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Moles: Little Critters, Big Problems

May 15, 2023by Jordan Mellies
Moles: creatures of destruction

Picture this: you spend all weekend weeding and fertilizing your lawn, trimming and pruning your bushes paying attention to each and every detail. You stand back admiring your hard work and your lawn’s beauty before retiring for the afternoon. The next morning your yard looks like a battlefield. Instead of that meticulously manicured yard, you wake up to holes and tunnels and mounds of dirt in your lawn. What happened?

You more than likely have moles. But fear not – you can get rid of them yourself without having to call a professional and shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars to expel these small nuisances. Let’s get to know moles a little better so we can thoroughly understand: why my yard?

Characteristics of moles

Moles are a part of the Talpidae family and are a very common critter around the world, with over 42 species inhabiting all parts of the world except Antarctica. There are seven species of moles in North America alone including The Eastern Mole (Scalopus Aquaticus), The Hairy-Tailed Mole (Parascalops Breweri), The Star-Nosed Mole (Condylura Cristata), The Broad-Footed Mole (Scapanus Latimanus), The Towsend’s Mole (Scapanus Townsendii), The Coast Mole (Scapanus Orarius), and The American Shrew Mole (Neurotrichus Gibbssed 

Moles are typically around 6-7″ long and have small bodies with short, black, velvety fur. They have tiny eyes and ears, a pink fleshy snout, large paws facing the back of their bodies for digging, and short hindlimbs with muscular forearms. Although they have small eyes resulting in poor eyesight, their senses of hearing, smell, and touch are excellent. In fact, a mole’s sense of smell is entirely unique in that they can smell “in stereo”. This means each nostril can operate independently which allows it to determine the direction of a specific smell. 

Rodents or insectivores?

Contrary to popular belief, moles are not rodents – not even related to them. Moles are from totally different order and family groups. They are not in the Rodentia order, rather they are members of Eulipotyphla which include hedgehogs, strews, and moonrats.

Moles are actually insectivores; meaning their diet mainly consists of large amounts of small invertebrates and insects. They don’t normally eat plant matter, although their digging and tunneling can kill plants by displacing roots. (Side note – Voles, which are true plant eaters, are often the actual offenders of damaged plants, eating seeds and roots by following abandoned mole tunnels.) Moles’ favorite foods are earthworms and grubs and they also enjoy munching on beetles, slugs, ants, spiders, larvae, cicadas, centipedes, and other similar snacks. These creatures actually can and will eat their entire body weight in insects in one day. 

Moles on the move

Did you know that one singular mole can cover up to 2.7 acres of land? That’s a lot of destruction for one small pest. It’s a good thing moles are not community-oriented mammals, preferring to live alone instead. Typically, mole densities can vary from one mole per six acres to as many as five moles per acre. Moles rarely, if ever, come to the surface or are found outside of their underground networks. Thriving in a series of tunnels and holes to eat, sleep, and forage from, they love loose, damp soil found in meadows, orchards, fields, and woodlands. These critters can dig as fast as 15 ft per hour and will stop only occasionally to push the dirt up, thus creating those ugly molehills. When it comes to man-made structures, most tunnels follow the contours of these features like fences and building footings, etc.

Now that we know what moles eat, how they get around, and where they thrive, let’s dive into how we can rid our beautiful lawns of these annoying and costly pests.

Minimizing the food source

Since we know grubs and earthworms are moles’ favorite food source, we can gather that the more of these present, the more the moles will be attracted. And since earthworms are a sign of a healthy yard, this can be a suitable diet for a mole, and they will make their home there comfortably. While no yard can be 100% rid of these insects, we can try to eliminate an overabundance of them by using products labeled to control grubs, ants, mole crickets, and other similar lawn insects. Thus making your yard less enticing to moles.

We recommend this option: Grub Killer Plus

Watering habits and drainage

This next tip relates to watering your lawn. Make sure you are not oversaturating your yard as moles (and earthworms and grubs alike) really enjoy damp, soft earth. Address pockets of standing water by installing proper drainage. Also keep in mind, well-established lawns only require about 1-2″ of water/rain weekly, depending on the weather. A well-working irrigation system will keep your lawn properly watered while minimizing the attractiveness to moles.

Non-lethal repellants

Tomcat Moles & Gopher RepellentIf after addressing the food supply and limiting the dampness from your yard, you are still noticing symptoms of moles, another way to deter them from setting up shop is to apply non-lethal repellents specially formulated for moles. The main ingredient you want to look for is castor oil. Moles despise the smell and taste of castor oil so granules or spray containing this should do the trick in pushing moles to relocate. Apply your repellent of choice monthly while moles are active.

Try this option: Tomcat Mole & Gopher Repellent

Trapping and baiting

Sometimes castor oil isn’t enough. If you have a true infestation of moles and are looking to resolve your issue, by any means necessary, you can resort to trapping and baiting. You’ll be most successful if you do this during the Spring and/or Fall. Put the baits and the traps together in a main or active tunnel or runway. As stated before, these are usually found along man-made structures like fence perimeters and footers. To identify these tunnels, use a stick or your finger to poke a hole in the top of a suspected area. If the mole repairs that hole in the next couple of days, you can tell the tunnel is active. This is where you should set your bait and trap. For your safety and others, make sure to use all deterrents, baits, and traps according to their label.

Here’s our reccomendation: Tomcat Mole Trap

It’s likely you have spent numerous hours and a significant amount of money upkeeping your beautiful lawn and garden. With moles being every gardeners’ foe, we know it can be a huge pain to deal with. We hope this article has been informative and provided some useful tips in ridding your yard and keeping an eye out for those pesky little moles.

 

To read more about how landscaping can increase your property value, click here.

Jordan Mellies

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6470 East Johns Crossing, Ste 160
Johns Creek, GA 30097

6470 East Johns Crossing, Ste 160
Johns Creek, GA 30097

(678) 238-2367

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