LAWN AND GARDEN: Moles can be cast out without an Armageddon

on April 12, 2013 at 1:55 PM, updated April 15, 2013 at 2:59 PM

Most folks believe that to rid the property of moles, total annihilation of all insect and worm life is necessary. I would like to inform you of some much safer ways to achieve the same results.

Killing off the grubs, which is the chief food of the mole, with chemical insecticides, will also kill off the beneficial worm and

LawnandGardenmole.jpg A 'mole exterminating portfolio' will give you several ways to declare mission accomplished when it comes to moles digging up your lawn. Moles! Just the mention of their name brings a scowl to people's faces.  
insect populations. With the worms gone, the soil will begin to compact, causing the roots to suffocate. Tunneling worms bring air to the roots and leave behind a rich fertilizer.

It takes persistence to rid your lawn of moles, and the mission can be accomplished in a number of ways.

One way, is the use of mole flares. These are smoke bombs that flood the mole's tunnel and burrow with a deadly gas. The best time to use them is now, when you see those raised mounds of dirt in your yard or garden. This is a good indication that the mole's burrow is directly under it, about two feet down.

Carefully push the mound aside and very carefully find the opening to the tunnel. If the tunnel is going downward, you've found the burrow tunnel. Light the flare and place it in the tunnel, and place the dirt over it again, thus sealing it so the gas will not escape. If the tunnel is going side to side you will need to put a flare into each opening, only because you do not know which hole is the most active side
In the summer months, when feeding tunnels abound, be sure to step down all the tunnels first; this will show you where the main run tunnels are. Usually in a day or so they will be the first to pop up. This is where you put your flares.

Mole traps also work well. Find the main run tunnel by stepping down the tunnels as just described. Once it has been found, (for it will be the first one to surface), set your trap according to its instructions. Be careful not to touch the trap with your bare hands, as moles have a very sensitive sense of smell and will avoid your trap by tunneling around it. Cover your hands with a new plastic bag.

There is a new product on the market called "Mole Patrol." It looks like a white rabbit pellet but when put in a mole tunnel, the moisture turns it into a "jelly type" substance, which, to a mole, feels more like a grub. You can get this product at most any good garden center.  As poisons go, it has worked better than any thing else out there, and should be a part of your mole exterminating portfolio.

If you tend toward the mischievous or the barbaric, you may want to wait them out. With shovel in hand, watch for them around 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. You will see them pushing up the soil as they tunnel. Very quietly, sneak up on them and push the shovel into the tunnel two feet behind them. They are now trapped in this small stretch of tunnel. The kind of punishment you wish to inflict is up to you.

 At this point we should start watching our attitudes. I've seen and talked to people with mole problems, whose neighbor’s claim were calm and sweet; things can get pretty ugly.

All of the remedies, mentioned so far, are killers. This last one is a barrier that will keep them out of your yard or garden.

Castor oil has been in the organic gardening books for years as a mole deterrent. In years past, people would plant castor bean plants around their property. The castor beans would fall off, rot, and release its oil into the soil. Moles have a very, very keen sense of smell and hate the smell of castor oil, no matter how faint.

Castor beans are deadly to children and should not be planted, but it is the oil we want anyway (which should also be kept out of the reach of children).

In the past I have only been able to find the odorless/tasteless castor oil, but, just recently I have found an outlet, on a retail level, that handles the old fashion stinky stuff; hobby shops! But not just any hobby shop. There are only two in the Grand Rapids area; Riders Hobby Shop on the southeast side, and Hobby World on the southwest side.

   Mix the following ingredients:
          - 8 oz. of castor oil
       - 3 oz. of Ivory dish soap (to help the oil mix with water)
       - 7 oz. of water

   You now have 18 ounces of concentrated solution. From this concentrated solution, you add water at a ratio of  3 ounces of concentrate to one gallon of water. This means your 18 ounces of concentrate will make 6 gallons of mole deterrent, which will cover 5,000 square feet.

I suggest you spray the perimeter of your property, rather than your whole yard. To spray the entire yard would, in my opinion, cause the moles, already in your yard to tunnel wildly in any direction to get away from the smell, and since they don't know where they are going, they might just go around in big circles.

I saw this first hand at the lake this past summer. I have come to observe looking back at my adolescent years, that, things tossed in the water swim back to shore. You throw a mouse in the water, they swim to shore, same is true for grasshoppers, snakes, small frogs, anything. (Please don't send me letters about cruelty to animals, this was historical adolescent observational research). Well my daughter caught a mole and, thinking back to what I mentioned above, and what I observed back in my adolescent years, we enrolled it into a swimming class. To my amazement, we watched it swim in big 8 to 10 foot circles until it slipped beneath the ripples, never once making an attempted to go for shore. So in light of this bit of high tech observational research, don't spray the whole yard, they don’t know where they are, they just follow their nose, looking for the next grub or worm.

A six to eight foot band around your lawn will keep new families away for 2 years and a systematic destruction of existing moles in your yard or garden can be done with flares or traps.

Be sure too gently "water in" the castor oil to get it into the soil. This is very important and I can't stress it enough - YOU MUST WATER IT IN if you don't, it will not work. Don't apply this solution when there is threat of very heavy rains, as the oil may wash away with the excess water runoff. Don't be alarmed if the moles cross the barrier after you apply the solution, it takes time and water to get the oil to penetrate the soil to a depth where the moles tunnel. By the way castor oil does not hurt plants.

If after reading all this you still want to kill off the grub and worm population, do your lawn a favor and spare the worms. Products containing Dylox or Merit or are designed to only kill the grubs; just follow the directions on the bag.

I hope this proves helpful; just remember it is going to take persistence, don't let up the attack even for a day, and remember the only good mole is a dead mole.