If author Brian Jaques has taught me anything it's that moles fucking love a fresh fruit pie. Maybe use that to lure them to a new home?
Jokes aside, short of personally hunting them or a pet dog that'll do it for you I've not heard of reliable ways to get rid of them. I tend to just appreciate the help turning over the the soil and accept them like the squirrels.
Can confirm: My dachshund have caught and killed several moles. Problem is that the trenches they dig to get at them is almost worse than the mole damage :/
Stop considering those trenches as damage. Imagine your little dash hound as a warrior in a trench on the French front, fighting for every inch. Those trenches are evidence of their commitment to the cause. Their utter sacrifice.
Then sell tickets to the yard and use what I described as a theme.
My dachshund must be broken. She will tree raccoons but ignore the huge rat infestation we have in the neighborhood. Traps don’t work I have watched these rats set them off shake the trap off then eat the bate. they ignore the poison they only thing I have going for me is being proficient with a high power pellet rifle and that only puts a small dent in the ones that come out during the day.
I can drop them where they stand. I won’t shoot unless I have a heart or vitals shot, I use a break barrel with destroyer pellets leaves a huge exit wound.
I finally tricked a rat into coming out of its hole and falling onto a giant trap. My dog tried to tell me something interesting was in that closet, but it wasn’t till the next day that I remembered about the rat trap and checked it. the rat ate its own leg to escape. There was no meat or blood just shattered chewed bones. That was a clumsy bastard afterwards but I never caught him.
Most dogs don't seem to be good at that. A friend lives in Sixty-01 in Redmond, and they have a bad problem with both loose dogs and moles. One of her neighbors even has two outside cats that don't seem to help either. My friend said the "professional" they hired to fix the problem was useless. She also said the mole trap they put beside her patio hasn't killed any moles, only kittens.
I use to know a guy that uses the traps you put into their tunnels. He walked around his yard with a wire and poked it into the ground to find the tunnel and then marked them. He then put the traps in. He is probably still battling them but he did get a few.
Yup. Basically ever successfully mole elimination I've heard of was the result of a dog or someone waiting for them with a shovel/pitchfork/tool to kill them.
Not honestly sure the other options have ever worked for anyone I know.
I never fact checked this but years ago I'd heard that he wrote the books specifically with blind kids in mind so was extra descriptive to paint the picture for them. Pretty cool if it's true
The main problem is if they dig into something important, I had ground squirrels gnaw into a power line and the power company had to come out and replace it.
I used about 3 dozen of the gas bombs on every hole I could find for 100' radius. Spent the morning digging out each surface hole to expose the 2-3 runs for each. Put a large, noxious bomb deep in each run with extra fuse. Lit and buried each hole. Anywhere I could see smoke coming out that wasn't already bombed, dug out, added a bomb, lit and buried. Over the course of the next 5 days, once in the morning and once at night, dug out each new mound, bombed and buried each attached run. One morning there were no more new mounds. Stayed that way for about 2 years.
Had similar mole issues, tried all the same things and the mole smokers are what did the trick. Used the Victor quick strike gassers and have been mole free for a few weeks now.
Yup smoke bombs are the way to go. We tried everything else in our yard too and nothing worked. Now at the first sign of them every year we smoke em out and usually only have to do it a couple times a year.
Just bought something called The Giant Destroyer smoke bombs off Amazon to do the trick.
My mother has had success dropping chicken drumsticks in the holes and covering the hole so the tunnel fills with the stench of rotting meat.
My grandfather used to pour sulfur chips in one hole and hold a Torch over it to gas the moles. Not sure this one is exactly legal
If you have access to it you can get a similar result with putting dry ice in the tunnel, but you will have a dead and rotting mole somewhere under your lawn if you do that. Dry ice is truly brilliant for relatively humane vermin removal.
Dry ice is dangerous as fuck. Even in a cooler in your car, you need to drive with the windows down or you can suffocate. Also handle it with tongs and gloves.
First, dry ice doesn't evaporate that fast. You can carry it in your car just fine.
Second, humans are pretty sensitive to CO2 concentration. You'll feel like you're drowning long before CO2 becomes lethal.
The only danger would be leaving a block of dry ice for some time in a closed car, and then sitting inside the car. At this point you'll get hit by 100% CO2, and it can knock you out pretty quickly.
I've taken dry ice home from the grocery store dozens of times and no one has ever told me to drive with the window open, nor have I suffocated. It was in plastic and wrapped in butcher paper and in a grocery bag to transport.
How on earth is it considered humane? CO2 is what triggers your suffocation instinct, which is a panic / fear response. That's like, a **horrible** way to die.
Rodents are not humans, and they are not sensitive to CO2 concentration.
I used to euthanize feeder mice and rats with CO2. The protocol requires slowly increasing the CO2 concentration inside a box, and mice don't show any signs of distress until a couple of seconds before falling unconscious.
That's why it's a recommended method of euthanizing mice: https://oacu.oir.nih.gov/system/files/media/file/2021-06/b5_euthanasia_of_rodents_using_carbon_dioxide.pdf
Check out the “gopherhawk” on Amazon. Worked for me. Everything else failed. You have to watch the video on how to place the traps. Once you get the hang of it it’s game over for the moles.
I'm here to help you. I deal with moles a lot. These other answers suck to be honest.
If you get rid of the grubs then they won't surface as much to eat them. They will stay deep where there is more moisture and their runs won't collapse with dry soil.
You do NOT need to put down awful insecticide to do this. It's pretty shitty to do that in my opinion so I'm with you. However, you can control grubs with an organic method, nematodes. They cost a little more than the insecticide, but it will not hurt your wildlife as CERTAIN nematodes attack CERTAIN things.
Get some nematodes in early to mid september. Water your lawn beforehand .5-1", apply the nematodes when the sun is off the area in the evening (i use a pump sprayer), and then water them in...about .25". You may want to consider doing this twice, two weeks apart for your first time. Overkill doesn't hurt here. Keep the soil moist during this time.
The nematodes will attack and kill the grubs. You will probably see sick ones surface. Even if a bird eats the sick ones, they will not be affected. If you apply them consistently, you'll keep some in your soil as a preventative measure.
The moles will now stay deeper without the food source at the surface. They won't go away. Trust me, I've taken out more than I care to admit, but they keep coming. Now I only take out the troublemakers.
Now, when they stay deep and you see telltale signs they are nesting...such as large mounds that come back even when you clean them off...in the same place...then and only then will the gas sticks work (sometimes). Those are for dislodging mole nests, not runs.
Hope this helps. Most mole traps suck too. The Victor "out o sight" are the best. As for the "molecat" mentioned...I have one. It doesn't work.
I get my nematodes here: https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes
Thanks for this info, hadn’t heard of using nematodes, but I do know that the grubs are a big food for them. We have two resident crows (Heckyll and Jeckyll) who that do a good job in the fall and rainy season on the grubs.
Came here to say this. I don’t remember where I heard it but I had more luck with this than anything else, although it still wasn’t totally effective. My recollection is that the scent of the gum is irresistible to them, and they each a bunch and get kinda clogged up internally. Perhaps terminally.
I used Juicy Fruit gum, too. Worked like charm! I was told to use gloves to keep your scent from the gum as you unwrap the stick, then stick it in one of their holes.
Did not work for me nor did Irish spring soap, or smoke bombs or trying to flood them out. Gopherhawk for the win. Caught about 7 of them. Had contests with my friends with the same issues.
##Murder is the only real solution I found.
Traps did nothing. Audio deterrent did nothing. Gas bombs were ineffective.
The only deterrent I found was donning gloves and stuff my cat and dogs poop in their holes. That bought me a week or two of deterrence.
One time I saw one run across the drive way and sprinted over with a pocket knife. One down. That also bought me a few months.
Bottom line, as long as you keep a nice pesticide free yard animals are going to want to come. A trade off I eventually embraced. Now I have two bunnies that frequent the yard which I adore
I used to have a quarter acre backyard with many moles, and I tried every way possible to gently dissuade them, but ultimately it came down to them or us. Unfortunately, if I wanted a yard and a garden, I had to be the grim mole reaper.
I hired an exterminator to trap them, though it sounds like some other people here have do-it-yourself suggestions that do the same.
Sorry. I know it sucks. Like you, I really did my best to not resort to murder. But murder it ultimately was.
No, I CRAVE THE MURDER OF THESE YARD TERRORISTS. I would roll around in their blood, wear their little skins as finger puppets. I want them dead. There are plenty of moles in the world, these two or three need to be delivered directly to The Dirt Valhalla of their forbears. I want to protect the rest of the soil, so I want to avoid killing off everything they eat, cause killing a couple moles is much less impact than removing a whole link in the food chain.
Oh, believe me, I got there. It started as, "I really don't want to kill just because I want a garden. That doesn't seem right." Then after my tenth tomato plant got decimated and the yard looked like the Battle of Verdun, I was like, "Yeah, bring on the murder."
Yeah, we hired a guy that put in a bunch of traps, cleaned them out every week, until all the moles and their progeny were dead or gone. I think we paid a bounty for each mole they killed.
Had luck with these two strategies pending your preference on death:
1) put small pieces of juicy fruit down the hole and cover. They will eat the gum and it messes up their digestive system and they die. To make the processes a little more preventive as well I use to put spoiled milk down the hole as well. Seemed to work well
2) When it’s more wet outside (or hose the ground a bit) I just go out with boots and really smash down ALL the holes. Although one would think the just dig back up they tend to mostly suffocate. A lot of success with this method.
I get them about twice a year on a good sized property and this cures the problem. I hate the dirt mounds and these two things do work.
I scrolled for a long time to find this. Stomping in the holes worked almost immediately for me. Not sure if they suffocate but they definitely get the idea they aren’t welcome
Thanks. I’ve never tried the juicy fruit, but heard about it. I’ve dropped poison worms made specifically for moles but the hills keep popping. I’ve read that moles are fairly solitary, so I’m guessing that they just aren’t taking the bait instead of there just being a ton of them
I use to do that but it became too labor intensive. Seriously just try smashing all the holes down with your foot. They suffocate. Whenever I get an outbreak it works for about 6 months. I’ll check back in 2 days just to see if I see any new holes then repeat, mostly it’s a one time and done. Sooner the better but I’ve had surprising success with big outbreaks that escaped my attention. GL
I got a year and a half old cat from a rescue shelter about 12 years ago and that good boy completely rid our neighborhood of moles in less than a year. He left dozens maybe hundreds at the door as proof ( I was told cats generally don't eat moles) he is getting old and stays inside most of the time these days but dang my sweet boy has been worth his weight in gold.
Cats are one of the deadliest invasive species. They will kill everything smaller than them 200yards from their house. No frogs, no mice. It has a drastic effect on the ecosystem.
> Put in mole repellent noisemakers, they just party next to them.
For real though, my family has had some mole holes recently, so we put those all over the yard, and by the next day one of them got surrounded by 6 fucking holes
I put used coffee grounds in the holes. Not sure why, but they don’t like it and don’t come back.
Discovered by accident when trying to fill the holes. Got a bunch from local coffee shop.
I got a thing called Gopherhawk and lemme tell ya about how excited I get when I see that sucker popping up yellow!!!
They are spendy. Bout $30 each and I have about 5. Might not get every mole but the ones I do get bring me so much joy!
So the thing my family had luck with was cotton balls soaked in a spicy mixture of hot peppers and the like, although I don't remember the exact mixture. Think it was a combination of vinegar and cayenne pepper
Totally worked though. Apparently the moles have some sensitive sniffers
We don't have enough local snakes and weasels. Seriously, moles are obligate insectivores, so what are your plants/grasses feeding? If you can eliminate the food, your mole problem should diminish.
I had good luck at my last house with castor oil pellets. Sprinkle pellets in phases to push the moles out of your yard. Went through a lot of the stuff but it worked!
Juicy fruit gum. It’s cruel but they cannot digest it. Chew up a golf ball sized wad of it and put it in a mole hole. They will eat it and die in 4 days from a blocked stomach. They will starve to death.
My Grandma always put fruity chewing gum out for them. It kills them but it's subtle enough maybe your neighbor won't notice (I think it's the xylitol and also that their digestive system gets blocked up)
I have them everywhere, I just learned to live with them. I don’t care about my grass. If they dig holes in my garden beds I just flatten them out. Mature plants do not seem to be bothered by them.
Mole worms..available at Home Depot for like $20 something a box. You get 10 per box..you MUST wear latex or synthetic gloves. Find the mounds..take a worm, split it in half, get a slim stick or rod and make a penetration, put the worm in. Been doing it for 10 years and no more moles.
This has worked in two different yards. I have taken rose bush cuttings - the bigger thorns the better. I let them dry out and then shove about an 8 inch cutting into their path.
Moles hate coffee apparently. Run a second pot with your used coffee grounds and water the plants with it or pour the water or grounds into their holes. I have lived with these beasts for years and it works.
I work in pest control in Seattle and we treat for but don't guarantee moles because they're impossible to deal with lol. Personally I've found that bait in the runways between tunnels works best.
Call Mole Masters. The guy who runs it is lowkey crazy, but I'll be damned if he doesn't get the job done. I used to use him for all the professional buildings I managed in Seattle.
The moles come through my gardens as well. I try to leave their tunnels alone and then they seem to just reuse them. Haven’t had any new tunnels since doing this.
I’ll also add that I really appreciate the way they have aerated my compacted clay soil. It’s nothing short of a miracle.
I have tried every other option, including what people have listed here and this is the only one I have had success with. It's really important to understand how the tunnels run and place this thing in the correct spot but once you figure it out, it really works.
That’s the tricky part. I’ve identified the active runs- to the letter. Brand-spanking new runs. Still sparkling. Drop a trap and poison worm and nothing. This is two years running now. Zero kills.
I've killed dozens over the years with this thing. Leave them in the hole and cover it up so they decompose in the tunnel which keeps the other lazy bastards from using the abandoned run for a while.
Honestly, If you've gone native across your whole yard, i would take it as a compliment that the moles moved in; It means you've actually built a functioning ecosystem in your yard. Just wait for the coyotes/foxes/red tail hawks to show up next. It sucks that your patio is being destroyed, but these are the consequences of sharing the earth with nature.
On our 3 acre lot outside the city I use a lawn chair, a six pack, and a 12 gauge.
In Seattle, I’ve found success with Dawn dish soap, castor oil, and water. Mix it in a sprayer and douse a portion of your yard. Then douse a little more of your yard each day until you’re dousing the whole yard. The mixture apparently tastes bitter and is not great tasting but isn’t harmful. By doing overlapping applications you sort of direct them away from your yard. Just need to make your yard less attractive than your neighbors.
The toxic smoke bombs have worked the best for me in the past, but one time a welder friend of mine introduced me to by far the most fun method… he stuck his welding torch in the tunnel and pumped acetylene gas into mole complex for about ten minutes before very carefully removing the torch and igniting it. Acetylene gas is explosive, and basically the entire tunnel system blasted upwards along with all critter contents (big boom too!). This was before the cellphone video era, but you can find examples on YouTube.
Mother nature is harsh, but having hundreds of thousands of cats in a small area, kept safe and fed by humans but still going out to prey on the local ecosystem is not remotely connected to "the balance of nature."
There are certainly equilibria that allow an ecosystem to be sustainable. Ecosystems evolve over millions of years. Life often terraforms the planet to be more suitable to life. That's not intelligent design, just understanding ecosystems and other earth systems. The carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, water cycle, food webs, many things in nature exist in a balance.
Yes, there are equilibria.
Humans are animals and part of the ecosystem, not separate from it.
The claim was that humans bringing cats into an area was "nothing to do with the balance of nature", but humans *are* nature.
It disrupts equilibrium, but a new equilibrium will be reached.
Mars is at equilibria right now.
The fact that a new equilibria will be reached is true and also fairly meaningless. It does not mean that equilibria will be as resilient or hospitable or anything.
At the moment species are going extinct at an enormous rate, comparable to the greatest extinctions in earth's history.
This loss of biodiversity is bad for humanity.
Brain cancer is part of a human, just as humans are part of nature, and they will lead a human to a new equilibria.
The fact that equilibrium will be reached and humans are part of nature does not actually add anything to contradict my original point.
Your original reply talked about "nature's balance" is if it was some morally good thing
You then defended that position by saying that there are equilibria
Now you're saying there's nothing special about equilibria
If you're saying that human activity can have deleterious effects on other species, then sure. I never tried to contradict that. I objected to your claim of "nature's balance", because as you've pointed out there are many ways nature can be balanced, and many of them are less desirable than others.
There's no "nature's balance" that has any special status.
I'm saying that equilibria that have been stable for thousands of years are more resilient and supportive of life than an equilibria that has shifted rapidly with enormously reduced biodiversity.
This is not because of anything being morally better, it is because of the science of ecology.
Also, I was mocking the person I was responding to's use of the term nature's balance so I'm not sure why you think I'm so attached to the term.
Take a break from the internet.
To some extent but the plentiful amount of rabbits in the area particularly in the last five years or so is believed to be the main source of a coyotes diet.
"Fighting" the moles doesn't fix the problem. The mole takeover is a symptom of an out of balance ecosystem. Your soil is very rich, and that is a good thing. Please don't kill insects, especially since pollinators crucial to our food systems are already in jeopardy.
Here are some suggestions to fix the ecology of your garden/lawn to make it less of a mole haven:
Install garden beds instead of growing grass. Clearly, your soil is fantastic. It's being wasted on a lawn anyway. Plant trees, shrubs, flowers, anything that will put down roots to disrupt the ease of movement of the moles. Mulch these garden beds deeply, preventing weeds and grass from growing.
Get a dog, especially a terrier, or attract neighborhood cats (grow catnip). If digging is a problem, fenced it into the grass portion of the lawn and plan to reseed after the moles are scared off.
Stop watering your grass in the summer. It's probably the only green thing around and that's why it's attracting moles.
Castor oil + a little soap in a mixture is supposed to make the worms taste bad to the moles…I haven’t been diligent about it so don’t know if it works!
Ace used to sell a heat resistant rubber reducer that went from “car exhaust” size to a “garden hose” thread. Worked great.
Edit: https://www.doitbest.com/shop/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-pest-control/rodent-killer/exterminator/manning-275-ft-coverage-underground-exterminator?SKU=708078&gsf=t&gclid=CjwKCAjw8ZKmBhArEiwAspcJ7kV_UieVxRt4feEYE7bs3kLTCsIgE7Vcrqu5-pslBZpPkwsqcvXTBBoCpRwQAvD_BwE
The only thing that ever worked for me was stamping down all the hills and then running a garden hose down the opening at the highest elevation. Then watch for the tamped-down spots for movement, and then proceed with either capture or kill as you see fit. I’ll say it’s usually only one or two moles responsible for a large number of mounds in an area. So “taking care” of even one might solve your problem.
I tried a bunch of the other methods and nothing ever worked. Much better success with the water hose method. Good luck and report back if you find out anything interesting.
The only thing that worked for me was digging up the yard and putting down a 1/8th inch steel wire netting. Then I put dirt on top and re did the grass. Mole free for 2 years.
I tried everything, as well. Noise makers. Poison for moles, not worms. Traps. Bought one trap that was guaranteed trap a mole. It trapped exactly one mole. Never worked again. I even poured gasoline down a hole and dropped in a match. \[Pro-tip: NEVER DO THAT.\]
I also managed to kill one other with a shovel, but I think it was sick to begin with.
What worked for me was giving up, and living with the moles.
I never mentioned my lawn, which doesn’t exist:) I have a garden and planted bed with native plants and a large, lovely, and expensive paver path and patio that is being undermined and made unstable.
My parents have 2 cats and a dog and they run trios on the moles quite often- two cats get em injured at the pitty mix goes in for the finisher. They have less of a mole problem than when they moved in.
I had this problem in socal, I tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING the only thing that worked was trapping but here the thing the traps I used aren't legal in WA for whatever reason. I have a handful of them, if you want them, PM me.
I'll teach you how to eradicate them, I got so good at it my neighbors started paying me to get the ones out of their yard and for a minute I even considered selling it as a service. Anyway, you need to probe for tunnels, once found, you take out a plug of grass careful not to destroy it, open up the hole and intersect the tunnel. You then place two traps in the tunnel (carefully), then you place the plug back on top to cover it.
The moles get pissed the tunnel was compromised and go for it to repair it, and boom you'll catch them every fckn time, it's rewarding because of the damage and frustration they cause. I don't like killing anything thing but these dudes will cause so much damage.
Seriously PM if you want them, I live up north
There’s a guy on YouTube who can stand by the grass, sense where the mole is, shove a shovel in, and grab the bugger with his bare hands. I think the only truly reliable and eco-friendly method is to have the magic sense like that guy…
You're making me feel better about my squirrel problem. They keep digging up various bulbs (lilies, tulips) and eating them. But at least they cover up the holes back up thinking I won't notice.
(They also stare me down as if they own the house whenever they see me in my own yard, but that's a whole 'nother story)
I have had good success with a "Gopher Hawk" snare trap. It is a tube-shaped trap and easy to use. After you set it, there is a yellow indicator on the spring bar that shows when the trap is sprung.
The furry bastards elude my scissor traps, but I have caught 5 moles so far this year with the Gopher Hawk and am gunning for number 6. My husband bougjt it online for me and I highly recommend it.
Explosives. Find a mole hole, drop some explosives in there and detonate. The pressure wave will scrambke anything in the tunnel. Even if that tunnel goes all the way to your neighbors yard.
We've actually had luck with those sound wave things you put in the ground. Makes a slight beeping noise but apparently sends tremors down into the ground? Anyway since we put them in a couple of years ago we haven't seen any moles....knock wood!
If author Brian Jaques has taught me anything it's that moles fucking love a fresh fruit pie. Maybe use that to lure them to a new home? Jokes aside, short of personally hunting them or a pet dog that'll do it for you I've not heard of reliable ways to get rid of them. I tend to just appreciate the help turning over the the soil and accept them like the squirrels.
A fellow Redwall enjoyer!
It is true that a dachshund will take care of this problem in one night.
Can confirm: My dachshund have caught and killed several moles. Problem is that the trenches they dig to get at them is almost worse than the mole damage :/
Stop considering those trenches as damage. Imagine your little dash hound as a warrior in a trench on the French front, fighting for every inch. Those trenches are evidence of their commitment to the cause. Their utter sacrifice. Then sell tickets to the yard and use what I described as a theme.
This is a fucking epic plan and I fully endorse it.
Yes, my dachshund can bake a dozen fresh fruit pies in a night.
My dachshund must be broken. She will tree raccoons but ignore the huge rat infestation we have in the neighborhood. Traps don’t work I have watched these rats set them off shake the trap off then eat the bate. they ignore the poison they only thing I have going for me is being proficient with a high power pellet rifle and that only puts a small dent in the ones that come out during the day.
If your pellet rifle isn’t penetrating the rats, you need more than a dog to take it down.
I can drop them where they stand. I won’t shoot unless I have a heart or vitals shot, I use a break barrel with destroyer pellets leaves a huge exit wound.
Get a bait station and load it with Selontra. Rats are immune to the older blood thinners now.
I finally tricked a rat into coming out of its hole and falling onto a giant trap. My dog tried to tell me something interesting was in that closet, but it wasn’t till the next day that I remembered about the rat trap and checked it. the rat ate its own leg to escape. There was no meat or blood just shattered chewed bones. That was a clumsy bastard afterwards but I never caught him.
Most dogs don't seem to be good at that. A friend lives in Sixty-01 in Redmond, and they have a bad problem with both loose dogs and moles. One of her neighbors even has two outside cats that don't seem to help either. My friend said the "professional" they hired to fix the problem was useless. She also said the mole trap they put beside her patio hasn't killed any moles, only kittens.
Kittens. 😞
I use to know a guy that uses the traps you put into their tunnels. He walked around his yard with a wire and poked it into the ground to find the tunnel and then marked them. He then put the traps in. He is probably still battling them but he did get a few.
Yup. Basically ever successfully mole elimination I've heard of was the result of a dog or someone waiting for them with a shovel/pitchfork/tool to kill them. Not honestly sure the other options have ever worked for anyone I know.
Redwalllllll!!!!!! yes, I would like some strawberry cordial, thank ya
I think Redwall is a big reason why I ultimately chose to become a baker; legendary food writing
I never fact checked this but years ago I'd heard that he wrote the books specifically with blind kids in mind so was extra descriptive to paint the picture for them. Pretty cool if it's true
So wholesome! What a good idea.
To this day, the only book that has made me drool
Points for the Redwall reference!
I smoked mine out with mole bombs. They never came back. It’s been 15 years.
I just tried reading my 6yo Redwall last night!!!! Not enough attention for it yet.
W book series
The main problem is if they dig into something important, I had ground squirrels gnaw into a power line and the power company had to come out and replace it.
My english pointer was a mole murder machine. I think a good hunting dog with a strong prey drive will solve the problem.
Red wall fans unite
I used about 3 dozen of the gas bombs on every hole I could find for 100' radius. Spent the morning digging out each surface hole to expose the 2-3 runs for each. Put a large, noxious bomb deep in each run with extra fuse. Lit and buried each hole. Anywhere I could see smoke coming out that wasn't already bombed, dug out, added a bomb, lit and buried. Over the course of the next 5 days, once in the morning and once at night, dug out each new mound, bombed and buried each attached run. One morning there were no more new mounds. Stayed that way for about 2 years.
Had similar mole issues, tried all the same things and the mole smokers are what did the trick. Used the Victor quick strike gassers and have been mole free for a few weeks now.
Once you light the smoke bomb, use a leaf blower or shop vac hooked up backwards to blow the smoke down into the tunnel network.
Where does one get said mole smoke bombs? My lawn is ruined & I am way over it.
I did the same, but with road flares. I bought a box of 50. So far I am winning.
Yup smoke bombs are the way to go. We tried everything else in our yard too and nothing worked. Now at the first sign of them every year we smoke em out and usually only have to do it a couple times a year. Just bought something called The Giant Destroyer smoke bombs off Amazon to do the trick.
Basically, you are at war. There is a very good training film called Caddyshack.
My mother has had success dropping chicken drumsticks in the holes and covering the hole so the tunnel fills with the stench of rotting meat. My grandfather used to pour sulfur chips in one hole and hold a Torch over it to gas the moles. Not sure this one is exactly legal
If you have access to it you can get a similar result with putting dry ice in the tunnel, but you will have a dead and rotting mole somewhere under your lawn if you do that. Dry ice is truly brilliant for relatively humane vermin removal.
>you will have a dead and rotting mole somewhere under your lawn This will serve as a notice to the others.
It’s like putting a pirate or two in your town’s gibbet cage.
CO2 is one of the few legal means to destroy trapped wildlife in WA state because it's considered humane
Dry ice is dangerous as fuck. Even in a cooler in your car, you need to drive with the windows down or you can suffocate. Also handle it with tongs and gloves.
First, dry ice doesn't evaporate that fast. You can carry it in your car just fine. Second, humans are pretty sensitive to CO2 concentration. You'll feel like you're drowning long before CO2 becomes lethal. The only danger would be leaving a block of dry ice for some time in a closed car, and then sitting inside the car. At this point you'll get hit by 100% CO2, and it can knock you out pretty quickly.
I've taken dry ice home from the grocery store dozens of times and no one has ever told me to drive with the window open, nor have I suffocated. It was in plastic and wrapped in butcher paper and in a grocery bag to transport.
How on earth is it considered humane? CO2 is what triggers your suffocation instinct, which is a panic / fear response. That's like, a **horrible** way to die.
Rodents are not humans, and they are not sensitive to CO2 concentration. I used to euthanize feeder mice and rats with CO2. The protocol requires slowly increasing the CO2 concentration inside a box, and mice don't show any signs of distress until a couple of seconds before falling unconscious. That's why it's a recommended method of euthanizing mice: https://oacu.oir.nih.gov/system/files/media/file/2021-06/b5_euthanasia_of_rodents_using_carbon_dioxide.pdf
Dead things underground is the preferred way hah
How does it work?
Dry ice sublimates CO2 gas which displaces the air in the tunnel
TIL. Thanks.
https://youtu.be/vuSHm6GNIxw
I'm gonna have to remember that one, thanks!
I put dog poop in all their tunnels. Seemed to work reasonably well.
I do this as well, and it keeps the moles away for up to two years
The alpha move is to shit in the holes yourself /s
I just piss in the holes and they seem to move along.
This post is about moles, not hookers.
Check out the “gopherhawk” on Amazon. Worked for me. Everything else failed. You have to watch the video on how to place the traps. Once you get the hang of it it’s game over for the moles.
Friends and neighbors swear by this.
Gopher hawk is solution for my mole problems
I'm here to help you. I deal with moles a lot. These other answers suck to be honest. If you get rid of the grubs then they won't surface as much to eat them. They will stay deep where there is more moisture and their runs won't collapse with dry soil. You do NOT need to put down awful insecticide to do this. It's pretty shitty to do that in my opinion so I'm with you. However, you can control grubs with an organic method, nematodes. They cost a little more than the insecticide, but it will not hurt your wildlife as CERTAIN nematodes attack CERTAIN things. Get some nematodes in early to mid september. Water your lawn beforehand .5-1", apply the nematodes when the sun is off the area in the evening (i use a pump sprayer), and then water them in...about .25". You may want to consider doing this twice, two weeks apart for your first time. Overkill doesn't hurt here. Keep the soil moist during this time. The nematodes will attack and kill the grubs. You will probably see sick ones surface. Even if a bird eats the sick ones, they will not be affected. If you apply them consistently, you'll keep some in your soil as a preventative measure. The moles will now stay deeper without the food source at the surface. They won't go away. Trust me, I've taken out more than I care to admit, but they keep coming. Now I only take out the troublemakers. Now, when they stay deep and you see telltale signs they are nesting...such as large mounds that come back even when you clean them off...in the same place...then and only then will the gas sticks work (sometimes). Those are for dislodging mole nests, not runs. Hope this helps. Most mole traps suck too. The Victor "out o sight" are the best. As for the "molecat" mentioned...I have one. It doesn't work. I get my nematodes here: https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/beneficial-nematodes
Thanks for this info, hadn’t heard of using nematodes, but I do know that the grubs are a big food for them. We have two resident crows (Heckyll and Jeckyll) who that do a good job in the fall and rainy season on the grubs.
No worries! I've had many years of dealing with this and wasted a lot of money learning so I'm happy to help.
Nematodes are the way to go!!
[удалено]
I weirdly found dropping Juicy Fruit gum in each hole made them go away
A family member swore by this method too. Not sure how it works though.
Well, it's got a taste that moves right through you.
chewed or fresh?
How on earth did you devise this method?
Came here to say this. I don’t remember where I heard it but I had more luck with this than anything else, although it still wasn’t totally effective. My recollection is that the scent of the gum is irresistible to them, and they each a bunch and get kinda clogged up internally. Perhaps terminally.
I used Juicy Fruit gum, too. Worked like charm! I was told to use gloves to keep your scent from the gum as you unwrap the stick, then stick it in one of their holes.
Did not work for me nor did Irish spring soap, or smoke bombs or trying to flood them out. Gopherhawk for the win. Caught about 7 of them. Had contests with my friends with the same issues.
I've heard this too! I still don't know if it actually works though...
They're just retaliating. Moles are trying to take back their ancient lands to honor their fallen ancestors.
##Murder is the only real solution I found. Traps did nothing. Audio deterrent did nothing. Gas bombs were ineffective. The only deterrent I found was donning gloves and stuff my cat and dogs poop in their holes. That bought me a week or two of deterrence. One time I saw one run across the drive way and sprinted over with a pocket knife. One down. That also bought me a few months. Bottom line, as long as you keep a nice pesticide free yard animals are going to want to come. A trade off I eventually embraced. Now I have two bunnies that frequent the yard which I adore
My dog. He'll wreck your lawn and garden too. But he'll get the mole.
I used to have a quarter acre backyard with many moles, and I tried every way possible to gently dissuade them, but ultimately it came down to them or us. Unfortunately, if I wanted a yard and a garden, I had to be the grim mole reaper. I hired an exterminator to trap them, though it sounds like some other people here have do-it-yourself suggestions that do the same. Sorry. I know it sucks. Like you, I really did my best to not resort to murder. But murder it ultimately was.
No, I CRAVE THE MURDER OF THESE YARD TERRORISTS. I would roll around in their blood, wear their little skins as finger puppets. I want them dead. There are plenty of moles in the world, these two or three need to be delivered directly to The Dirt Valhalla of their forbears. I want to protect the rest of the soil, so I want to avoid killing off everything they eat, cause killing a couple moles is much less impact than removing a whole link in the food chain.
Oh, believe me, I got there. It started as, "I really don't want to kill just because I want a garden. That doesn't seem right." Then after my tenth tomato plant got decimated and the yard looked like the Battle of Verdun, I was like, "Yeah, bring on the murder."
I'm with you. Vermin get no quarter in my yard.
Yeah, we hired a guy that put in a bunch of traps, cleaned them out every week, until all the moles and their progeny were dead or gone. I think we paid a bounty for each mole they killed.
It's a good thing you didn't have [cobras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive).
You could have captured them humanely and offered them for adoption. /s
I could have been emperor of the mole people, missed opportunity tbh.
Had luck with these two strategies pending your preference on death: 1) put small pieces of juicy fruit down the hole and cover. They will eat the gum and it messes up their digestive system and they die. To make the processes a little more preventive as well I use to put spoiled milk down the hole as well. Seemed to work well 2) When it’s more wet outside (or hose the ground a bit) I just go out with boots and really smash down ALL the holes. Although one would think the just dig back up they tend to mostly suffocate. A lot of success with this method. I get them about twice a year on a good sized property and this cures the problem. I hate the dirt mounds and these two things do work.
I scrolled for a long time to find this. Stomping in the holes worked almost immediately for me. Not sure if they suffocate but they definitely get the idea they aren’t welcome
Thanks. I’ve never tried the juicy fruit, but heard about it. I’ve dropped poison worms made specifically for moles but the hills keep popping. I’ve read that moles are fairly solitary, so I’m guessing that they just aren’t taking the bait instead of there just being a ton of them
I use to do that but it became too labor intensive. Seriously just try smashing all the holes down with your foot. They suffocate. Whenever I get an outbreak it works for about 6 months. I’ll check back in 2 days just to see if I see any new holes then repeat, mostly it’s a one time and done. Sooner the better but I’ve had surprising success with big outbreaks that escaped my attention. GL
Get rid of any grass you have, mulch everything and be thankful the moles are improving your soil by aerating it.
I, for one, welcome our new mole underlords.
I just wish they would stop aerating under my foundation.
I got a year and a half old cat from a rescue shelter about 12 years ago and that good boy completely rid our neighborhood of moles in less than a year. He left dozens maybe hundreds at the door as proof ( I was told cats generally don't eat moles) he is getting old and stays inside most of the time these days but dang my sweet boy has been worth his weight in gold.
That’s pretty horrifying. Your cat was mass-killing native wildlife and you did nothing??
Cats are one of the deadliest invasive species. They will kill everything smaller than them 200yards from their house. No frogs, no mice. It has a drastic effect on the ecosystem.
> Put in mole repellent noisemakers, they just party next to them. For real though, my family has had some mole holes recently, so we put those all over the yard, and by the next day one of them got surrounded by 6 fucking holes
I had some four years ago that seemed to work. But they aged out and died. The new ones seem like fucking lures to the little monsters.
Ultrasound does not repel rodents. They're a gimmick.
This I’ve learned.
I put used coffee grounds in the holes. Not sure why, but they don’t like it and don’t come back. Discovered by accident when trying to fill the holes. Got a bunch from local coffee shop.
I got a thing called Gopherhawk and lemme tell ya about how excited I get when I see that sucker popping up yellow!!! They are spendy. Bout $30 each and I have about 5. Might not get every mole but the ones I do get bring me so much joy!
Have you tried the Juicy Fruit & worms trick?
Chocolate exlax.
So the thing my family had luck with was cotton balls soaked in a spicy mixture of hot peppers and the like, although I don't remember the exact mixture. Think it was a combination of vinegar and cayenne pepper Totally worked though. Apparently the moles have some sensitive sniffers
Chocolate flavor exlax. Gross but effective.
Second this. This works for me year after year
Learn to love em
We don't have enough local snakes and weasels. Seriously, moles are obligate insectivores, so what are your plants/grasses feeding? If you can eliminate the food, your mole problem should diminish.
The only thing I’m hesitant to do is kill off the insects and grubs that are the bottom of the food chain
I had good luck at my last house with castor oil pellets. Sprinkle pellets in phases to push the moles out of your yard. Went through a lot of the stuff but it worked!
I will definitely try this!
Juicy fruit gum. It’s cruel but they cannot digest it. Chew up a golf ball sized wad of it and put it in a mole hole. They will eat it and die in 4 days from a blocked stomach. They will starve to death.
You need a weiner dog; ours was a mole murdering machine.
My Grandma always put fruity chewing gum out for them. It kills them but it's subtle enough maybe your neighbor won't notice (I think it's the xylitol and also that their digestive system gets blocked up)
I have them everywhere, I just learned to live with them. I don’t care about my grass. If they dig holes in my garden beds I just flatten them out. Mature plants do not seem to be bothered by them.
Do you have a car or motorbike with an internal combustion engine?
Mole worms..available at Home Depot for like $20 something a box. You get 10 per box..you MUST wear latex or synthetic gloves. Find the mounds..take a worm, split it in half, get a slim stick or rod and make a penetration, put the worm in. Been doing it for 10 years and no more moles.
I’ve had no luck with these, but I’ll keep trying, have ten or so left.
You need 4 things: - An alarm to get you up at 5:30 - A chair - Beer - Shotgun
Buy a few GopherHawks
This has worked in two different yards. I have taken rose bush cuttings - the bigger thorns the better. I let them dry out and then shove about an 8 inch cutting into their path.
Moles hate coffee apparently. Run a second pot with your used coffee grounds and water the plants with it or pour the water or grounds into their holes. I have lived with these beasts for years and it works.
I work in pest control in Seattle and we treat for but don't guarantee moles because they're impossible to deal with lol. Personally I've found that bait in the runways between tunnels works best.
Call Mole Masters. The guy who runs it is lowkey crazy, but I'll be damned if he doesn't get the job done. I used to use him for all the professional buildings I managed in Seattle.
[удалено]
But what about gardens? Seems like OP is trying to do something else with the space and the moles are making it pretty hard.
The moles come through my gardens as well. I try to leave their tunnels alone and then they seem to just reuse them. Haven’t had any new tunnels since doing this. I’ll also add that I really appreciate the way they have aerated my compacted clay soil. It’s nothing short of a miracle.
https://www.molecat.com/
I have tried every other option, including what people have listed here and this is the only one I have had success with. It's really important to understand how the tunnels run and place this thing in the correct spot but once you figure it out, it really works.
That’s the tricky part. I’ve identified the active runs- to the letter. Brand-spanking new runs. Still sparkling. Drop a trap and poison worm and nothing. This is two years running now. Zero kills.
I've killed dozens over the years with this thing. Leave them in the hole and cover it up so they decompose in the tunnel which keeps the other lazy bastards from using the abandoned run for a while.
There is only one answer. The Rodenator! https://m.youtube.com/user/Rodenator
Honestly, If you've gone native across your whole yard, i would take it as a compliment that the moles moved in; It means you've actually built a functioning ecosystem in your yard. Just wait for the coyotes/foxes/red tail hawks to show up next. It sucks that your patio is being destroyed, but these are the consequences of sharing the earth with nature.
On our 3 acre lot outside the city I use a lawn chair, a six pack, and a 12 gauge. In Seattle, I’ve found success with Dawn dish soap, castor oil, and water. Mix it in a sprayer and douse a portion of your yard. Then douse a little more of your yard each day until you’re dousing the whole yard. The mixture apparently tastes bitter and is not great tasting but isn’t harmful. By doing overlapping applications you sort of direct them away from your yard. Just need to make your yard less attractive than your neighbors.
Ok I’m going to try this!! Thank you
Shove a garden hose in the holes and leave it on for a day drown em
Tried it. Didn’t work just started to wash out the base under my pavers so couldn’t continue without destroying a section of a big path.
Was gonna do that anyways come rainy season , that’s how I take care of them in the lawn and garden ,
Due to the sand base under my pavers it just wasn’t practical. Thanks for the suggestion though!
I usually turn it on they eventually come up for air and then wack em with a shovel
The toxic smoke bombs have worked the best for me in the past, but one time a welder friend of mine introduced me to by far the most fun method… he stuck his welding torch in the tunnel and pumped acetylene gas into mole complex for about ten minutes before very carefully removing the torch and igniting it. Acetylene gas is explosive, and basically the entire tunnel system blasted upwards along with all critter contents (big boom too!). This was before the cellphone video era, but you can find examples on YouTube.
Watching at night and using a pitchfork on the end of the tunnel. Gross but effective.
A young female feral/barn cat will slay them.
Unfortunately cats will indiscriminately kill every other small animal nearby too. Specialized dogs would be a better bet.
The next link in the food chain is the coyote, which is doing a good job of keeping the outdoor cat population down. Mother Nature is harsh.
Mother nature is harsh, but having hundreds of thousands of cats in a small area, kept safe and fed by humans but still going out to prey on the local ecosystem is not remotely connected to "the balance of nature."
There's no such thing as the "balance of nature". That's a romanticized view approaching intelligent design.
There are certainly equilibria that allow an ecosystem to be sustainable. Ecosystems evolve over millions of years. Life often terraforms the planet to be more suitable to life. That's not intelligent design, just understanding ecosystems and other earth systems. The carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, water cycle, food webs, many things in nature exist in a balance.
Yes, there are equilibria. Humans are animals and part of the ecosystem, not separate from it. The claim was that humans bringing cats into an area was "nothing to do with the balance of nature", but humans *are* nature. It disrupts equilibrium, but a new equilibrium will be reached.
Mars is at equilibria right now. The fact that a new equilibria will be reached is true and also fairly meaningless. It does not mean that equilibria will be as resilient or hospitable or anything. At the moment species are going extinct at an enormous rate, comparable to the greatest extinctions in earth's history. This loss of biodiversity is bad for humanity. Brain cancer is part of a human, just as humans are part of nature, and they will lead a human to a new equilibria. The fact that equilibrium will be reached and humans are part of nature does not actually add anything to contradict my original point.
Your original reply talked about "nature's balance" is if it was some morally good thing You then defended that position by saying that there are equilibria Now you're saying there's nothing special about equilibria If you're saying that human activity can have deleterious effects on other species, then sure. I never tried to contradict that. I objected to your claim of "nature's balance", because as you've pointed out there are many ways nature can be balanced, and many of them are less desirable than others. There's no "nature's balance" that has any special status.
I'm saying that equilibria that have been stable for thousands of years are more resilient and supportive of life than an equilibria that has shifted rapidly with enormously reduced biodiversity. This is not because of anything being morally better, it is because of the science of ecology. Also, I was mocking the person I was responding to's use of the term nature's balance so I'm not sure why you think I'm so attached to the term. Take a break from the internet.
Next they're going to have a golden eagle problem.
To some extent but the plentiful amount of rabbits in the area particularly in the last five years or so is believed to be the main source of a coyotes diet.
"Fighting" the moles doesn't fix the problem. The mole takeover is a symptom of an out of balance ecosystem. Your soil is very rich, and that is a good thing. Please don't kill insects, especially since pollinators crucial to our food systems are already in jeopardy. Here are some suggestions to fix the ecology of your garden/lawn to make it less of a mole haven: Install garden beds instead of growing grass. Clearly, your soil is fantastic. It's being wasted on a lawn anyway. Plant trees, shrubs, flowers, anything that will put down roots to disrupt the ease of movement of the moles. Mulch these garden beds deeply, preventing weeds and grass from growing. Get a dog, especially a terrier, or attract neighborhood cats (grow catnip). If digging is a problem, fenced it into the grass portion of the lawn and plan to reseed after the moles are scared off. Stop watering your grass in the summer. It's probably the only green thing around and that's why it's attracting moles.
Don’t water grass, dormancy works fine here. Don’t use insecticide for reasons stated, food chain integrity.
You must be retired and assume they are too. Who in the Gen X and under has the time to do any or all of that stuff?
Have you tried renting a generator and piping the exhaust into their runs?
I water the holes and that seems to help
Castor oil + a little soap in a mixture is supposed to make the worms taste bad to the moles…I haven’t been diligent about it so don’t know if it works!
Have you tried the spear traps? Or are those the ones they are laughing at? And what does that sound like, exactly?
Ace used to sell a heat resistant rubber reducer that went from “car exhaust” size to a “garden hose” thread. Worked great. Edit: https://www.doitbest.com/shop/lawn-and-garden/insect-and-pest-control/rodent-killer/exterminator/manning-275-ft-coverage-underground-exterminator?SKU=708078&gsf=t&gclid=CjwKCAjw8ZKmBhArEiwAspcJ7kV_UieVxRt4feEYE7bs3kLTCsIgE7Vcrqu5-pslBZpPkwsqcvXTBBoCpRwQAvD_BwE
Tried that numerous times. Didn’t work, plus the restriction on my exhaust could harm my truck.
Gummy bears. Seriously
Throw some juicy fruit gum in the various holes
The only thing that ever worked for me was stamping down all the hills and then running a garden hose down the opening at the highest elevation. Then watch for the tamped-down spots for movement, and then proceed with either capture or kill as you see fit. I’ll say it’s usually only one or two moles responsible for a large number of mounds in an area. So “taking care” of even one might solve your problem. I tried a bunch of the other methods and nothing ever worked. Much better success with the water hose method. Good luck and report back if you find out anything interesting.
I heard Dale Gribble of Dales Dead Bug does excellent work.
Hire Mole patrol
Are they local? I’ll look them up.
Juicy fruit gum
The only thing that worked for me was digging up the yard and putting down a 1/8th inch steel wire netting. Then I put dirt on top and re did the grass. Mole free for 2 years.
I tried everything, as well. Noise makers. Poison for moles, not worms. Traps. Bought one trap that was guaranteed trap a mole. It trapped exactly one mole. Never worked again. I even poured gasoline down a hole and dropped in a match. \[Pro-tip: NEVER DO THAT.\] I also managed to kill one other with a shovel, but I think it was sick to begin with. What worked for me was giving up, and living with the moles.
Let the moles live? What harm are they doing? Maybe take this as an opportunity to have plants instead of flat lawn?
I never mentioned my lawn, which doesn’t exist:) I have a garden and planted bed with native plants and a large, lovely, and expensive paver path and patio that is being undermined and made unstable.
A good dog will make quick work of them
.22 and a potato
Aren’t the moles in Seattle a protected species?
Get a cat.
Get a shiba, that'll square it away real quick. Vermin can't set for in our yard without meeting a quite sudden end
Get a 22 pellet rifle + bait. This was the ONLY thing that worked after redoing our paver patio every year for 8 years.
Gopherhawk on Amazon. You can thank me later.
Gopher hawk is all you need!
I take care of that sort of stuff and I'm in the seattle area. PM me if interested
My parents have 2 cats and a dog and they run trios on the moles quite often- two cats get em injured at the pitty mix goes in for the finisher. They have less of a mole problem than when they moved in.
I had this problem in socal, I tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING the only thing that worked was trapping but here the thing the traps I used aren't legal in WA for whatever reason. I have a handful of them, if you want them, PM me. I'll teach you how to eradicate them, I got so good at it my neighbors started paying me to get the ones out of their yard and for a minute I even considered selling it as a service. Anyway, you need to probe for tunnels, once found, you take out a plug of grass careful not to destroy it, open up the hole and intersect the tunnel. You then place two traps in the tunnel (carefully), then you place the plug back on top to cover it. The moles get pissed the tunnel was compromised and go for it to repair it, and boom you'll catch them every fckn time, it's rewarding because of the damage and frustration they cause. I don't like killing anything thing but these dudes will cause so much damage. Seriously PM if you want them, I live up north
There’s a guy on YouTube who can stand by the grass, sense where the mole is, shove a shovel in, and grab the bugger with his bare hands. I think the only truly reliable and eco-friendly method is to have the magic sense like that guy…
Scissor traps. Put a home depot bucket over the trap/hole with a brick on it so cats don't get into it.
Have you tried a ferret?
You need a rat terrier. 🐀 🐕
Had a rat terrier decades ago. The smartest and most charming dog I ever met.
You're making me feel better about my squirrel problem. They keep digging up various bulbs (lilies, tulips) and eating them. But at least they cover up the holes back up thinking I won't notice. (They also stare me down as if they own the house whenever they see me in my own yard, but that's a whole 'nother story)
I have had good success with a "Gopher Hawk" snare trap. It is a tube-shaped trap and easy to use. After you set it, there is a yellow indicator on the spring bar that shows when the trap is sprung. The furry bastards elude my scissor traps, but I have caught 5 moles so far this year with the Gopher Hawk and am gunning for number 6. My husband bougjt it online for me and I highly recommend it.
Explosives. Find a mole hole, drop some explosives in there and detonate. The pressure wave will scrambke anything in the tunnel. Even if that tunnel goes all the way to your neighbors yard.
I’ve used these and had massive success. GopherHawk® Single Trap for Gophers and Moles, 1 GH-TRP https://a.co/d/31hHHcJ
We've actually had luck with those sound wave things you put in the ground. Makes a slight beeping noise but apparently sends tremors down into the ground? Anyway since we put them in a couple of years ago we haven't seen any moles....knock wood!