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View Full Version : It's official, I bleeding heart city slicker.



Greg Peterson
04-21-2012, 1:48 PM
I was sitting here following links from John's thread about getting rid of bee's (ended up watching some video's on carpenter bee's, of which I am afflicted). I glanced out the front window and saw the neighbor's cat intently following a little black thing along the apron on my driveway. By the rate of travel I figured it was a mole.

So I went out and scatted the cat away. The crows that had gathered for the event were equally unhappy with me. After a little looking, I found the mole. The little guy had managed to dig part way into a little bit of dirt that only partly concealed him and would not allow him to get under ground. Eventually the cat would have pounced and killed it. So I scooped the little guy/gal up, dropped him/her onto a patch of ground and within seconds was gone.

I can hear you rural folks rolling your eyes. Yeah, I missed my chance to thin the mole population. But one more or one less mole in my yard isn't a game changer. They stay in the borders and don't put mounds in my grass pathways. A few times a summer I get mounds in my borders, but a trowel and water from the hose level these out and we're all good.

So there. It's official. I'm a city slicker.

David G Baker
04-21-2012, 3:24 PM
Wait until you find 30 to 60 feet of tunnel wandering about your lawn dug by that one mole. That mole will have babies and the babies will follow on in the same manner. Yup, I am rolling my eyes and thinking that you should hire the cat to continue with its natural instincts.

Jim Matthews
04-21-2012, 3:26 PM
I would have handed the cat a napkin and passed the Tobasco.

Those things are destructive, and opportunist.
If you see one, you have many.

Greg Peterson
04-21-2012, 4:08 PM
I've had them in my yard for years. One more isn't going to make or break the deal. We have an unofficial truce; they stay in the borders, I leave 'em alone. In fourteen years they've never made a single mound in the grass.

ray hampton
04-21-2012, 4:23 PM
if the moles do not tunnel into your grass then your lawn are barren of grubs or worms ?

jeff . whitaker
04-21-2012, 4:25 PM
[QUOTE=Jim Matthews;1915698]I would have handed the cat a napkin and passed the Tobasco.

+1 you can eat ANYTHING with enough Tobasco sauce.. even M R Es

Myk Rian
04-21-2012, 8:15 PM
if the moles do not tunnel into your grass then your lawn are barren of grubs or worms ?
That's how you get rid of moles. Fight the grubs.
We get sandhill cranes here. They bury 4"+ of their bill in the ground getting grubs. Makes for some big holes.

ray hampton
04-21-2012, 11:04 PM
so that is why the sandhill crane taste so good

Zach England
04-21-2012, 11:57 PM
i would love to have sandhill cranes in my yard. I try to encourage as much wildlife as I can in my tiny urban .09 acre. That's part of thew reason i removed all my lawn. The suburban lawn is a plague on biodiversity.

Greg Peterson
04-22-2012, 12:05 AM
Zach, what grass I have left is basically paths. The classic lawn is just to resource intensive, not to mention just boring. Moles can be a nuisance, but by and large I have been able to co-habitat with them. I'm a "All creatures great and small" kind of guy anyway.

Rod Sheridan
04-22-2012, 8:38 AM
Zach, what grass I have left is basically paths. The classic lawn is just to resource intensive, not to mention just boring. Moles can be a nuisance, but by and large I have been able to co-habitat with them. I'm a "All creatures great and small" kind of guy anyway.

Good for you, lawns are resource intensive, moles are just fine in my garden as well............Rod.

Roger Newby
04-22-2012, 9:02 AM
Tabasco worked for me in 1969 on C-Rations in sunny South East Asia. The cartons were dated from 1945!

David Helm
04-22-2012, 11:22 AM
+ one on live and let live. Plenty of moles on my property. They don't eat from my vegetable garden so I don't care that they are here. I'm sure they were here before me anyway.

Brad Reid
04-24-2012, 7:20 PM
Lets look at this from a different perspective. Sure you saved the poor little mole, BUT you stole a precious meal right out of mouth a poor little kitty kat. The poor little kitty kat was working diligently to do what the Good Lord put him on earth to do. He didn't put the little kitty here to be your lap pet, He put him here to eat these pesky little kritters that cause us pain and anguish ie.. rats, mice, moles, etc... So as I see it you didn't do some great justice here. No Sir just the opposite you skewed the entire way that the ecosystem works you messed with that whole food chain thing.








Personally its your yard do as you wish, I woulda let the cat have mole for supper.:cool:

Greg Peterson
04-24-2012, 11:09 PM
Let's look at it from another angle. I exercised my free will and chose to shoo the fat, well feed, domesticated kitty back to her comfortable front porch perch. Where I might add is her bottomless food dish and water bowl. Pretty sure I didn't deny that cat a meal. Feast or otherwise.

Moles do not upset the state of my yard. Over the years I have been expanding my borders, filling them with perennials and getting rid of lawn. Vastly more interesting and easier to maintain. The urban fauna seem to like it too.