Kill Ground Moles In The Garden With Mole Traps
Mole traps are commonly found at home goods stores and are a quick and easy way to enforce mole control in your garden and lawn, just as it is one of the quickest home remedies for killing mice in or outside your house.
If you are concerned about the cleanup process regarding mole traps, there are now several hands-free devices that do not draw blood. The trap will catch a mole and kill it quickly and allows you to dispose of the critter without touching it.
Set up the mole traps at the holes you have located in your yard. The latest models of these traps have a signal to inform you when the trap has a mole inside it.
This easy method makes killing moles in your yard worry-free. Additionally, the clean up needed is minimal.
Lawn Moles And Voles How To Get Rid Of Them
Lawn moles can be one of the most frustrating problems a homeowner can deal with. While one or two short tunnels are hardly noticed, multiple tunnels crisscrossing your lawn is too much. You’re probably thinking, “surely there must be a sure-fire way of getting rid of lawn moles, isnt there?”
The shows a mole the cats dragged up. Literally! This is a front view of a mole showing its snout and the large front digging claws. Cats are often a mole’s biggest enemy.
Important: This page is mostly about lawn moles. Click here for detailed information on Voles.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many mole “cures”? Its simply because most methods don’t work or they are set in the wrong place. This fact alone has opened the doors for all sorts of strange ideas. If you searched the internet, you have probably read some of them.
All is not lost, you can do this. To successfully get rid of lawn moles does require some skill, but mostly it is knowledge of mole behavior that is essential. The is of a short, winding feeding tunnel.
Moles Vs Pocket Gophers
Another creature that inflicts substantial damage on lawns and gardens is the pocket gopher, which includes about 35 different species from the Geomyidae family of rodents. Like moles, gophers often leave volcano-shaped mounds of earth piled up as the product of their tunneling, but unlike moles, gophers do not leave raised ridges in the lawn, as their tunneling activity generally occurs at a deeper level. Slightly larger than moles, gophers have similar spade-like front paws and feed primarily on plant roots. This makes the pocket gopher an even more serious pest than moles, whose damage to lawns is generally cosmetic, a byproduct of simple tunneling.
Gophers have incisor teeth that are visible, and small but clearly identifiable ears. Moles, on the other hand, have no visible ears and their teeth do not protrude. Trapping gophers requires a slightly different method, with traps that are specially designed for catching gophers the traps are usually placed underground, within the tunnels.
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Spray Your Lawn With Natural Repellents
Just as moles hate the smell of planted castor beans, they hate the smell of castor oil.
Applying castor oil wont kill the moles, but the smell can effectively drive them away. If you mix three parts of castor oil with one-part dish soap, then dilute four tablespoons in a gallon of water, you have a natural, homemade mole repellent spray. Either spray it or pour it at mole tunnel entrances. If you have a smaller yard and a big mole colony, you may want to spray the whole yard.
Moles are sensitive to other smells too, particularly feces. If you have a dog, drop those droppings right into the mole hills and seal it up.
The smell will drive the moles away. If you dont have a pet, you can also leave leftover fish in the moles tunnels. Moles hate the smell of fish, and it will naturally drive them away but this may just attract other animals to your yard.
While I love natural remedies, Ill be honest and say that castor oil and other strategies like this only work in the short-term. You may only cause the moles to move to a different part of your yard.
Killing Moles Using Poison Baits
The development of poison baits that resemble the mole’s food have become quite popular. Many professional are now using these in addition to traps. The price is the biggest problem with these products. Talpirid is the name of a product used by many professionals, but comes with a price tag of around $60.00 a box. Homeowners can also purchase and use Talpirid.
Other manufacturers, such as Tomcat, offer a similar product for less than half that price.
Read the directions carefully before using. Gloves should be worn when handling the bait.
Placing the Baits
Follow the same methods listed above for finding an active tunnel. After finding the active tunnels, make a small quarter sized hole in the top of the tunnel and drop a worm into it. Make sure the worm is completely in the tunnel and then cover the hole with dirt. You find it easier to place a small rock over the hole first, then cover the rock with dirt to block out all light from entering the tunnel.
It helps to mark the drop location with a landscape flag, rock or stick. After a couple of days you can check to see if the worm has been eaten. I have used a lot of these baits and found worms to be completely missing or partially eaten.
Good Luck! Please write to me and tell me if you are having success or if you have found a better way of killing moles. We can share your results with other readers.
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Keep Up With Your Garden Maintenance
Another easy way to naturally repel moles is to simply keep your lawn and garden super clean.
This means doing basic maintenance to make it less inhabitable for moles to dig their tunnels. If your lawn has been invaded by moles, you probably have the conditions that theyre seeking out.
So youll want to avoid that.
Here are some garden tips to keep your yard safe from moles:
- Limit watering
- Clean up any leaf litter
- Get rid of any trash or debris
- Secure your woodpiles
- Secure access to your livestocks food
- Use mole-proof soil
- Prune your plants and keep them tidy
- Exterminate as many bugs as you can from your entire yard
Doing these will help clean up your yard to prevent moles and get rid of your current ones.
Castor Oil And Other Diy Home Remedies
Create a spray that is parts castor oil, water and liquid detergent. Heres the DIY Mole Repellent recipe from Budget101:
Ingredients
2 tablespoons liquid detergent
Combine all ingredients in a blender until you achieve the consistency of whipped cream.
To Use: Add 2 tablespoons of repellent to a regular garden watering can and then fill with warm water. Thoroughly water over areas of greatest damage.
Other DIY mole repellents include cayenne pepper . Smells that get rid of moles include castor oil, coffee grounds, and eucalyptus and mint oil . How about mothballs? Their powers of repelling moles are a myth.
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Learning The Necessary Steps To Get Rid Of Moles
Effective mole control begins with understanding the correct steps to identify and eliminate these garden pests. It is also critical to decide whether you want to kill ground moles in the garden or scare them away.
No matter what mole removal process you want to implement, we show you how to get rid of moles causing destruction in your lawn. Additionally, we provide homeowners with ways to kill moles with mole bait.
Eliminate Grubs And Beetles
Moles need food to survive. Two major sources of food for moles are grubs and worms. Therefore, a simple first step you can take for mole control is to eliminate grubs, thereby removing a principal food source. If, on the other hand, moles are drawn to your lawn due to the presence of earthworms, you will have to fight them by other means. Earthworms are usually considered beneficial to your lawn and garden, and you don’t want to eliminate worms simply because you have a mole problem.
Grubs are the larval form of many beetles, including the Japanese beetle and , so combatting the adult beetles will also reduce future grub populations, thereby making your lawn less attractive to moles.
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How To Get Rid Of Voles
Castor Oil. Voles don’t like castor oil any more than moles do because it makes the soil smell bad to them. Look for a product containing castor oil that’s labeled as a mole and vole repellant and follow the label directions.
Tidy up. Voles conceal themselves in dense vegetation, meadows and weedy spots. Make them unwelcome by mowing your lawn regularly and removing brush. Use only thin layers of mulch and get rid of stacks of wood and piles of debris. Voles dont like being disturbed, either, so work often in your beds to send them scurrying.
Cage your plants. Make cages out of 1/4-inch hardware cloth and put them around the roots of your plants so voles can’t nibble through. Let the cages extend a few inches above the soil.
Clean around bird feeders. It would be a shame to stop feeding wild birds because voles are attracted to the seeds, so instead of removing your feeders, keep the ground around them clean.
Put out humane traps. If they’re legal in your state, set out live vole traps, bait them with peanut butter and follow the manufacturer’s directions to set them up. Check the traps often and take any captured voles to a remote area to release them be sure you have permission to do this and again, check to be sure it’s legal.
Use gravel. When you plant flower bulbs, add some gravel to the planting holes to give hungry voles a toothache. You can also dust bulbs with a fungicide designed to deter voles.
Mole Myth #: Stomp Down The Moles Tunnels To Eliminate Moles From Your Yard
MYTH BUSTED: While performing nightly stomping rituals in your yard may help alleviate some of the anger you feel toward the moles tearing up the lawn you have been caring for, it wont eliminate or deter them in any way. Moles use main & exploratory runs to scout for food and will re-use a run at any time whether its stomped down or not. They love to dig and will easily reclaim the damaged tunnels or dig new ones.
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Eliminating Moles With Chemicals
Although traps work, they do not guarantee that other moles will not come crawling back into your landscape. Chemicals ensure all moles are eliminated, and that there is no chance of them ever coming back to your compound. Where you place the chemical solution is what needs careful consideration. The two common chemicals include worm-shaped baits rich in Bromethalin and Warfarin.
Do Mothballs Get Rid Of Moles In Your Yard
Mothballs arent very effective in controlling moles in your yard. The whole reason why mothballs work is by releasing toxic fumes.
Two main chemical scents stem from them: naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene. Mothballs will eventually turn toxic, so its not recommended for usage.
Theyre supposed to be used for small containers where the fumes will kill moths. Mothballs may work for other indoor pests like cockroaches or stink bugs, but not so much for moles.
However, for moles, this isnt effective. If youre outdoors, the chemicals will disperse into the air, so theyre not that effective at getting rid of moles.
Because mole tunnels are exposed to the environment, this often lets the fumes escape. Thus, they cant build up to lethal levels to kill moles or at least drive them out of your yard.
Technically, you could toss in a dozen mothballs into a mole tunnel and seal it up.
Could be lethal to moles
This may eventually kill the mole, but itll probably escape and tunnel out before this happens. Moles can also remove the mothballs from their tunnels.
Some states even prohibit the use of mothballs to kill moles . Thus, you could be committing a crime without even knowing it.
You must use the product as directed by the label. Because youre using it for mole control, this is illegal. So not only is it ineffective, but its also illegal.
Lastly, pets, kids, and your family may mistakenly eat or touch the mothballs.
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How Do You Get Moles
When researching how to get rid of moles, your first step is to identify where they come from and what attracts them to your yard. Their main motivation? Food. Moles love to eat earthworms, grubs, and other insects that live deep within your lawn, so you may want to invest in products that can help control these insects. If you cut off the moles food supply, they will lose interest.
Moles may be small, but they cause plenty of damage as they dig through root systems. If you see small mounds of dirt in your yard that look like little volcanoes, those might be molehills. These are entry and exit ways created by moles to lead to their tunnels. Some of these tunnels make three- to 30-inch protrusions or ridges on lawns and in gardens which cause major inconveniences if youre trying to grow flowers, garden vegetables, lawns, and small trees.
Use Repellents To Deter Moles And Gophers
Using castor oil is another method for how to get rid of moles and gophers in your yard. Castor oil will not kill them, but it will upset their digestive tracts. It will also make your lawn less appealing. For a homemade remedy, mix three parts castor oil and one part dish soap. Add four tablespoons of the mixture to a gallon of water. Soak the tunnels and entrances to evict the moles and soak the holes to evict gophers. Castor oil is one of the most effective home remedies to get rid of these animals. Skip the moth balls, tea tree oil and cayenne pepper for pest control they are not effective.
You can also purchase repellent granules or liquid repellents to get rid of gophers and moles. Most granules can be applied directly from the bag or from a spreader. Read your product label and follow the instructions.
To use a liquid repellent, hook your garden hose onto the bottle and spray it into the tunnels or holes as the label directs. Liquid repellents usually contain castor oil and other ingredients that are absorbed into the soil. The tunnels and holes will become less appealing to the animals and make their food sources distasteful, so theyll leave. These repellents typically last for several weeks. Most are safe to use around pets and on your lawn but, be safe, and read your product label to confirm.
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Invite Natural Predators In
Both the mole and gopher have numerous natural predators including foxes, weasels, coyotes, barn owls, hawks, badgers, and snakes. If you provide these animals with sufficient shelter, a balance will gradually be achieved and the mole will disappear all by itself. You can offer shelter in the form of piles of wood, leaves, and stones. For birds of prey, perches and free branches are ideal.
Tip: If you cant seem to get rid of moles and gophers from your yard with these home remedies, take a closer look at the mounds. In some cases, they are not moles at all, but voles. These critters are far less sensitive and are not as easy to drive away as a mole or gopher.
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Tomcat Mole And Gopher Bait
The Tomcat mole and gopher bait is a poison to kill the moles. This time, were looking at one of their takes on bait, which comes in pellet form. Its sold in a six-ounce bottle, so there isnt a ton of it. Tomcat must be very confident in the quality of their product. This stuff apparently also works if you have a gopher or mole problem and it is sealed in a resistant bottle for easy and safe use.
These pellets are poisonous, and the container should be kept well away from kids or pets that might want to get into it. The pellets are to be dropped into the mole tunnels, where their enticing odor will draw moles to their deaths. This is another Tomcat product with 50/50 reviews. Some customers use the pellets to great effect, and others are flatly dissatisfied.
Probably, this product should be used alongside a trap for maximum effect. If one doesnt get em, the other probably will. Keep at it on a daily basis if you dont see results, and be sure youre leaving it in mole hot spots, like active tunnels. If you arent getting your moneys worth, keep your bottle around in case you develop a pocket gopher problem.
Mole Repellents
The other mole repellent is not what you might expect. Its a kind of ground spike that is planted into mole tunnels, generating vibrations and sonic waves to ward off mole visitors. Annoying sounds will drive the moles away, but it wont kill them.
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How To Get Rid Of Moles
A mole can be a tricky creature to evict because it lives underground. Repellants, poisons, and fumigants are all options, but should be avoided if you have pets or children that may get exposed. You also may have heard of home remedies like putting moth balls in the tunnels or spraying castor oil over the area, but none of these are effective. The only sure way to get rid of a mole is to use a mole-specific trap that will kill the animal. You can find above- and below-ground traps to do the job . Follow the package directions for correct placement, and move the tunnel traps daily while you’re still noticing activity to increase your chances of eliminating the mole.
Spring and fall, when the ground is not frozen, are the best times of the year for getting rid of moles because that’s when they’re most active. Usually, you’ll only have one or maybe two moles to trap to solve the problem because they don’t live in groups.
