Here we go again trying to catch those pesky critters that are heaving up large piles of dirt in our lawn and making a maze of raised trails throughout. Moles have become an increasing problem for many of us and most homeowners have wanted to know what to do to get rid of them. As many of you may know there are a whole bunch of wives-tails thrown around about moles and how to remove them from your lawn and hopefully I can touch on a few of them.
Moles are a gray, furry, mammal that are well suited for life underground. They have a very high metabolism rate which requires them to search for food virtually all day long, tunneling as much as 100 feet per day. In this search for food the moles main diet is the earthworm although they do feed on other insects such as grubs. Controlling grubs in your lawn will not prevent moles since they mainly diet on earthworms, therefore, a grub free lawn will not control them. Wives tales like this and controlling moles with Juicy Fruit gum and castor beans will only keep homeowners from finding real solutions. Moles are not rodents and cannot be baited using rodent foods such as poison peanuts or rodenticides that claim to kill moles nor have any mechanism that claim to drive moles away been proven to be effective.
How do we get rid of them? There are only two methods that we know of to be effective in removing moles. (1) Use bait that they are attracted to or (2) physically remove them via trapping.
There is a new bait that is now on the market that looks and smells like an earthworm but has a chemical in it called Bromethalin that is lethal to the mole. Place this bait in one of the moles runs and they will ingest it assuming that it is part of its typical diet. Trapping also works very well but may take some practice to master the placement of them. Find a straight run that may be along concrete or a driveway and check if the mole is using this run by stomping down on it with your foot. If this run is repaired the next day it is a likely that this run is active and a good place to set your bait or trap. Either way it may take some work to find an effective way to finally solve this problem that many homeowners face. Mole baits and traps can be found at most hardware and farm supply stores placed right in the middle of other products that simply do not work. Good luck!!!
Article was written by Mike Van Horn please respond if you have any questions. Thanks!!!
Superb advice! I have already been trying to find something such as this for a little bit now. Thanks for the tips!