled tree will decline and die even if the damage looks minor. If you suspect significant girdling on a valued tree, contact an arborist as soon as possible. For partial bark damage, we recommend Lac Balsam, a protective wound sealant that promotes callus formation and discourages further pest activity.
Protecting Your Yard Next Season
The goal is to make your property less attractive to voles and to apply deterrents before the snow falls, not after. Focus your repellent applications on the areas of the yard that border fields, paths, and parks, as voles are most likely to enter your lawn from those edges.
■ OPTION 1
Blood Meal
NATURAL DETERRENT · SOIL AMENDMENT
Blood meal is a dry granular product made from dried animal blood. Its strong scent triggers a predator-prey response in voles and other small herbivores, causing them to associate the area with danger. It also doubles as a slow-release nitrogen fertilizer, a practical two-for-one. Apply just before a lasting snow around perimeter beds and tree bases. Reapplication is needed after significant rainfall.
■ OPTION 2
Plantskydd
PROVEN LONG-LASTING REPELLENT · OMRI CERTIFIED ORGANIC
Plantskydd (pronounced ‘plant-skid,’ Swedish for ‘plant protection’) is widely considered the most effective animal repellent available. Originally developed in Sweden to protect commercial forests through long, snowy winters, it’s the product of choice for nurseries and professional growers across North America. Its active ingredient is concentrated dried blood formulated with vegetable oil for significantly longer-lasting protection, even in wet weather. It works by emitting an odour that animals associate with predator activity, stimulating a fear response before they ever take a bite.
✓ Proven effective against voles, deer, rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks
✓ Lasts up to six months on dormant plants. Ideal for Alberta’s long winters
✓ OMRI listed for organic production. Safe for food gardens and pollinators
✓ Apply in late fall around trees, shrubs, and borders before the first snow
■ OPTION 3
Solar Sonic Pest Repellent
PHYSICAL DETERRENT · CHEMICAL-FREE · SEASON-LONG PROTECTION
Solar sonic repellents offer a non-toxic, maintenance-friendly option for keeping voles and other burrowing pests out of your yard. Each stake is powered entirely by a small solar panel on top, meaning no batteries or wiring required. Once installed, they emit low-frequency sonic pulses that travel through the soil at regular intervals. Voles and other ground-dwelling rodents are highly sensitive to these vibrations, which mimic the sound signatures of natural predators moving through the earth. The persistent disruption makes the surrounding area feel unsafe, prompting pests to relocate rather than settle in. Coverage typically extends six to eight metres per stake in all directions, making them easy to space across a lawn perimeter or garden bed. Because they work continuously while sunlight is available, they provide around-the-clock deterrence throughout the growing season with zero ongoing effort. They are completely safe for use around pets, children, and beneficial insects, and leave no residue in the soil.
✓ Fully solar powered with no batteries or wiring required
✓ Emits low-frequency sonic pulses that disorient and repel burrowing rodents
✓ Each stake covers up to six to eight metres in all directions
✓ Works continuously throughout the day while sunlight is available
✓ Safe for use around pets, children, and pollinators
✓ Install stakes along lawn perimeters, garden borders, and near tree bases
“The key with any deterrent is timing. Fall application before the first heavy snowfall gives you coverage during the exact window voles are most active.”
Two more things to do this fall
Mow short before freeze-up. Voles prefer dense, tall grass for cover. Your final mow of the season should bring the lawn down to around two inches or shorter, and this meaningfully reduces habitat quality heading into winter.
Install tree guards. Plastic tree spirals or hardware cloth cylinders (1/4 inch mesh or smaller) around the base of young trees will physically prevent access. Make sure they’re tall enough to clear your typical snowpack, as voles tunnel through snow too, so height matters.
The Bottom Line
A heavy snow year will always amplify vole activity in the Edmonton area, and this past winter was a good example of that. But with a clear-eyed assessment this spring, raking where needed, waiting before reseeding, and checking your trees, most lawns will recover well. And with Plantskydd, blood meal, or solar repellents applied before next winter’s first snowfall, you’ll be in a much stronger position come spring 2027.
Not sure what you’re looking at, or need help choosing the right seed or repellent for your yard? Stop in and see us at Greenland Garden Centre. We’re happy to talk through it.
Come in and see us. We’re stocked with everything you need to repair vole damage and protect your yard heading into next winter.