'It's unsightly': Snowmelt exposes havoc wreaked by ravenous rodents on Winnipeggers' lawns

With the snow melted away, it’s exposing some less-than-picturesque lawns that have become a smorgasbord for a certain type of rodent.

When Arya Raichura walked into her backyard this spring she was greeted with an unwelcome surprise.

"I think it is a large infestation," said Raichura.

She said she has lived at her home in south Winnipeg for 16 years and has never had to deal with anything like this.

"It's frustrating and I've read it is rampant right now, there is a boom population of voles. So I don't feel that I'm special that way. But I know I have a lot of debris around my yard that probably didn't help."

Entomologist Taz Stuart says he’s already started getting calls for vole control.

A relative of hamsters and lemmings, voles are small, stocky rodents that look like field mice on steroids.

Stuart expects this to be an above-average year in requests to halt the pesky rodents from feasting on scrumptious sod and shrubs.

A vole is seen in this undated photo.

“We had a reasonable amount of snow this year and, of course, the natural predators weren’t controlling them. Voles love eating the bottoms of your grass, bottoms of plants, flowers, even some small shrubs and trees. They’ll feed on them over the winter,” he said.

Now, the rodents’ ravenous rampages on Winnipeggers’ lawns are being exposed by the melting snow.

“You’re seeing all those little trails where they’ve been feeding all winter, and it’s unsightly.”

He said the rodents can be controlled with baits and snap traps along the perpendicular of where the trails and holes were made and the voles were overwintering.

(Source: Gary Robson/CTV News Winnipeg)

“Bringing in a professional to set up those traps is a very, very important key to removing those problems,” Stuart said, noting certain traps can pose a hazard to household pets.

In his experience, Stuart says lawns decimated by even the hungriest of voles can recover with some soil, seed or even raking.

However, if you don’t address the issue this year, the entomologist said they could come back hungry for more.

“If you don’t control them, they will potentially be bad next year, as well. They will still be there in the summer, just your grass will be growing and you’re not going to see the damage,” he said.