Re: A. Zimmer’s letter “Voles are insect eaters” in the St. Albert Gazette Jan. 8.
Moles, also known as pocket gophers, eat grass and mainly roots like grass and alfalfa roots. Insect-eating moles are not present in Alberta.
Voles are also called meadow mice or field mice. There are no voles in Alberta. There are 23 vole species in the U.S. and seven species that are widespread. Voles eat a wide variety of plants, most frequently grasses and forbs. In late summer and fall, they store seeds, tubers, bulbs and rhizomes and also bark and crops at times.
Both moles and voles are burrowing rodents, moles tunneling deeper than voles.
I live in Barrhead County on the Pembina River (very beautiful year-round) and have trapped hundreds of moles in order to try and control them.
E. Stenzel, Barrhead
