moles

[stevef]

anyone know of a good way to eliminate moles?

i have sandy soil. they dig tunnels (not real deep) and make small dirt piles.

[John W]

I did a lot of research on this a couple years ago. The best solution I heard was:

1) Get a lawn chair, pitch fork and a beer 2) Stomp down the tunnel 3) Sit in the chair over the tunnel 4) Drink the beer 5) When you see the tunnel start to pop back up, insert the pitch fork quickly into the bulge 6) Repeat as necessary

John

[Ivan]

A mole trap works best. It's a 4" wide plastic tube with a snare in one end. You open up one of their entrances and place the trap over the opening. The mole will try to fill the hole back up with dirt and get caught in the trap. Works every time.

"John W"

[AJScott]

Raccoons, moles, carpenter ants, underground nests of yellow jackets -- I've had to deal with all manner of vile, destructive creatures since we inherited this place 7 years ago. Moles I know about since our neighborhood is filled with lawns trashed by them, and the most effective way I've found to rid yourself of the ones that show up is by gassing them as soon as you see their distintinctive burrows and dirt piles. Pay no heed to those who advise using mothballs or urinal cakes, or even those radio-wave contraptions you stake into the ground; the little beasts just avoid it and go tunneling somewhere else on your lawn. Or worse, your next-door neighbor's, which doesn't exactly foster good neighbor relations. Also fairly useless are those spring-loaded contraptions that drive big metal punji-sticks when the moles use the trail the following night after you've smushed the raised grass over the burrow down with your foot are especially hit or miss; most often miss and not worth the expense.

So -- find the nearest Ace hardware store and get yourself a 4-pack of a highly effective smoke-gas bomb called "The Giant Destroyer." They look like really long M-80s. I've tried other gas-smokers from Home Depot, but they don't burn nearly as long and they're not anywhere as good. Thing is, for effective gassing, you need to do it the instant you see a new trail/dirt pile on your lawn (usually first thing in the morning) because the longer and more branches the burrow gets, the harder it is to eliminate them. And if they're able to reach the sanctity of getting under a sidewalk or concrete porch, they're almost impossible to get rid of. Follow the directions in the package, and that ought to solve the problem with that particular mole and any associated kin.

Since I have absolutely no affection whatsoever for the pest division of the animal kingdom, I've also made myself a pretty nifty mole killer made from a push broom handle with three old rusty-blade pocketknives duct-taped to it. Same Death From Above principle as the metal punji-stick contraption, but more reliable and easier to lug around than a pitchfork. I keep this one around for when I'm able to catch the little buggers in the act at night every now and then, or when they try to take off clawing a new burrow when they're getting gassed. Nothing like blood on the blade to tell you mission accomplished.

Yes, moles do nature -- and your lawn -- a service by eating grubs, which actually destroy more lawn than moles. But they also eat earthworms/nightcrawlers, which are of more benefit to your lawn than moles. If moles fixed my lawn after screwing it up while getting their grub/crawler fix, they'd be OK by me, but they don't, so they just end up dead meat.

AJS

[AJScott]

I like John's way better. Trapping moles is like trapping coons: Let 'em go and the damn things just find their way back. Besides, mortally stabbed moles add nutrients to the soil and, well, you get to sit around drinking beer doing it John's way.

AJS

[Chris]

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) anyone know of a good way to eliminate moles? :) :) i have sandy soil. they dig tunnels (not real deep) and make small dirt :) piles. :) :)

[Dr Jack White]

[indago]

040304 2035 - stevef posted:

I don't know if you've ever seen those wooden windmills, or the duck with the wings that go round and round on a pole in the yard, but my Dad used to make those and sell them to neighbors. I asked him once why anyone would want one of those things in their yard, and he said they repel moles'n sech. The wind makes the wings go round or the windmill turn and the sound goes down the pole into the ground and the moles don't like this sound radiated into the ground so they don't hang around. I don't know how much of an area this would cover, but you could get one probably at your local garden store and try one out for a while.

[Dan Musicant]

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 21:27:07 -0500, "John W"

[Phisherman]

[Ivan]

It's actually a spring loaded snare. A wire grabs the mole around the neck and kills it. BTW, I know a family that actually traps gophers on their farm and excorts them a few miles away so as not to hurt them. Oh brother. Ivan

[John W]

I've tried two different types of mole traps - the spikes and the jaws. Neither worked.

My moles are small (mouse sized) and I found a mouse trap worked best outside one of the entrances. The regular mole traps are much too big for my guys!

John

[rj]

[Bob]

and excorts

I bet the people they dump them on are forever greatful.

Bob

[Ivan]

I'll bet it was. Talk about spreading the fertilizer.

[Rodger]

Moles are carnivores. It's kinda hard to rid your place of beneficial earthworms, their main diet, without damaging the soil, and making the soil compact and plant-unfriendly. I either drown them with a garden hose - plugging hose into burrow, or getting out there in the AM when they are active, and skewer them with a multi-tyne pitch fork.