#@$%@ Moles!!!!!

[Fuddy1952]

Within the last couple of weeks I've had mole trails everywhere. We've had lots of rain so ground is soft. I tamp them flat, next day they're back, dirt raised up 3"-4" or so, along sidewalks or across yard, hundreds of feet.
What's the fix?

 

[atsah]

I have used mole traps with some success, they are a pain, they pretty much wreck my place every fall.. Sometimes I can see the ground moving and I shoot them, dead and buried all in one..

 

[oldballs]

I've used the spiked mole trap for years with good results. As the years went by, I kept buying more traps due to the large number and the better chance of a kill. Now I have 12 traps and usually get the critter on the first setting. One mole can do enough damage to make one think there are many moles. It's kinda of an ongoing war especially when there is a wet season. This year's drought allowed me a full season without setting traps.
Cheers,
Mike

 

[JerryK]

Sell out and move....!!!!!! Whilst you can still have hair on your head, and your wits about you...!!!!! [[[ ]]]

 

[Fuddy1952]

If I just had Reggie back (rip) tomcat made it to 20. He would sit on a fencepost watching for a blade of grass to move then pounce. He'd flip them up in the air then eat them. Same with mice, rats, inside or out.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Sell out and move....!!!!!! Whilst you can still have hair on your head, and your wits about you...!!!!! [[[ ]]]

 

[/pine]

Saving your hair is easy...just put it in a shoe box...

 

[gimmodog]

buy a jug of "mole out". Open the trail and pour some in it. Don't know if it kills them or just runs them off but it works

 

[MossRoad]

Well, I'm here to help.... haahhaaa

First, visit the mole man and find out real information about your new adversary.

Mole control, biology and trapping help, 1986, professional, author, tom schmidt | The Mole Man

The first year I had mole problems, they undermined our swimming pool, causing the bottom to collapse, tearing the liner and sending 12,500 gallons of water through my garage. Game on!!!!

That was August and I killed 29 of them with traps before the ground froze.

Year 2 I started trapping as soon as I saw signs of them, and stopped counting at 50 confirmed dead moles.

Year 3 I did the same, stopping the count at 50 again.

Year's 4,5 & 6 same thing.

So I'm up to over 300 moles in 6 years.... ON ONE ACRE!

Then, years 7-10, I only killed about a dozen, and every year since, I only see one or two. It's been at least 15 years. I figure somewhere between 350-400 now.

Here's what you do. Go buy yourself a couple Victor Out O' Sight mole traps. They are about $12.00 each (I have 6).

Learn how to set them. They can be set in any soil type at any depth. They are extremely durable, last decades, work very well, and seldom miss when triggered. They also kill the mole very fast VS a lot of other traps that don't. You want to be as humane as possible.

Moles are meat eaters. Earthworms are their primary food. They also eat insect larvae like grubs. They dig two types of tunnels. One is a highway tunnel to get from point A to point B. The other is a feeding tunnel. That's where they explore for food, and tear up the lawn like a wrinkled carpet. It's about hopeless to trap the feeding tunnels. Trap the highways. And don't bother with the mounds.

To find the highways, look along building edges, sidewalks, foundations, and right under fences. Any object that they run into they tend to tunnel along. Those are the most productive tunnels to trap.

Take your heel and press the tunnel down in several places. Check your heel marks later in the day or the next morning. Anywhere your heel mark has been pressed back up is an active tunnel. Place your traps on the active tunnels.

Buy yourself a pack of marker flags on the little wires. Use those to mark your heel marks. It makes things a lot easier.

Trap the perimiter of your property and the interior. Moles are a bit territorial, so once you kill a few, others will move in on the same tunnels. By trapping the interior, you kill the home based moles. Then trap the perimiter to get the ones that are tying to move in. Once you clear out the interior, you just need to keep tabs on the perimiter.

Any questions, I'd be happy to address. Good luck. :thumbsup:

 

[aspg4]

Harbor Freight sells an item that's called Mole Chaser (about $10.00). It is solar powered and you stick it in the ground and every 30 seconds it makes a beep sound, and makes the mole leave the area. Have used them several years, and they seem to work for me.

 

[dragoneggs]

Moss, I knew you would chime in. :thumbsup:

They are active at my place now too. I will look into the Victor's. I have used the old standard 'scissor' traps with varied success. Now that I have a silencer for my 22, maybe I will grab two or so of my favorite beverage and a lounge chair and wait. I'm not retired but see this in my future for cheap entertainment.

 

[WranglerX]

Gads.... Sound like my problem with gophers..... In last 5 years or so about 150 of them.... Got a new family moved in a few weeks ago.... Time to get out the weapons (traps) ....

Dale

 

[MossRoad]

Harbor Freight sells an item that's called Mole Chaser (about $10.00). It is solar powered and you stick it in the ground and every 30 seconds it makes a beep sound, and makes the mole leave the area. Have used them several years, and they seem to work for me.

The moles tunneled around the electronic mole chasers I had in my yard so much they fell over. They are worthless. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Moss, I knew you would chime in. :thumbsup:

They are active at my place now too. I will look into the Victor's. I have used the old standard 'scissor' traps with varied success. Now that I have a silencer for my 22, maybe I will grab two or so of my favorite beverage and a lounge chair and wait. I'm not retired but see this in my future for cheap entertainment.

That'll take some patience. I've only seen them moving in the soil twice in 22 years.

One time, before my mole troubles, I looked out in the yard and saw my old neighbor (RIP Frank) standing in his yard, leaning his armpit on a long shovel handle, drinking a beer and having a smoke. Just standing there. I figured he was having a rest. All of a sudden he goes into creeper mode! :laughing:

He slowly takes his arm off the shovel, crouches down and puts down his beer and slowly stands up. What the he** is he doing. He carefully pulls the shovel out of the ground and starts moving it around behind his back. Looks like he's doing redneck tai chi or something. :confused3:

Then he runs across the yard as he swings the shovel over his head, jumps up in the air and smacks the shovel down flat on the ground! WHUMP! He jams the point of the shovel into the ground and jumps on it, driving it deep into the grass. He quickly pulls it out jumps to the other side of where he smacked the ground and jams it in again, and then POP! he pries out a huge chunk of sod and starts stabbing at it with the shovel point.

I can't take it anymore, so I wonder over there and ask what's up just as he picks up the dead carcass of a mole with the shovel.

And that was my introduction active mole hunting. :laughing:

 

[dragoneggs]

That'll take some patience. I've only seen them moving in the soil twice in 22 years.

One time, before my mole troubles, I looked out in the yard and saw my old neighbor (RIP Frank) standing in his yard, leaning his armpit on a long shovel handle, drinking a beer and having a smoke. Just standing there. I figured he was having a rest. All of a sudden he goes into creeper mode! :laughing:

He slowly takes his arm off the shovel, crouches down and puts down his beer and slowly stands up. What the he** is he doing. He carefully pulls the shovel out of the ground and starts moving it around behind his back. Looks like he's doing redneck tai chi or something. :confused3:

Then he runs across the yard as he swings the shovel over his head, jumps up in the air and smacks the shovel down flat on the ground! WHUMP! He jams the point of the shovel into the ground and jumps on it, driving it deep into the grass. He quickly pulls it out jumps to the other side of where he smacked the ground and jams it in again, and then POP! he pries out a huge chunk of sod and starts stabbing at it with the shovel point.

I can't take it anymore, so I wonder over there and ask what's up just as he picks up the dead carcass of a mole with the shovel.

And that was my introduction active mole hunting. :laughing:

Too funny... I just expelled my favorite beverage.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, old Frank was a great neighbor. Hard working guy. Got permanently disabled with spine issues. Was in constant pain. Quit smoking, and drinking beer because the pain killers made him too loopy. Pain killers stopped working. Got congestive heart failure and was on oxygen. Yet, with all that, he still got out there every day to work in his yard, or come over and supervise me working in mine! :laughing: He'd work a bit, sit down, work a bit, sit down. He had two lawn tractors. One was a newer Deere he mowed with. The other was a 60's Wheelhorse with a cab and snowblower that he restored to pristine condition. In spring he'd swap the horse with the deere from the shed to the garage and in fall the reverse. He passed away going on two years now and I miss him. He sure enjoyed is nightly bowl of ice cream though, right up to the end. Good guy. His wife still lives next door. She now rides the deere in summer and keeps the yard up nice. Life goes on.

 

[Thomas]

Try spreading grub killer on your lawn.

 

[DJ54]

Try spreading grub killer on your lawn.

Exactly... Remove the key reason they are there. Remove their food source, and the problem will take care of it, itself.

 

[oosik]

You have moles - I have a regiment of #$%^ pocket gophers. I've not taken the time this year to keep up with the PG's and so a large part of my lawn( about 120 x 250 ) looked like a practice field for an Army Heavy Infantry brigade. So, I reversed the rear blade on my tractor and drug the area smooth again. I will replant this coming spring with native wild grasses. All my lawns are mowed native wild grasses. Very resistant to our extreme dry summers and early fall weather.

From a local farmer - I found a type of granular mole/pocket gopher/etc poison. You make a small hole in their run with a sharp chunk of rebar - or something similar - and put a tablespoon of the poison into the run. They eat it and die underground. Supposedly can be used where pets are concerned. Most anything would be better than the PITA pocket gopher traps.

 

[MossRoad]

You'll not only have to kill grubs, you'll have to kill earthworms, as that's their primary food. The grubs are just a snack. In essence, to completely remove their food source, you'll have to turn your soil into a sterile growning medium for grass.

Trapping is the most effective way to get rid of them.