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they are starting to dig to much in the garden. How can I stop this?

Plant caster beans also known as mole beans. I had moles at a house where I lived many years ago I planted caster beans one summer and there has never been another mole there.

I have them destroying my yard, but thankfully no damage to the garden. I'd love to plant a castor bean plant, but am afraid my dog will eat it....

EG

Gary350 wrote:Plant caster beans also known as mole beans. I had moles at a house where I lived many years ago I planted caster beans one summer and there has never been another mole there.

Be very, very careful about planting caster beans. I understand they are the number one toxic plant to children and animals. The beans fall on the ground from the plant and are a very attractive black and brown bean. They are very enticing for a child to pick up. The toxin "ricin" is found in the bean and the Center For Disease Control says an amount of ricin equal in volume to a grain of sand can be fatal to humans.

Ted

Be certain they're moles. Moles eat earthworms and grubs. Their tunnels help aerate and soak nutrients far into the soi, especially if you have clay.

In my crowded squarefoot/intensive style garden beds, the active moles have only rarely caused minimal damage when their tunneling coincided with a small seedling not big enough for them to bother going around.

If their predation has diminished the earthworm population, I have not noticed it.

BTW -- recently, I repositioned a rain barrel more securely by laying gravel underlayer and resetting the cinderblocks and the concrete splash block. I knew there was a mole path along there, and wondered how they were going to react. Shortly thereafter, I heard/saw a mole heading in that direction -- due to the clay subsoil, unless they're in the soft garden beds, they usually tunnel/travel along the foundation or between the clay and the sod, disturbing dry leaves and moving the vegetation along the way. When the mole reached the rain barrel area, I heard a spate of squealing and chittering. I could just picture the mole swearing up and down.

ok, so really, how do you get rid of these critters without endangering you kids or pets?

The Black Thumb wrote:ok, so really, how do you get rid of these critters without endangering you kids or pets?

Buy mole traps.

Most of the mole control items out there are useless. Gopher and mole baits are made of grain, which moles will not eat; the sound producing things are useless too; the plunger traps work as do the poison gummy worms, but with both you have to find the active home runway rather than just one of the many foraging tunnels, which the moles do not return to. There are a couple of good mole control websites explaining "how to".

trying some DR Ts mole out. I'll let you know how it works.

The ultimate mole-remover ----->CAT!

I don't know about removing, but by the time my cats go back inside after supervised outside play time, their noses and paws are filthy with dirt from poking around mole holes and sticking their noses in them. They also occasionally get to pounce on them, but so far, they end up losing the moles when they pick up their paws to see what they got.

I've blocked any gaps under the fence to exclude all but the rare agile cats that can climb the fence, so a melee of bunny chasing ends a the fence when the smaller bunnies manage to out pace them and slip out.

TZ -OH6 wrote:Most of the mole control items out there are useless. Gopher and mole baits are made of grain, which moles will not eat; the sound producing things are useless too; the plunger traps work as do the poison gummy worms, but with both you have to find the active home runway rather than just one of the many foraging tunnels, which the moles do not return to. There are a couple of good mole control websites explaining "how to".

I have to agree. Most stuff I've tried has been totally useless. The only one I've found that works consistently is a product called Tomcat Mole Killer. They are little worm-shaped baits, which actually makes sense since moles eat insects - mostly earthworms. It costs a little more, but after lots of trial and failure with other poisons, home remedies (castor beans, castor oil, coffe grounds, etc), sonic spikes, etc., it's the only thing I've found that works, and works fast. I could smell the dead thing a couple of days later.

grease monkey wrote:trying some DR Ts mole out. I'll let you know how it works.

looks like the dr. ts mole out is at least slowing the mole down but not stopping him totaly. Works pretty good.

garden5 wrote:The ultimate mole-remover ----->CAT!

I've never heard a sound like that of a mole caught by my neighbor's cat. This was at the first ever "house" I lived in post-college and it was *something*. I felt really bad for the poor moles...but then again...they were just tearing up all the new mulched beds and perennials I had just put in.

No moles here...so far! My indoor-only cats would be no help anyway. And my slightly "touched" Australian cattle dog probably wouldn't be either.

Moles are insectivores, not herbivores so if you are associating a lot of plant damage with moles it is not likely... voles sometimes hijack mole tunnels for feeding (not great diggers themselves) and that's possible (we like the Fruity Bubblicious for them; gums 'em up real good... ).

HG

Never having had moles in my garden, I was wondering what damage they do. If they eat insects, I have an abundance of beetle grubs in the soil for them. If they only make tunnels in my soil and don't eat the roots, I may appreciate the aeration they create. I suppose while they are tunneling around eating the grubs which will eat my plant roots, they are probably depositing some mole poop so thanks for the fertilizer. Are they harmful in a garden?

Ted

They can undermine roots and dry them; there are downsides...

But they do aerate and bring up subsoil minerals...

The worst thing they do is provide housing and tunnels for voles...

HG

You know, that's the funny thing. I mentioned in another thread that my Hot Pepper Bed peppers were explored by the moles a few days after I planted. Practically every plant had a mole hole next to it. The plants were your basic transplant size so they weren't tiny but they weren't very big either. I just added more potting soil mix over the holes and watered in. Now I do this when I notice them, but there have been occasions when I might not have noticed. They explore some of my containers too.
Maybe they particularly like this potting soil.

I'm getting used to seeing mole holes next to my plants. But usually, the plants don't seem to suffer. Since these moles don't leave a "hill" on the surface, maybe the tunnels aren't leaving gaping airspaces as one might think. And I am really beginning to think they don't dig/rip through the roots willy-nilly but part the roots like curtains as they go.

Knock on wood, I don't have voles. Do the moles defend their tunnels/territory as long as they live in them? Do the voles move into empty burrows?

The Helpful Gardener wrote:Moles are insectivores, not herbivores so if you are associating a lot of plant damage with moles it is not likely... voles sometimes hijack mole tunnels for feeding (not great diggers themselves) and that's possible (we like the Fruity Bubblicious for them; gums 'em up real good... ).

HG

Do you just shove unwrapped pieces down some holes/tunnels? I like this idea.

One thing I've noticed about the noise-producing repellents (the so-called silent ones) is that they tend to annoy dogs. A neighbor had one in his yard and his neighbor's dog was constantly staring over at it . It must be that the dogs can hear the high-pitched frequency that we can't.

AS, yes they do...

SM, yep, that's about it...

G5, indoubtedly...

HG

With the gum, does it kill the moles or just give them an unpleasant experience that makes them not want to come back to that area again?

Mortality, G5. They cannot digest it...

HG