3 Strategies to Get Rid of Garden Moles
Moles can be a nuisance in the garden. The mounds of upturned soil, looking like mini volcanoes, are unsightly and often make ideal seedbeds for insidious weeds and homes for garden pests. Mole excavations can also expose shallow-rooted shrubs, drying them out. Tunneling can uproot seedlings and damage the root systems of delicate plants.
On the positive side, your garden can benefit from mole activity. They aerate and mix the soil and feed on garden pests like slugs, insect larvae and other invertebrates. Their tunneling also improves soil drainage, and the rich, sifted topsoil they throw up can be used as potting soil.
Unfortunately, they also like to snack on roots, bulbs, and garden-friendly earthworms whose function is to keep the soil aerated. Garden moles are omnivorous but particularly fond of carrots, potatoes, peas, beans, corn and oats, so they’re a bane in vegetable gardens.
In the long term, natural remedies — like mothballs, smelly cheese, garlic, broken glass and barbed wire, pinwheels and vibrating devices, and loud radios — generally do not work. Although there is no harm in giving these methods a try, usually, when moles happen across foreign objects like these, they dig new tunnels.
Gardeners sometimes think a mole has left the area when it has simply dug a new tunnel into the neighbor’s garden. However, the chances are that it will be back after the neighbor sets a trap on that side and the mole decides to return home to your property.
Poisons are not recommended by garden experts. They can be eaten by domestic animals, pose a risk to children and spoil the delicate nutrient balance of your soil. Europe banned the use of strychnine hydrochloride, used commonly used to kill moles, in 2006 because it is unsafe for wildlife and causes the moles unnecessary suffering.
Strategy # 1
The first strategy to consider is using a traditional mole trap. Several humane traps are available, but they need to be monitored daily and cleaned thoroughly of human scent before use. Better Homes and Gardens agree: “The most effective way to get rid of moles is to kill them with a trap.” If you don’t want to kill moles, use humane traps to catch them and then relocate them in a wilderness area. Alternatively, you can use fail-safe traps to kill them quickly and effectively.
You may prefer a natural strategy. There are a few natural remedies to try to get rid of garden moles. Commercial products sometimes contain castor oil, and you can also adopt this strategy for your home garden. Prepare a mixture of 2 tablespoons of dish soap with a cup of castor oil in a gallon of water. Moles are most active in late winter and early spring, so apply every month and especially after rains on lawns and along tunnels as a preventative measure. This method is designed to make moles think the local vegetation is off and encourage them to find alternative foraging grounds.
Strategy #2
Another way to drive moles from the area is by flooding their tunnels. Pest eradication experts advise homeowners to tackle a mole problem as soon as possible. The more tunnels they build, the more exit strategies they’ll have at their disposal. Simply insert a hosepipe into a tunnel entrance and run the water full blast to flood their tunnels.
Recommended by commercial landscapers, the gravel barrier can be an effective mole deterrent, although it requires a lot of work. The idea is to prevent moles from accessing your protected area by tunneling through it. You will need to dig a trench about 8-12 inches wide and 24-36 inches deep around the area you wish to protect. Fill the trench with gravel or clay and cover it. The chances of a mole trying to get over the barrier by paw are marginal.
Strategy #3
The third and most effective strategy is hiring expert help. It is a mole pest controller’s job to get rid of moles, and they can investigate your garden professionally to see what the most suitable plan of attack is for you. For instance, they may advise that some plants that are attracting moles in your garden be placed in pots or that you make a concerted effort to get rid of mole food like garden pests and grubs.
These strategies will help you control garden moles to a larger or lesser extent. If you decide to live with moles, incorporate them into a natural garden lifestyle approach. Make time every day to quickly flatten unsightly molehills with a rake and replace the plants that moles love with those they don’t. Consider potting vegetables that moles like and you don’t want to replace, like carrots and bulbous plants, and make use of the airy topsoil they produce.
Contact a Mole Pest Control Company to Get Rid of Your Garden Moles
Most of you do not want moles and do not have the time to spend trying to get rid of them, only to find they have built new tunnels, and you have new molehills. If this is you, do not worry, the Precision Predator can come to the rescue and take care of your mole problem once and for good. Give us a call or contact us here using our online form.
