Moles, voles or gophers — ohhh my! What’s destroying our yard?

DEARJOAN>> We have moles or voles. Our front yard look like Swiss cheese. How do we get rid of them?

— Katie, Orinda

DEAR KATIE >> Although it probably won’t improve your mood when you look at your yard, it’s somewhat important to know what creature you’re dealing with before trying to shoo it out of the yard.

The solutions are similar — mostly involving prayer, thumbing through new home listings and other options — but it’s helpful to name your villain.

If you’re seeing the animals running through your yard day and night, you have voles. They look a lot like a smaller version of a pocket gopher. They live underground but they lack the necessary excavation equipment so they move into abandoned tunnels.

Besides seeing them scurrying around, look for their trails. They tend to follow the same paths and soon wear furrows into the grass. They can cause severe damage to landscape plants and trees.

Moles, on the other hand, rarely leave their underground mazes. They have very poor eyesight but operate well in the dark down below. They create a lot of tunnels and if you’ve got them in your yard, you would see evidence of the tunneling — raised ridges meandering through your yard. You’ll also see very large conical mounds that are almost perfectly round.

Moles don’t do a lot of damage, except to the aesthetics of a yard. They eat insects, and any harm to plants is purely accidental.

Gophers, however, are plant eaters and they are highly destructive to landscapes. They mostly stay underground as well, but they’ll come out to feed on fresh plants and vegetables.

Their tunnels go slightly deeper underground, and you might not see evidence of the tunnels from above. They do create mounds, but theirs are crescent or horseshoe shaped, and most of them will have a plug in the hole.

Getting rid of any of these creatures won’t be easy, especially if you want to drive them out, not kill them.

You can soak rags in ammonia and stuff them into holes, or you can soak entrances with this formula: Three parts castor oil and one part dish soap; add four tablespoons of the mixture to gallon of water.

Good gardening practices can help, too, and you might consider replacing your lawn with something less attractive to the critters.

If you go the lethal route, it might be easier to hire professionals, but be sure to grill them on their methods. No poisons, please, as they can inadvertently harm other wildlife.

DEARJOAN>> This is in regard to Lawrence in Woodland Hills whose dog, Autumn, had become terrified of night walks. I’m a pet-sitter and two dogs I regularly look after both have very poor night vision.

When I stay at those homes I always bring an extra-strong flashlight that can be held so the beam hits a couple of feet in front of the dog. Before we head out, I move the light slowly around the porch and walkway so they can see that it’s safe, and I’ll do the same when our walk is paused for whatever reason. — Elizabeth Luce, Bend, Oregon

DEAR ELIZABETH >> I hadn’t thought about a loss in vision being at least partly responsible. Thanks for the additional information and tips.