Article: Curse Not the Mole; It's a Vole, With a V, Doing the Damage

A supposedly indestructible perennial such as a hosta wilts, then withers. You pull what is left of the clump, and it comes up without any resistance because there is nothing underneath. The usually matted roots are all gone; in their place is a hole.

A thriving elderberry bush, another heroically tough, robustly spreading plant, suddenly wilts and droops. The stalk turns black. Probing with a little hand rake reveals a hole about an inch across right next to the base of the stalk.

A promising fruit tree is gnawed all around the trunk at ground level some time between late fall and early spring. By May, the tree is dead.

The odds are better than even that the culprit in all these cases is a ...

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