Mouse Damage in Yard

[bassmann77]

So I was over at the brother-in-laws house today and noticed his entire neighborhood had extensive damage in their yards from mice (or other varmints). The tunnels had the yard up in chunks not just in tunnels like a mole would do. So my question is what should he do to fix it? I am dreading to see what my front yard looks like when the snow melts as I have killed a couple of mice and their babies this fall in the yard.

[BPBOB]

We have a pond in back and have endured our share of Vole damage in the yard-this year looks like it will be a little worse than some years.Amazingly ,the grass comes back- It just looks bad until it grows up.

[pureinsanity]

Get those vole and mole spikes. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't... Ive seen them work personally and it drove the moles/voles over to the neighbors yard and they stayed out of ours.

[lawman]

Over the years I have had the same problem. Most of the time the grass grows back on its own. Where they have really dug up patches more than a foot in diameter I use a bit of fast growing seed to make things look nice while the grass regenerates itself. This is the worst year I can remember for these things. Fifteen years ago they ate my front yard so bad the only cure was 20 roles of sod.

[mikemac]

It sounds like Vole damage to me. Voles do not affect the root system, just the top layer of old grass. I would just wait until the temps get warmer to really look at the damage, because right now the loose grass on top of the damage is insulating the new grass growth under the damage. With the sun and warm temps the new grass is already or will be emerging and if you disrupt the loose grass, a frost might damage the new growth under the loose grass. This year a area in my yard got damaged and the little buggers made a nest in my fire pit with the old grass.

[Red Cabin]

We have a lot of vole damage this year also, worst in the last 7-8 years!