Going to war with the moles (cat, lawn mower, backyard, north)
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I like moles. They do a good job aerating the soil. Haven’t seen any real damage. Voles are the devil, though.
You might want to examine your yard more closely. Mole tunnels often cause unlevel, sinking ground, surface soil cave-ins and shallow sink holes in the yard and garden. It can cause lawns and driveways to buckle and heave or be a good way to get a broken ankle (or worse) when an invisible 8" deep mole hole in the ground suddenly gives way beneath your feet while you're out on the lawn or in the vegetable garden.
I have gopher problems (similar to moles). Over the years, I've tried everything. The only thing that has ever worked is this thing:
You fill the top container part with a gopher bait/poison (looks like small pellets). Make sure you buy bait made specifically for an applicator like this. When you see a mound, you poke it in the ground all around the mound until you find the tunnel. When you find it, you twist the handle, and it spits out some poison thru the very tip, into the tunnel. Gophers eat it, die.
After some practice, you get good at finding the tunnels. There are usually two or three for every mound. I do this for every mound, every time one appears. After a day or two, they die off. But they will come back, and you start over again. Sometimes I can go a few weeks, sometimes just a few days. But it works.
You might want to examine your yard more closely. Mole tunnels often cause unlevel, sinking ground, surface soil cave-ins and shallow sink holes in the yard and garden. It can cause lawns and driveways to buckle and heave or be a good way to get a broken ankle (or worse) when an invisible 8" deep mole hole in the ground suddenly gives way beneath your feet while you're out on the lawn or in the vegetable garden.
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I agree. I've almost broken my ankle stepping on a mole run in my last yard. The little sucker went completely across the yard and then across the street, under the asphalt, into the neighbor's yard. He got lucky because his two dogs chase it away. I had a mole run for a brief time in my current yard, but it decided to relocate apparently. Yay! Maybe the feral cat chased it away. She might as well do something for her two meals a day. Otherwise, I was going to resort to the guillotine trap, which I consider the only really reliable means of eradication.
Last edited by Bungalove; 12-11-2021 at 07:17 AM..
I've got a huge mess on my hands with the moles. I hired a company recently and they've been setting the traps for about 7 weeks now. They said my front yard is the worst they've seen in a long time and it happened quickly. The entire front is mush to walk on. You sink in anywhere you step. Most of the grass is dead having the roots destroyed. I've treated for grubs and all that. I have a neighbor who does NOT take care of her yard at all. Other neighbors have reported her to the city many times. I think they mow about 2x's per year and blow it all onto my lawn. The guy I hired said her lawn is infested with them...I'm sure that's where they're coming from, along with other things and weeds I have to constantly fight coming over here. I'm supposed to have new sod laid in the spring because of the havoc that has been wreaked on my lawn (and mostly due to her negligence, I'm sure) but now the mole damage is scaring me on that. They have only caught 2 moles and said there are a few types of moles where it might be only 1 or 2 doing all that damage. They can dig 16' of tunnel in one day each. They pulled the traps yesterday because they can't find any new holes or activity to work with and it's been a few weeks since those 2 were killed. I was told that trying to flood them out won't work too well, they'll usually just dig deeper. I have no idea what they are feeding on. I've used grub killer and battled those army worms this past summer and poisoned my lawn 3 times. The only thing I even know to do now is saturate my yard in the repellent and pray for the best. The neighbor on the other side of me does not have them in the front yard like I do but they've got them in the back yard and my back yard (thus far) is free of them. So I have been putting down repellent on the edge of the yard alongside her back yard.
I am seriously about to pay a guy to put about 16 inch depth of sheet metal into the ground (after checking for wires/pipes) between the negligent neighbor's front yard and mine. Other than the repellent, I'm out of ideas.
I have two cats. Moles have been a problem in my yard but hours of fun for the felines. They do hunt them down successfully, as well as mice and chipmunks. It’s one thing about having cats I have no complaints about.
Some people believe that animals are a collective and have a mole god or whats called a spirit manu which is supposed to look after them. You could try sitting quietly in the back yard\garden and 'talking' to the mole god in your head and try to persuade him to give you a break. I suspect he might just say that moles have to live too and that your garden or back yard comes waaaaay down the list as far as mole priorities go. :-)
Look up agricultural radionics which is another thing you could try.
You might want to examine your yard more closely. Mole tunnels often cause unlevel, sinking ground, surface soil cave-ins and shallow sink holes in the yard and garden. It can cause lawns and driveways to buckle and heave or be a good way to get a broken ankle (or worse) when an invisible 8" deep mole hole in the ground suddenly gives way beneath your feet while you're out on the lawn or in the vegetable garden.
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