Lastly One Of The More Invasive But Effective Methods To Kill Or Ward Off Moles And Gophers Is To Leverage The Carbon Monoxide Exhaust From Your Vehicle
These harmful emissions will persuade moles and gophers to get out of the yard or in some cases even kill them if thats OK with you. Just make sure any leaks are covered up in the mole’s tunnels and this is a effective way to persuade moles and gophers that your yard is not their new home.
Here is a helpful video on how to pull this off
In conclusion these are eight natural or borderline un-natural alternatives to fight the battle and ultimately win your war against moles and gophers in your yard so they no longer destroy all of your hard work on creating the perfect looking golf course quality yard.
Victor Mole & Gopher Repellent
This is another natural product that repels ground moles, voles, gophers, and other burrowing animals.
Victor Mole & Gopher Repellent comes in both liquid and granular forms. The liquid contains 100% castor oil, while the granular is a mixture of castor oil and fullers earth.
Following the package instructions, apply the granules in stages. Application over a large area can cause the pests to burrow more frantically to try and avoid the product, which may result in additional damages.
How To Get Rid Of Gophers From Your Yard
The Spruce / Ellen Lindner
A gopher is a burrowing, herbivorous rodent. This mammal’s native range is from Central America to Canada. In the United States, it lives in the West, the Great Plains, and the Southeast. An adult gopher becomes 6 inches long or longer, depending on the species. Most types weigh anywhere from 4 to 13 ounces.
Unfortunately, in some regions, other animals such as squirrels and moles are sometimes colloquially referred to as “gophers.” Adding to the confusion is that there is more than one genus of gophers. For example, we have the Western pocket gopher and the Eastern pocket gopher .
Fortunately, for the purpose of getting rid of gophers from your yard, it is not important to delve into distinctions between these genera. Gophers can cause extensive damage to your yard, garden, and utility lines, so you will want to get rid of them sooner rather than later.
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Confusion With Pocket Gophers
Homeowners sometimes mistake mole tunnels for those made by pocket gophers, small rodents that also tunnel underground. Gophers, however, do not create raised ridges as they go. They eat the roots of grass and other plants, pulling them down into underground burrows, which tends to push soil out to the side. Their tunnels look more flattened, with fan-shape or semicircular mounds. Each mound may contain a visible hole, although earth clumps can camouflage the hole.
Mesh barriers, traps, and poison baits can be used to eliminate pocket gophers. Avoid baits that contain strychnine because predators or scavengers that eat the poisoned gopher may also die.
Get Rid Of Ground Moles With Cayenne Pepper Garlic & Onions
Being warm-blooded creatures, moles dont like spicy foods such as cayenne pepper, garlic, and onions because they irritate their mucus membranes and respiratory tract when smelled or ingested by them.
Although they are not harmful to pets and children, they are unpleasant to the moles and will make them find somewhere else to dig.
- Step 1: Fill a coffee can with 1 cup cayenne pepper, 1 cup crushed garlic cloves, and 1 cup diced onion. Add 1 gallon of water and cover the top with a lid. The mixture will keep for about one month in an airtight container.
- Step 2: Mix 2 tbsp. cayenne pepper with 2 cups water in a spray bottle or garden sprayer. Shake well before using on the lawn or garden area where there are mole tunnels or mounds of dirt. Spray each tunnel entrance or mound thoroughly with the mixture every two weeks until no new signs appear.
- Step 3: Sprinkle cayenne pepper directly onto mole tunnels at any time or after rainwater has washed it away from other plants in your garden. To protect other plants from being burned by the cayenne pepper, pour it into a salt shaker first when applying it directly.
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What Are The Signs Of Vole Damage
Voles are herbivores, making them a voracious hazard to the roots, leaves, and stems of your plants. These animals tend to eat their way through grass & shallow roots, creating easy-to-spot highways at or below the surface of the ground. Voles also tend to dig their pathways near home foundations and underground systems. These mouse-like creatures can not only wipe out your plant life or gnaw at the bark on your trees and bushes, but they can also jeopardize underground sprinklers, pipes, and wiring.
Do You Need Natural Repellents For Moles
The market offers tremendous options of natural mole repellents.
The following are the recommended options:
- Mole and Gopher RepellantPrice: $21.9. This is a top ranked mole repellant. A single application of the repellent keeps away the moles for up to 4 months. It has the required tunnel penetration making it easy to reach the moles in whatever depths.
- Yard Gard Organic Moles Repellent Price: $43.95. This is a natural method of repelling the moles. It is made of natural ingredients Contains castor oil, limestone, red pepper and binding agent. This makes it environmentally friendly and safe to use for a long time. It is advisable that you water the lawn before application for a long lasting effect.
- Defenders Mole Repellent Scatter GranulesPrice: $7.5. It is a biodegradable repeller granule that are humane and can be used in the presence of children and pets. The pellets arent harmful to the plants making it ideal for a plant-covered lawn. Its main ingredients are plant oils. When applied in the field, they taint the moles food source leaving them with scarce food. As a result, they migrate to find other conducive environments.
- Lawn Mole Castor OilPrice: $54.25. This is a simple and easy-to-use natural repellant. It is environmentally friendly. It is effective against both black and ground mole. It has a long repelling effect that can last for months.Further details can be found here.
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Force Underground Rodents Out
Sometimes the only way to get rid of moles, voles, and gophers is to send them a customized eviction notice. Homeowners have had luck with both flooding and fumigation methods with all three pests. Pouring water into burrows and causing flooding to their feeding and traveling tunnels will drive them to the surface. These animals will then fearfully dash elsewhere in search of safety. This method is most effective for minor to moderate ground pest infestations, as it may take some time for water to travel through the complicated tunnels made by multiple gophers, voles, and moles. Be warned, howeverits not uncommon for these methods to drive the pests elsewhere in your yard. The most effective products and traps are available to professional pest control companies. If your ground pests persist, consider letting the pros take a look.
Tackling a mole, vole, or gopher invasion on your property can be a massive project. For additional support in implementing any of these at-home pest control methods, or for further assistance with a burrowing pest problem, feel free to give us a call. Keeping your home and garden pest-free is our #1 goal, and we are happy to extend a helping hand when it comes to your pest control efforts.
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How To Keep Gophers Out Of Your Yard And Garden
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Gophers, also called pocket gophers, are small rodents that live in tunnels under lawns and gardens. They are a seasonal recurring problem in some areas, but can be a constant problem in others. Gophers seldom venture above ground, so its a battle generally fought underground. They target moisture-rich roots of plants and trees and can ruin years of growth in just a matter of hours. Additionally, the holes and dirt mounds that they create can be serious tripping hazards for people and pets, and their tunnels can weaken the ground to the point of causing patios and walkways to collapse.
The size of your yard or garden, the type of plants you have, and the areas surrounding your yard can all affect the rate of success youll have with gopher control. The quicker the problem is identified and action is taken, the better. If youre looking for ways to keep them from destroying your yard or garden, short of blowing them up Caddyshack-style, here are some humane ways to try:
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How To Kill Moles
If repelling them isnt good enough, there are two very effective ways to kill moles trapping and baiting. Tomcat provides products for both options to meet your specific needs and preferences.
Youll have the most luck killing moles in your yard if you use traps or bait in the spring or fall. Both products should be placed in a main, or active, runway. These are usually the straight tunnels in your lawn or the tunnels that follow the perimeter of your yard. To identify a main runway, carefully poke holes in the top of the runway using your index finger, half-inch dowel, or small probe. If the mole repairs the damage in one or two days, it is a prime runway to set a trap or place bait.
Traps: The Tomcat® Mole Trap provides a method to kill quickly and hold the mole to provide proof of control. Unlike many competitive spear traps, the Tomcat® Mole Trap does not draw blood, and its hands-free design makes it easier to use than other traditional mole traps. For more information, see our article How to Use a Tomcat® Mole Trap.
Baits:Tomcat® Mole Killera and Tomcat® Mole Killer Grubs kill moles by simulating their food source, earthworms and grubs. Moles eat the baited earthworm or grubs and die quickly underground in their tunnels. For more information on using baited earthworms and grubs, see our article How to Use Tomcat® Mole Killer Baited Worms & Grubs.
Myth : Sticks Of Gum Will Kill Your Moles And Gophers
The idea behind this one is simple. If you place a few sticks of gum in the active tunnels, the moles or gophers will be attracted to the scent and eat the gum along with the wrapper. They will not be able to digest the wrapper, which will eventually kill them.
Ok, who came up with this one, and how did they figure it out?
Once again, too good to be true because it is. Have you ever seen a pest control professional solve a mole problem with just a pack of gum? I have not either. It might work it might not. I suppose a $2 pack of gum is cheap enough to try it, but there is no science behind this one.
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Myth : Underground Sonic Waves Or Windmills Repel Them
I have tried this one because I was inexperienced and desperate. The sonic wave spike looked cool on the shelf, I had fun driving it into the ground, and the periodic beeeeep was only slightly annoying. It did not equate to fewer moles or gophers, though.
Like the underground EMP defense, there is the windmill method. The windmill spins, as it is designed to do, and that spinning sends vibrations into the ground chasing away those annoying varmints. The only thing this does, without a doubt, is dress up your lawn.
Once again, the science on these two methods is out, and the results are inconclusive.
Fox urine, broken glass, human hair, pickle juice, red pepper, castor oil, human urine, car exhaust pumped into the tunnels, and flooding the tunnels are also methods that one could try to get rid of the moles and gophers. These are all myths that many people have tried but will usually do nothing to solve the problem.
Plant And Scent Barriers
Because they spend most of their lives underground, moles do not rely on their eyesight very much. Instead, they use their acute sense of smell to get around and find food. And like most animals that rely on their sense of smell, moles are easily repulsed and confused by particularly strong smells. Try planting daffodils, marigolds, citronella, or lavender flowers wherever youve seen moles to create a natural barrier.
According to Smiths Pest Management, you could also plant these plants around the edge of the garden to prevent moles from entering the area in the first place. They also recommend purchasing ready-made mole barriers, which can be found at most garden stores.
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How To Identify Moles
Moles are solitary, insect-eating animals that live underground and rarely come to the surface, usually only to find a mate. They burrow a foot deep into the soil, using their front paws to dig a network of underground tunnels.
How can you identify a mole? They are around seven inches long with pointed muzzles, tiny eyes and hairless snouts. Their eyes and ear canals are concealed by fur, and they don’t have external ears. Their forefeet are very large and broad with webbed toes, but their hind feet are narrow with slender claws.
In their natural environment or in large, open rural areas, moles do not cause significant damage. Its only when they make their way into your lawn and garden that they become a problem. Moles naturally aerate soil and eat the larvae of destructive insects. However, in your yard, they’ll also destroy plant roots, bulbs and grass. The tell-tale sign that you have a mole infestation is not seeing the mole itself, but the presence of small, volcano-shaped mounds and raised ridges of dirt in your yard.
These Methods Are Not Recommended For Purging Moles
Odor and sound are never enough to remove moles from substantial spaces, areas of 1000 square meters and up. The only way to liberate large spaces for good, is to kill them. Some of the most obvious methods of killing moles, however, dont really work.
An obvious way to do away with moles is to shoot them. A shotgun scatters pellets along the path of a fleeing mole. One pellet is enough to kill the animal. The problem with shooting at moles, other than the obvious risk of shooting ones self in the foot, is that not just moles are hit by pellets aimed at the ground. Water lines, gas lines, and telephone and cable connections can be severed by the shot intended for the mole. Add to that the reality that most communities have strict laws about the discharge of firearms within corporate or city limits. Shooting at a mole in the middle of the night is a sure-fire way to gain the opportunity to spend several hours speaking with the police in most locations.
There are other methods to get shot of moles that just dont work. Electrocuting moles and worms with a worm shocker is as likely to shock the human operating the device as it is to shock a mole, especially when the ground is wet.
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Trying To Get Rid Of Gophers For Good
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Sometimes called a pocket gopher because of its fur-lined cheek pouches, this small mammal is unique to the Western Hemisphere. Its homelands stretch from Central America to Alberta. This means that much of the U.S. serves as a gophers backyard, from coastal areas to high elevations. Unfortunately, its tunnels create a host of problems for North American farmers and homeowners. Along with being part of the food chain, gophers do play an important role in ecology. Their burrowing adds organic matter to soil and increases aeration. But if you think or know that they have caused damage on your property, your first step is to understand gophers and how to spot signs of their activity.
Pests Commonly Confused With Moles
Moles can be easily distinguished from voles and shrews simply by the front feet.
The large paws with claws are the most obvious feature thats exclusive to moles out of the entire bunch.
Moles also have their long snout and a pair of ears and eyes that you cant see because theyre way too small.
Theyre predatory pests and only eat bugs, arthropods, and other pests and spend most of their time in their tunnel.
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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.
Are Moles Causing Havoc In Your Garden Three Experts Suggest Ways To Get Rid Of Moles And Put Molehills To Good Use
1) Use the molehill compost
Edible gardener Mark Diacono: These animals are impossibly cute so to get rid of moles is even more of an unsavoury undertaking than it might be. In any event, trying to get rid of moles may prove a futile, as well as an unpleasant exercise because they travel about using a network of semi-permanent tunnels deep underground. They dig shallower channels nearer to the surface when they search for food.
There is almost certainly another mole to take the place of any you kill, so learn to live with the occasional visitation if you can. Take advantage of the spoil of perfectly sifted topsoil they leave on the surface because makes a good base for potting compost. I simply add sand and perhaps a little coir or something similar.
2) Try strong smells and noise
Biodynamic gardener Tom Petherick: Moles are fond of earthworms so fertile soil is therefore bound to attract the little furry creatures. Bonuses to having them include increased drainage, especially in a clay soil. Keep the soil from the mole hills so you can use it for potting on young plants.
3) Use mole traps
TV gardener and nurseryman Toby Buckland: I swear by the traditional mole traps but there are now humane traps available. You need to make sure you check these at least daily because moles feed regularly and will starve quickly. You also have the issue of where to release them.
*Frightening fact*
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