HelpfulGardener.com

When we had a sunny, warm day a week or two ago, I was going to start planting some veggie seeds in my raised bed, and what should I find? Mole tunnels all over! I set traps, flooded the tunnels, and even sat with a rifle, watching the holes for signs of movement (I got one this way when they were ruining our newly laid sod), but all to no avail. Then I looked around here and was reminded of castor oil. I have used that in the past on the lawn and around the raised bed, but never on the garden. The spray I used is just castor oil and soap, I think. Is that fine to use in a vegetable garden? I also saw something about grannulated castor oil - is it safe? Any other food safe methods? The info I've found here hasn't spoken directly of the safety of some methods in the veggie garden.
Thanks for all the help!

Castor oil should be fine for your veggies. It gets mixed reviews re how effective it is, some people swear by it, some not so much. Here's what else I could find. Lots of people say trapping is the best, maybe the only effective method, but the pictures I saw looked like medieval torture devices, so I will leave that to someone else to report on.

"If you have time, you can discourage tunneling moles by thumping an emerging mound hard with a shovel or a broomstick every time you see one being made," "However, moles are active 24 hours a day when tunneling, so not many people can keep up with them."
Flooding mole runs with a hose works well, but you need to stay vigilant, or the moles will simply return. The combination of mound flattening and tunnel flooding can be quite effective
For sheer excitement, consider the "rodenator," a system that injects an explosive gas mixture into mole tunnels. A (licensed) operator then pushes a button that throws a spark and -- kablow! A long line of mole tunnel blows sky high. Check it out online at rodenator.com/videos.htm. It's pretty much a guy thing.
https://www.seattlepi.com/nwgardens/306468_lovejoy10.html

"Put the power of Mother Nature to work for you. Shake-Away Rodent Repellent is a granular formula containing the scent (Fox and Bobcat urea) of the Mole's most feared predators. Mark your territory with an instinctive fear barrier!" I have to wonder about this one since moles are NOT actually rodents. If the makers of this stuff don't even know that, what else don't they know ?

you can repel moles with cat litter or windmills. Dump several scoops of cat litter in the moles burrow and the strong smell will repel the mole. Moles don't like vibrations. You can put commercially available windmills in the mole run. When the wind blows, the windmill spins creating vibrations that repel the moles. An alternative is a child's pinwheel stuck in the run or a glass soda bottle placed open end up. The wind blows causing vibrations...you get the idea. [this is the cheap version of the sonic repellers you can buy]

If you happen to like cats, an outside cat will hunt down and kill your moles. Apparently the moles don't taste very good and your cat won't eat them.
https://articles.glenns-garden.com/Art/2566/93/Organic-Mole-Control-in-Your-Garden.html

You will note considerable variability -- some people say castor oil works, some don't, like wise with flooding, repellant plants like caper spurge and castor bean, juicy fruit gum, etc. I think like everything else in gardening it's pretty individual and depends on your specific situation. You may have to try two or three.

Here's another point of view on moles.
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8607
I left it alone. It visits once in a while. I know now that the carrots and bean damage I noticed last year was due to slugs.

Also, I have a board that I use as a ramp by the Veg Garden gate, and I turn it over every time I check for slugs. So far, I NEVER find slugs under the board but I see a mole hole there when the ground is not soaking wet. So I'm thinking the mole is eating them.

su_ju
Excellent topic.
With the greatest respect to everyone else who will post on this topic.

I called the local Ag extension, asked me, "do you live near a wooded area?", reply, "Yes", Ag's answer, "forget about it, they will continue to come back no matter what you try."
I called a garden guru guy on the radio on a Saturday mornings, He was an exact match for the Ag Ext response.

The moles primary source of food, almost 100% is earthworms, as taken from the stomach content. Some are as little as 75% earthworm, but they average over 90% earthworm.
Many will not touch a grub. Also if you don't have earthworms, you are not likely to get moles, they will find an easier, more tasty meal somewhere else.

So move away from wooded areas or kill every earthworm possible. Those are two possible options. All other remedies are said to be temporary tactics that the moles find of little nuisance. Just like big roots and rocks in the dirt, they will simply go around whatever you put in the yard. They don't care, they expect the barrier to be there, including water.

The Ag Ext offered two suggestions for a temporary fix; One is proven and one is assumed to be affective
University study: is dig out all soil on the site 12 feet deep put a 6 foot thick stone or cut glass barrier under and on all sides of your yard and then replace your soil, this will work for sometime untill there is enough ground movement and migration of the stones to provide a path for the moles(temporary fix).
The other suggestion: get more snakes(types not native to Ohio) The Cobra is expected to be effective but is untested.

I hope all find this funny, but my neighbors have all but given up. Many have invested hundreds or thousands in remedies, Nothing has worked. One guy still has piwheels all around the flower beds. He says they work, but I notice he keeps moving them. Before I asked what they were for, there must have 50 of them in the yard. 5 years later he is still at it, he swears it works, but he has to reinvest each year in pinwheels and I see mole hills in his yard.

Get a 'Mole Chaser'. Google It! There are the ultrasonic spike type variety and the windmill variety. Each causes vibration in the ground. Moles HATE vibration. Embed in the middle of the area you want to protect.

The main point of my question was "are castor oil products safe for veggie gardens"? In more research I've done, and as rainbow said, it seems to be fine to use. There does seem to be a lack of straight forward "use this in your veggie garden too" info, but the package of granulated castor oil I got says "not harmful to lawns, gardens, flower beds, or other desirable plants". I know this sounds silly, but does that mean vegatable garden? I am assuming so.

I know moles aren't bad in and of themselves, they (or it) just have made lots of shallow tunnels in one of my raised beds, so I am concerned about seedlings being disturbed by their digging. I don't bother them when they are in out-of-the way parts of the yard. For parts of the yard I don't want them in, I've been putting dog poo in the tunnels. That actually seems quite effective. It worked with the gophers too!

Thanks for the laughs, 2cents! My kids love snake hunting (for pets) but fortunately they have yet to come up with a cobra! Must be why the moles are so comfortable here. I don't think the landlord would be to thrilled with the digging idea.

I leave them alone like applestar. I see their little mole tracks but our moles must be dimwitted. The tracks seem to start in the middle of nowhere and go nowhere that they can do harm. They rarely approach vegetable plants. I see more tracks in the lawn than the garden. I watched for movement in the tracks last year but I started feeling stupid so I quit. I just flatten their little trails with the lawn tractor. I think that must scare the bejeebers out of them. I've never had garden damage that I can trace to moles.

I'm probably an embarrassment to gardeners everywhere... but I like moles. And other pests too. They are cute! I couldn't sleep if I killed one!

I must admit, but I like them too - as long as they aren't ruining our freshly laid sod, or tunneling all over my freshly raked garden bed! After they created havoc in a section of nicely graded, level sod lawn, I declared war, and got one in a trap. After dispatching it, he turned into a bit of a homeschool lesson . No, we didn't disect it, but they have the most beautiful, soft fur, and those diggers of theirs are mighty powerful looking!