Moles

The answer to the mole problem in your Eden is that it calls for a professional.

I’ll explain the task and go over the minutiae here. After all, moles are the enemy, and it’s good to understand your enemy. The reality, however, is that moles must be killed, and finding where they are isn’t easy. Neither is trapping or poisoning them. 

Call me to find out who I’m currently recommending. Success and pricing depend on the technician, and they do change.

Understanding Your Enemy

Moles are amazing critters. They can tunnel through a hundred feet of lawn each day. They eat insects, insect larva, and grubs when they can be found in the Mole Zone. They also eat earthworms, which are always in the Zone. And no, we can’t have a healthy landscape without earthworms.

Moles are attracted to the same thing we are: the good conditions that lead to a beautiful lawn, and more earthworms. I once had a client who thought she would keep her volleyball court nice during a drought and only watered that area. Yes, you figured it out. It was the only wet area for “miles around” (to a mole and an earthworm), so the former destroyed her court chasing after the latter.

Now, moles are not very social, so if you have a mole problem, you probably have a lone culprit. Mom really doesn’t like Dad, so once they’ve bred, he’s kicked out. Once the kids are born, they get to about 6 weeks of age, and she kicks them out too. We are generally looking for one mole, then, unless you have a big area, or a front and back lawn separated by a good distance.

Because they eat live things, all—and I mean all—of the “goods” sold for the last 50 years to rid us of moles have done nothing but generate profit for retail business. From mole-not to mole gas to mole noise makers, none of these products will do you a bit of good.

Just to make it more fun, moles seldom back-track in their tunnels, so just knowing where they are in the maze takes a lot of experience.  

What Does Work?

Killing them with a trap. Killing them with expensive bait, which looks like a real worm and has a 6-month shelf-life, tops. Or, hiring a professional.

We’ve covered the professional, so now let's look at doing this thing yourself.

Where Can You Find Your Mole?

Generally, moles dig straight tunnels, and then stop once in a while to make laterals that become dead ends. They eat and dig at the same time, so the more food they find, the slower they progress. They’re always moving forward because they discover worms and other treats as they dig. They don’t have much reason to pop into their old tunnels.

If you can find and level the old tunnels, you can see new ones being dug and know where to start.

Traps or Bait?

A dead mole is a good mole to me, and I don’t really think it matters to the mole.

The traps look like harpoons, cost $20 or so, and are reusable. The nice thing about trapping (sorry Diane) is you have the body to show for it. It may be gross to some, but if these special little fellows tear up a lawn that I have worked on for years, that makes me feel good.

Bait only works if it can fool the mole into thinking it's alive. It’s expensive to get something that looks and smells (they say) like worms.

I experimented with bait for about 4 years before accepting I wasn’t good at killing moles. The “worms” were about $4 a piece, and by the time I bought them, they were only good for another couple of months. I threw away hundreds of dollars of bait.

It's also hard to think enough like a mole to get them positioned right, ahead of the mole, in the tunnel, without human scent. Also, gross as it may seem, no body.

One of my clients retired and used the first part of his retirement to become a professional mole hunter. He preferred a trap to poison, and his trick reminds me of the volleyball story above. He watered a little spot for a few days, maybe 5 feet by 5 feet, until the mole was attracted to the concentration of earthworms.

He set his trap directly in the tunnel, got his mole, and, as I grossly said above, had the joy of dealing with the body.

You can try this yourself, or you can listen to a man who has spent 42 years in your Morgantown lawns.

Moles are for professionals!