PDA

View Full Version : Moles?



Marty Gulseth
03-02-2017, 3:14 PM
At least, I think they are moles (eastern WA if it makes a difference) making a mess of part of our yard last summer and now that the snow is melting, it looks like they may have been busy even through the winter (I was a little surprised at that.) So - recommendations or experience please - professional pest control, or DIY? And if the latter - what method has seemed to work best for you?

Thanks all!

Marty

Stan Calow
03-02-2017, 3:31 PM
What are you seeing? Raised mounded tunnels, or just tracks on the surface? For moles I've used poisoned peanuts placed in the tunnels, although others prefer the spear-type traps.

Jim Koepke
03-02-2017, 3:32 PM
Hope they are moles and not gophers.

Moles eat slugs and worms. Gophers eat roots.

Moles do not bother me as much as they bother my wife. We have burrowing weasels that eat moles, rats and other small animals. I wouldn't suggest that as a solution.

I discovered the state of Washington doesn't like people to set traps for mammals. You can put out bait for them. Some are against this as a poisoned animal may get caught by an owl, cat, dog or other predator causing them to suffer ill effects up to and including death.

jtk

Shawn Pixley
03-02-2017, 5:38 PM
My dog is a gopher killer, killing them at the park by our house. No gophers (racoons or possums) come in our yard because of him. I know this doesn't help you much as my dog is in California; otherwise I'd bring him over. But I favor a dog, cat or small rifle (could be an air rifle) to rid the little pests. I don't favor poisons as what ever eats the dead critter will get the poison concentrating in their body.

if you don't have a dog, try a pellet gun. The gopher will peer out of their open hole (one hole is left open where as most of the mounds will be closed). Early morning or twilight are the best times. If you are quiet and discrete, you should have little problem picking it off. Alternatively, you can try to flood them out but that is hit or miss.

George Bokros
03-02-2017, 6:02 PM
If there are no raised mounds then they are Voles. Similar animal but they are on the surface. We had lots of Vole trails in our year a couple winters ago. The neighbors cat has done a good job of eliminating them.

Joe Pelonio
03-02-2017, 6:39 PM
I have the same problem. Last year I chased them away by placing a Costco dryer sheet in each hole, and they were gone all spring, summer and fall. Lately with our snow and cold the ground has been too hard, and there are far more mounds than ever before, so it's just a temporary fix, I guess. I only have one trap but will use it in a few weeks. We expect more snow this weekend.

Rich Riddle
03-02-2017, 8:55 PM
Someone had mentioned in the past that spraying for grubs will get rid of he moles because the food source for the moles will have vanished.

Mel Fulks
03-02-2017, 9:06 PM
Some of the products that have castor oil in them get good reviews. Critters don't eat it ,just avoid it. The stuff is expensive. I think you could make your own pretty cheaply with castor oil ,available by the gallon ,and cat litter.

Brian Henderson
03-02-2017, 9:48 PM
My dog is a gopher killer, killing them at the park by our house. No gophers (racoons or possums) come in our yard because of him. I know this doesn't help you much as my dog is in California; otherwise I'd bring him over. But I favor a dog, cat or small rifle (could be an air rifle) to rid the little pests. I don't favor poisons as what ever eats the dead critter will get the poison concentrating in their body.

if you don't have a dog, try a pellet gun. The gopher will peer out of their open hole (one hole is left open where as most of the mounds will be closed). Early morning or twilight are the best times. If you are quiet and discrete, you should have little problem picking it off. Alternatively, you can try to flood them out but that is hit or miss.

I had a dog like that once. Akitas are great for killing anything that gets into the yard. Unfortunately, they're just as great at digging up the yard because any time they sense any kind of vibration, they're digging after it whether it's a mole or gopher or not.

Sean Troy
03-03-2017, 9:40 AM
I haven't had mole problems once I started treating the lawn for bugs. Kill the moles food supply and they won't come around. Easy solution that has worked for years for me.

Stan Calow
03-03-2017, 9:45 AM
I asked what you were seeing because you often see networks of vole trails when the snow melts. They travel just under the snow leaving pathways on the surface, not like burrowed mole tunnels.

John Terefenko
03-03-2017, 10:32 AM
I will piggyback on this thread because I too am seeing a ton of small holes. No tunnels or piles of dirt, just holes. It has been a mild winter here in NJ and the ground is not even frozen. In fact I bet I will be cutting grass soon than later this year. Last summer I had a skunk invade the lawns and they dig deep holes. These are shallow and smaller. At first I thought it might have been squirrels but way too many. I need to put something on the lawn to stop all this. I just planted grass last year after a long tough hot summer and it looks quite well. I looked for grubs but i do not see any and the grass does not come up if pulled so the roots are good.

Maybe someone can help me too.

Bill McNiel
03-03-2017, 11:25 AM
We have both Voles and Moles in our neighborhood. Voles travel just under the surface creating raised surface bump tracks and can be "speared" with a pitchfork or shovel or just dug up. For moles the best solution I have found are the gas bombs that are sold at the BORGs. Simply dig up one of the mounds exposing the runs, insert the bomb, light the fuse and quickly cover the hole with a piece of plywood or whatever and seal the edges with soil. check for gas leaking from the other mounds and seal as necessary.

Don't hesitate to PM me if you have questions.

Jerry Bruette
03-03-2017, 11:47 AM
Voles will leave trails under the snow but above the ground, looks like a "snow snake" was in your yard.

Google PVC bait station for the cure to having voles, mice or chipmunks in your yard. I've been using them for years at my cabin and started using them about two years ago at home and the population of pesty type wildlife has gone down drastically.

I don't think the poisoned vermin hurt the predators in the area I still have pine snakes and owls at the cabin and home.

Marty Gulseth
03-03-2017, 3:12 PM
I have raised mounds of dirt. So far I've not been able to move the dirt to spot a tunnel.

Myk Rian
03-03-2017, 9:33 PM
Someone had mentioned in the past that spraying for grubs will get rid of he moles because the food source for the moles will have vanished.
Got moles? You got grubs.

roger wiegand
03-05-2017, 4:40 AM
A healthy ecosystem in most parts of the country will have several hundred to over one thousand mice, moles, voles, and shrews per acre. Trying to get rid of them would be a fool's errand, not to mention a very foolish disruption of Mother Nature's systems.

Jason Roehl
03-05-2017, 8:33 AM
Milky spore.

Treat your lawn with it--it will infect the grubs, killing them off, and the moles will leave because there is no food for them. You may have to re-treat after 5-10 years.

Another benefit is that with no grubs, you won't have Japanese beetles, either.

Myk Rian
03-05-2017, 3:51 PM
A healthy ecosystem in most parts of the country will have several hundred to over one thousand mice, moles, voles, and shrews per acre. Trying to get rid of them would be a fool's errand, not to mention a very foolish disruption of Mother Nature's systems.
And where did you learn that?

Garth Almgren
03-06-2017, 2:21 PM
I discovered the state of Washington doesn't like people to set traps for mammals. You can put out bait for them. Some are against this as a poisoned animal may get caught by an owl, cat, dog or other predator causing them to suffer ill effects up to and including death.
Yep, thanks to unintended consequences of I-713 in 2000, the most effective mole traps ("body-gripping") are illegal to use in WA. Eastside Exterminators had to close up their mole division when that passed.
The only other effective way is to kill all the grubs that the moles feed on, but grubs help make your lawn healthy so killing them all isn't really a good idea. The WDFW has more info: http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/moles.html

I don't mind all the mole hills - I'll just shovel up the excess dirt into a wheelbarrow before mowing - but my rat terrier is determined to hunt them down by digging up all their feeding tunnels, so the back yard looks like the eastern front with trenches everywhere. The problem is that she is getting older and hasn't managed to catch any moles yet. It'll probably take two yards of topsoil to undo the damage, and then no guarantee that she won't dig it all up again.

Randy Red Bemont
03-06-2017, 2:36 PM
If you have moles...you have grubs. A treatment of Milky spore will kill the grubs (not an overnight fix buy any means) and the moles will move on. In the spring through fall if your yard gets dug up at night that is skunks looking for grubs.

Red

John Terefenko
03-06-2017, 3:01 PM
If you have moles...you have grubs. A treatment of Milky spore will kill the grubs (not an overnight fix buy any means) and the moles will move on. In the spring through fall if your yard gets dug up at night that is skunks looking for grubs.

Red


This is the second time this was mentioned about the Milky spore thing. I will have to look into this. Thanks.

What is the best stuff to use. Granular or powder or is there a liquid??? Any particular brand better than another???

Marty Gulseth
03-06-2017, 3:16 PM
Thanks for all of the insights and ideas. Personally, I'd just as soon chase them off as take them out. One thing I was curious about was whether anyone has tried, and if so, had any success with those "ultrasonic probes" which get stuck down in the soil and allegedly annoy the critters until they leave. I wondered if they do any good at anything other than costing me more money for D cell batteries (I have my suspicions.)

Marty

roger wiegand
03-07-2017, 4:36 AM
And where did you learn that?

Most states do wildlife surveys and report results on a state website. Looking at a variety of them it seems that voles are most common, running 10-100 per acre, but, as in this article http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/voles.asp infestations can run up to 4000/acre. Shrews are more territorial and tend to be in single digits per acre.

When I mow my meadow in MA in the fall I see at least one small critter scurrying away every 10-20 feet; I'm sure there are many more I don't see.

Ken Combs
03-07-2017, 4:04 PM
Got moles? You got grubs.


That's funny, as the only thing I remember from a management seminar years ago was a presentation that started with a story about killing moles over and over before zeroing in on the root cause: moles eat grubs.

The message was: you can play whack-a-mole forever, or you can find the cause and fix it.

BOB OLINGER
03-08-2017, 9:13 AM
Milky spores - for what it's worth. I did the application process (like 3 consecutive years) of the milky spore thing. However, the last 2 years, especially in Sept. - Oct., we've been invaded by moles harder than ever. I complained at Earl May that the milky spore application didn't work. I can't remember the reply, only that it wasn't a guaranteed fix. So this year, I'm going to treat more intensively for grubs - not only once but multiple times to see if that works better.

Mark Patoka
03-10-2017, 3:46 PM
We get voles quite often living next to a woods. I use a regular snap mousetrap, set it next to the vole hole and put a pail or pot over it to protect it/keep it dark. I've caught quite a few of them that way.

My dad had a bad gopher problem and used mousetraps for them also. Bait them with peanut butter and you're all set. Found out if the trap doesn't get them, the peanut butter will choke them off a few feet from the hole. He caught over 70 gophers this way one summer.