When gardeners discover tunnels and damaged roots in their vegetable patches, the mole often becomes the immediate suspect. This subterranean creature is frequently blamed for consuming carrots, potatoes, and other root crops, leading to a common misunderstanding about its diet and behavior. Understanding the true nature of the mole’s diet and identifying the actual culprits is essential for effective garden defense.
Moles Are Insectivores, Not Root Eaters
Moles belong to the order Eulipotyphla, a group of specialized insectivores, making them biologically distinct from plant-eating rodents. Their diet is nearly exclusively carnivorous, focused on high-protein sources found in the soil. Moles constantly tunnel in pursuit of earthworms, their primary food source, along with beetle larvae, grubs, and various insects.
Their digestive system and rapid metabolism are adapted to process this protein-rich prey. They lack the necessary dental structure or gut biology to efficiently digest plant matter like carrots or tubers. While a mole’s tunneling may inadvertently sever or disrupt plant roots, the animal is not consuming the vegetation itself; the damage is a byproduct of their hunting activity.
Who Is Really Eating Your Garden Vegetables?
If your garden vegetables are disappearing or showing signs of being gnawed, the damage is being caused by true herbivores, typically rodents. The most common culprits are voles and gophers, which actively feed on plant roots and tubers. Voles, sometimes called meadow mice, are small rodents that often use mole tunnels to access plant roots, where they leave distinct gnaw marks on the root surface.
Gophers, or pocket gophers, are destructive herbivores that will pull entire plants down into their tunnels to consume the roots and stems. Other common insect pests, like the carrot weevil and wireworms, also feed directly on carrot roots, leaving tunnels and holes in the crop.
Identifying Mounds and Tunnels
The physical evidence left behind helps differentiate between a mole and a root-eating pest. Molehills are symmetrical, volcano-shaped mounds of soil, often without a visible entrance hole at the center. Moles also create surface runs, which are raised, winding ridges in the lawn where they hunt just beneath the soil.
In contrast, a gopher mound is fan-shaped or crescent-shaped, with the entrance hole off to one side and often plugged with soil. Voles rarely create large mounds but instead leave small, circular burrow entrances, sometimes connected by narrow, above-ground pathways called runways. Misidentification is common because voles frequently use a mole’s pre-dug tunnels, leading gardeners to incorrectly blame the mole for subsequent root damage.