A NEW one

for me. Late last fall I got a job to trap moles. We had already had a snow fall. I told the customer it would be better to wait until spring.
So today I returned to the residences. Took a look around, the home owner was not present. There was a few runs and a feeding area. Started probing the runs, dug up the first one, the runs was just under the sod and very small, smaller than you thumb. The run had grass roots in them. Check a couple more and they were the same. The only thing I could think of would be shrews but I have never see them do this much damage and there were no exit holes.
Any idea's?

Sounds like moles, but if there are roots, it's not being used.

Holes are much to small even a old mole hole are 1 1/4 to 1 /2 in size.

If there are roots in the tunnels, they arent being used.


Some would suggest this is too small to be a raccoon too...

One possibility is that this is old activity from last fall that hasn’t collapsed. I’ve walked yards in the spring where there are runways that squish down when I step on them, seemingly from new activity, but when I open the ground it is old activity (e.g., no sideways disturbance of floor showing a mole has been through, new roots, etc.).

One thing to think about when working with moles and reading their tunneling is the make up of the soil in a given yard. Soil is a combination of silt, sand, and clay at varying percentages. A mole tunnel through a high clay soil takes longer to collapse than a soil with a high percentage of sand. Paying attention to the soil type will help you better interpret the evidence in front of you.

I’d be curious to know if the yard you were working in is on the high clay end. This would perhaps explain what you are seeing.

Voles instead of moles

IMO, voles do not make tunnels. They will use runs made by moles, but not make their own.