Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles? I have tried a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have looked on the web and seen several options: scissor traps, worm type bait and eliminating grubs. Any suggestions would be helpful. Ed
Moles are one of the good guys. They eat the bad (grubs) guys. Leave then be.
Check this out:
If per chance you really do have the rare & unusual mole who is a serious problem (& they have enough individuality that one out of every few thousand may find some method of being an actual rather than assumed nuisance), no solution other than scissor traps are likely to work in your behalf, & even scissor traps won't work if you're not ultra-expert at placing them.
Once you've made the awful decision not to tolerate such wildlife, your life thereafter as a mighty slayer of moles will be perpetual frustration. Even if you have an occasional "success" in killing a mole & can put your foot on its scissored corpse & raise your fist to heaven singing a great song of victory against God's worthless creation, another mole will move into the vacated underground mole-runs the next day. You'll have to kill them serially for the whole of your ambulatory life, then when you're dead, a wee beady-eyed & pointy head will pop its head out of the sod over your grave & blow raspberries at your tombstone.
-paghat the ratgirl
Well put Ratgirl.
"edja" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
my barn cats are pretty good at getting rid of moles, voles & mice too. (for the birdy lovers out there, they seldom bother birds because there are enough fun mole, vole, mouse toys around to keep them occupied... plus the overly aggressive rooster seems to have put the fear of birds into them ). Rudh recently brought me a Star-nosed mole. what a facinating creature! personally, i'm happier when they get the voles. those things are far more destructive than the moles. oh, & eliminating grubs does remove the moles food supply & is probably the best method for non-cat folks . i have 62 acres & grub eradication is not much of an option due to my pending organic status & size of the acreage. i just don't worry too much about the lumps in the lawn (now the woodchuck in the pasture is another thing entirely...) lee
You have my sympathy. There are several types of moles. Some are harmless, creating just a few small mounds and almost unnoticable tunnels. These ones are kinda cute. Some are destructive; these are not cute.
I could easily live with harmless ones. Most of your replie are about these. Heck, I'd like one. I prefer to live in harmony with nature if I can. The moles I had were not the harmless cute kind. They destroyed my back yard. I am not kidding. We are talking about more than 50 mounds (each at least 2 feet across and 6 inches high) in a smallish surbaban backyard. This was in a dulex, and the tennents could not mow because of the mounds. If I raked them all flat, the next day there would be half a dozen more... and more the next. One of our tennents sprained an ancle when her foot sunk into one of the hollow spots.
Traps eventually worked. However, you must follow the directions carefully and monitor them closely (several times a day) if you want any success. I could not check them daily, so it took a whole season. They yard needed to be reseeded completely come fall.
A few harmless ones... enjoy them. Destructive yard destroyers, trap them or give up and move.
gf
With rare exceptions, in the main there are no "harmful" moles, if actual damage to property or plantlife is the measure of harm. But a single Townsend's mole certainly can make dozens of mole-hills all by itself. This activity does no harm & much good in an ecological context, but anyone who wants a perfect lawn will naturally regard it is unsightly to the highest degree. "Perfect lawn" is to me a horrible thing (see:
If its not a Townsend's though, no other mole is that mightily industrious. And the real issue would be this: If there are fifty mole-hills in the front yard, the sod is greatly infested with grubs which can kill lawns, as otherwise the mole would be industrious somewhere else, so the Townsend's is doing good work rather than harmful, even if those piles of dirt aren't attractive.
I agree with that final sentiment more than not. The FIRST choice should always be tolerance if not outright enjoyment. Sometimes that's not possible. Where the margin between tolerable & not tolerable begins or ends is going to be a personal call with each gardener. My complaint is that most people automatically assume they have to kill things & don't actually think about it rationally, as more often than not there's no reason at all.
If a mole really must be killed & it can be done without too much disfigurement to the pelt, it is super-soft & worth saving. Turn it into a dollhouse carpet.
-paghat the ratgirl
Thank you for your many replies and suggestions. It is winter here in Jersey , but we had a week of 50 to 60 degree weather and I was surprised the 1 the moles were active and 2 the extent of the area they had covered(10 ft by 30 to 40 ft) from the back yard to the front. In the beginning they were confined to the fringes of the backyard. So I will probably try to keep my grubs down and let them live as long as I can mow the lawn, one of my fav things to do.(ha) snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net
I repeatedly see the assertion that lots of mole activity is an indicator of grub infestation. We have a lot of Townsends moles and I haven't found a corresponding abundance of grubs in our soil, but earthworms are aplenty.
This is an interesting factsheet I pulled up - about Townsends in BC - that covers their behavior and diet in detail. Really very interesting. Thought others might enjoy reading it. Also note it says earthworms comprise over
70% of their diet, which certainly confirms my experience.Don't blame me. I voted for "edja" .
Laser surgery? LOL?
Check of moles If there is uncertainty about malignant melanomas, it is important with a c heck of the mole. There are different types of moles. They are formed in ch ildhood and into adulthood. As one gets older you stop to develop new moles , but then get rather age warts and pigmentation of the skin caused by sun exposure. Moles represents accumulation of pigment in the skin. See more at:->
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