Eradicating moles

[fishdrivel]

The red-tail hawk in my yard in NC did a great job of keeping the moles in check.
I had a 10' 6x6 sticking up in the yard which he gladly used as a perch.

He also ate voles which are vegetarians and often get blamed for what the moles are doing.....

 

[MossyDell]

I am fighting the underlying cause, grubs, too. If I dig a small hole in this yard, I find 1-3 big fat white grubs. Look like Japanese beetle grubs I see pictured.

Am using Milky Spore organic control. Get it from Amazon in granulated your can use in a spreader. Seems to be working. Haven't read whole thread so sorry if this repeats. Here is link to what I use:

Amazon.com

 

[goeduck]

I have a mole breakout in my yard this year. I heard coffee grounds spread in the area deters them. Seems iffy to me (grubs likely are attracted by coffee grounds) but why not try it? So today I took the coffee grounds pan to the yard to spread out instead of the compost. I just hope the moles don't start earlier and dig faster starting tomorrow

 

[MossRoad]

I have a mole breakout in my yard this year. I heard coffee grounds spread in the area deters them. Seems iffy to me (grubs likely are attracted by coffee grounds) but why not try it? So today I took the coffee grounds pan to the yard to spread out instead of the compost. I just hope the moles don't start earlier and dig faster starting tomorrow

Contrary to popular belief, moles main source of food is earthworms. They do love the grubs, but its worms that sustain them.

Moles are carnivores. If they are in your yard, there’s a good source of meat. Worm meat. Grub meat. Other larvae meat.

So you can either make your lawn soil a sterile growing medium for grass by killing all the meat that lives there, or you can deal with the moles with traps or poisons. I don’t like poisons, so I trap them.

I stopped counting at 300 on our 1 acre, but after about 6-7 years of 50+ per year, they finally went to a manageable number of only a couple per year.

Victor Out O Sight mole traps are hands down the best. Less than $15 each. Can be set in any soil type. You can pop-rivet a canning jar lid to the trigger to increase trigger size in really sandy soil. Kills them fast and rarely misses. About as humane a trap as you can get, and I’ve tried most. It’s the only one I use.

 

[Raul-02]

I use the worms and have had good luck.

what do you do with the worms?

 

[Raul-02]

I’ve tried everything

No one has tried everything.
I read somewhere that Rats hate tobacco. Won't cross it.
I hve tobacco seeds and will plant some to see if I can deter the little buggers with that.

My plan:
Raise my own tobacco unless I can buy some bales of it for cheap. Then till that into the soil around my garden. If it works, I'll consider myself a genius and gift myself some beers.

 

[Tony H]

Chop up garlic. Spreading an area, wait a few weeks spread some more just ahead of the previous area. You basically will Herd then off your property. We grow garlic just to use as rodent control. We grow mostly 'red' garlic as they have more of a bite then the mellower ones.

 

[Raul-02]

'red' garlic

Hmmm How much garlic do you grow and what size area are you protecting?

 

[Gord Baker]

Forget the Grandma cures and get some chemical 'Shots'. Cap over holes in an area and light one and put it down the hole. Cover with a shovel full of dirt and be ready to chop them out as they try to escape the smoke.

 

[Raul-02]

chemical 'Shots'

whassat? smokers?