Voles out of control in some Calgary communities

An adult vole is between 12 and 20 cm long and has dark grey or brown fur.

Meadow mice are munching their way through several yards in the city and leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

Voles are rodents and are slightly bigger than mice but have a shorter tail and rounded head.

They can be found all over Canada and are in abundance in the prairies.

The little pests become a problem for homeowners when the warm weather returns and many have two or more litters in the summer.

They make prominent runways under the lawn and can destroy landscaping and cereal crops.

Calgary homeowner Kortnee Huot found her yard destroyed when the snow melted this spring.

At first she thought it was mice, but quickly learned that voles were responsible.

They chewed out tracks in her lawn and stripped bark off the trees.

Huot says she spent thousands of dollars landscaping her yard last summer and now it will cost thousands more to fix it.

A local exterminator blames the weather and says everything comes in cycles.

“This year one of the problems was that because we didn't have a true Chinook, the snow offered a bit more insulation so there are more voles breeding as well as nesting underneath the snow,” said Brock Anderson from Absolute Pest Control.

Anderson says he's getting nearly twice as many calls as last year about voles.

Tips for getting rid of voles:

(With files from Scott McLean)