MY FRIEND TOM emailed the other day to ask about how to fight the moles who are disrupting his lawn and garden. And Garden Guy Kenn posted the same plea on our Urgent Garden Question Forums. From folk remedies like chewing gum or castor oil laced with dish soap, to hiring the nearest licensed nuisance wildlife control service, I have tried it all in years when they have similarly besieged me. I’m down to two methods of attack that I employ consistently:
A cat who goes out each night (like Jack the Demon Cat, top), and a lot of mousetraps.
First order of importance: Make sure you know what you’re fighting, since seeing mounded soil or tunnel-like activity in lawns and beds doesn’t always mean moles. Know thy enemy. An interesting interview with a wildlife expert in the Seattle paper awhile back offered a test to determine whether it’s moles or voles you’ve got.
“Gardens that border wild areas probably have both moles and voles,” the piece reported. “To find out what is bugging you, (hang) a piece of apple from a stick laid across rocks to keep it above the ground. If after 24 hours, you find the apple has been fed on, you’ll know what you’ve got…Rodent teeth leave clear parallel marks. Moles would shred it; their teeth don’t make the same line.”
MOLES ARE A GOOD THING
Moles are actually a welcome part of the community: They’re insectivores, not interested in chewing on your bulbs or plant roots, but tunneling around blindly looking for protein-rich grubs and worms, sometimes disturbing plants in the process. Since they are blind they are neither nocturnal or diurnal, meaning they can be a 24/7 nuisance, with some individual or other always on the job.
Moles are relatively solitary compared to, say, mice, so if you can kill off a few in your garden you will make a dent (and even better, kill off a few and kill off some grubs as well, I think, to reduce the attractiveness of your place as a feeding grounds). A page at the well-named site Center for Human-Wildlife Conflict Resolution from Virginia gives a great lowdown on moles.
INOCULATE WITH NEMATODES
To combat moles a few years back, when they were on an upswing here, I inoculated my soil with nematodes, infinitesimal creatures that kill the Japanese beetle grubs that are among the mole’s sought-after food. I got the stuff by mail, from Gardens Alive.
I can’t say with 100 percent certainty that it helped—but the population of both grubs and moles has reduced significantly. I say I can’t be sure because populations ebb and flow in nature all the time, so it may be a coincidence. Gardens Alive also sells a mole repellent, which I have not tried.
But the cat is more effective, killing (but not eating) moles. A big caveat about employing your cat in garden predation: Cats who go outdoors during daylight hours are a major threat to songbirds. Keep your cat in or supervised by day, and let him or her hunt at night.
Also very effective are my outdoor mousetraps (baited w/peanut butter). I place them in activity areas underneath a basket or box or flower pot, at the end of tunnels. Definitely put them under something–you don’t want to get a toad or anything in a trap. Bait but don’t set traps the first few days to fool the creatures, as it recommends here. I also catch moles regularly in mousetraps in my basement, and this year got one (yes, true) in the ATTIC in a trap. So strange. Hardly UNDERground.
If you have a tactic for dealing with moles, go the Forums and help Kenn and the rest of us. Or ask (or answer) another question. See you there.
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Good to know that the nematodes worked on the grubs for you. I haven’t had a problem with moles but often get that question and the gum just seems mean. Castor oil seems to work but then you are left with grubs. Who needs grubs? Well, just moles…a vicious circle!
Indeed, Layanee…and around we go, and go, and go. (Well, until we don’t go anymore, I guess.)
In my two-cup-of-tea frenzy this morning, I forgot to mention Milky Spore, another way to inoculate your soil against grubs (in this case with a bacterium).
It takes a long time to build up and become effective, and I was always suspicious of the fact that the bags of this bacterium were lying around in the blazing hot garden center…could it really be still viable? If I were to use it, I think I’d order from a specialty place, too, like I did the nematodes. And I know several people who have done the two-prong approach: nematodes and Milky Spore.
M.
The trick for finding if you have voles, moles or both using tunnels is to actually open a tunnel and stick the apple slice right in it, securing it with a string or bamboo skewer. Moles hardly EVER come above ground and, if there are actual mounds, you certainly have moles but voles (and even deer mice) will readily use mole tunnels to get at root and bulbs.
If you have an apple slice above ground, you will almost certainly have voles or mice sample it.
Most species of North America moles spend very little time above ground. I suspect if you are catching critters in mousetraps above ground, you are catching voles or mice (look at the teeth… rodents have LARGE incisors with a large gap between those and the molars. Moles have a solid line of pointy teeth from front to back and a pointy, naked nose (the eastern ’star-nosed mole’ actually has over a dozen ‘tentacles’ on the end of the nose))
Dave
Zoologist
WSU Extension
Welcome, Dave, and thanks for the advice. I have never seen a star-nose except in the wildlife guides in my library–never “in person”. They look pretty amazing.
I am catching moles (Eastern I suppose), I promise–completely different body and head/nose shape from voles and mice, shorter tail, different fur, those weird paddle-like feet, etc.
I will tell my naughty moles to stay below ground and behave like moles…they often scurry from a stone wall about 10 feet from my 130-year-old stone foundation across and into the basement of the house. As I mentioned, I’ve even caught them in the attic (once). Ditto with my old barn foundation–they can be seen scurrying around there. And inevitably I unearth some when digging here and there around the yard, usually in the deep areas of leaf litter, where they think they have made a safe home.
Nature! Endless fascination.
M.
Margaret,
You are most welcome for the add to my reads. I enjoy stopping by to read your entries and an informative gardening site.
I had a chuckle when I read of the mole in the attic, having trapped several flying squirrels in mine over the past years. Those furry and unwelcomed guests can make a ruckus for all to hear!
teaorwine
I don’t have any good mole advice. I have a cat too, though he seems more inclined to nap in the sun rather than hunt these days. But I did hear a neat, if rather gruesome trap for chipmunks from a gardener I visited last week. Fill a steep sided bucket with at least 8 inches of water. Create a ramp to the top for the chipmunks to climb. Cover the surface of the water with black sunflower seeds which will float. The rodents run up the ramp, jump in the bucket thinking it is solid sunflower seeds and drown. As I said, it’s gruesome, but very effective.
Gardenboy,
Good thing for me, you’re even more of a brute…I got chided by mplonski this morning already (on my caterpillar post), so now he can shift his attention to you!
;-)
Mmmm…never thought of using the mouse trap approach I will have to try that. Our cats do a great job with the mice, but not moles. Here in the wine country people put out owl houses to attract resident owls. Most vineyards now sport many an owl house!
Welcome, Farmer John. Apparently moles are not tasty (maybe even distasteful) to cats, or so it seems, yes. My guy will catch the occasional one, but never eat it. Mice are another story. I love the owl-house remedy, than you, and am glad the mousetrap idea seems helpful. This year I have gotten more moles than mice this way, a big year for moles all-around it seemed. See you soon again, I hope.
I would add my voice as a happy nematode user. I also got my supply from Gardens Alive & applied it per the instructions – perhaps a too-soon rain or cooler temps helped to lessen the impact at your place? In any case, when dealing with gardens & other living things there are so many variables it’s hard to determine the impact, but the year after I applied the stuff my mole issue seemed to diminish and the following season they were completely gone. It’s been six years since I applied the nematodes and have not had a new mole tunnel since. I’d suggest you might try another application.
Welcome, Rich, and thanks for affirming the nematode choice. I think it helped; glad to hear you agree. Hope to see you soon again.
My cat used to line moles up by the back door, overnight. We thought this was a tribute, but I’ve since had a cat that piled mice on a suitcase. So I guess they just like collecting, and my first cat was working out a plan to sneak his mole stash into the basement. Word to the wise.
Reflective tape (anything shiny, really) helps keep birds out of harm’s way. An owl statue under a nut bush helped save our low-nesting cardinals (or maybe it was that introductory bloodbath). And rabbits never nested in our yard again, after the cat appeared, so they do learn to stay away. I think that’s what drove him to mole hunting — the lack of other available critters (except toads).
Nematodes seem like a less lethal measure all-around. But aren’t nematodes supposed to be bad for garden plants?
Forgot to mention, our moles were star-nosed — never realized there was such a thing as moles without tentacled noses! We had weird toads, too — kind of a black-green, sludgy color I’ve never seen anywhere since.