Dearest Lawn Geeks...

[VOLveeta]

Am I just a dreamer OR is there ANY serious option I have for moles.  Honestly, my yard is a tunneled disaster.  Help me Obi-Lawn-Kenobi... you're my only hope.

yer pal™,
VOLveeta

[101stDad]

Your only hope is to consult Carl Spackler.  He'll have those suckers blown out of there in no time.   

[VOLveeta]

Your only hope is to consult Carl Spackler.  He'll have those suckers blown out of there in no time.   

DAMMIT!!!

[PirateVOL]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/U0Hx5ka1FiA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/U0Hx5ka1FiA</a>

[73Volgrad]

I have not had a mole problem since I had an outside cat that was the best hunter I have seen. Caught and ate every mole in my yard and all the neighbors. When he died, I was worried, but now I have a couple of feral cats in my backyard that have taken up the cause.

[101stDad]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/U0Hx5ka1FiA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/U0Hx5ka1FiA</a>

Fifty bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose.   

[Tnphil]

I am a mole expert I have 32 kills in the past 4/5 years. I actually watch them work....stick a shovel behind them so they can't retreat...pop them suckers out of the ground and kill-em graveyard dead!! This is my most effective way of getting rid of those gosh-dang things. They usually work in the mornings here....8 till 10 and then around lunch.

If you don't want to go the Rambo route then your next bet is to get rid of the food source....They eat grubs and worms...get rid of those and they will leave. Best way for this is to either spray yourself or hire a lawn company to do it...As long as there is food they will stay.

Also....Lowes and Home Depot has a mole repellant that you attach to your garden hose....spray your yard with it.....They DO NOT like the smell and will disappear quicker than our defense did in the 2nd half last season. It soaks into the ground...I've used it and it works...need to spray about every 2/3 months. One sprayer goes a pretty long way based on the size of your yard.

Been fighting these dudes for several years....so far I'm winning!!

[VinnieVOL]

Am I just a dreamer OR is there ANY serious option I have for moles.  Honestly, my yard is a tunneled disaster.  Help me Obi-Lawn-Kenobi... you're my only hope.

yer pal™,
VOLveeta

I'm right there with ya, Veeta.  The mole damage in my yard is the worst I've ever seen it.   

[101stDad]

I am a mole expert I have 32 kills in the past 4/5 years. I actually watch them work....stick a shovel behind them so they can't retreat...pop them suckers out of the ground and kill-em graveyard dead!! This is my most effective way of getting rid of those gosh-dang things. They usually work in the mornings here....8 till 10 and then around lunch.

If you don't want to go the Rambo route then your next bet is to get rid of the food source....They eat grubs and worms...get rid of those and they will leave. Best way for this is to either spray yourself or hire a lawn company to do it...As long as there is food they will stay.

Also....Lowes and Home Depot has a mole repellant that you attach to your garden hose....spray your yard with it.....They DO NOT like the smell and will disappear quicker than our defense did in the 2nd half last season. It soaks into the ground...I've used it and it works...need to spray about every 2/3 months. One sprayer goes a pretty long way based on the size of your yard.

Been fighting these dudes for several years....so far I'm winning!!

And Phil is licensed to kill moles by the government of the United Nations, and on his death bed he will have total consciousness.  

[tnflower]

We have two outdoor cats. They bring us little moles as gifts all the time. Seriously, cats love to kill them, they sit beside the hole and wait for hours for one to pop up......then, it's dead meat.

[Black Diamond Vol]

I think I'd rather have moles than cats. 

[Quasi EVol]

Fifty bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose.   

Another 50 says he eats it!

[Creek Walker]

Are you sure it's moles? If it is, consider yourself fortunate. They're a pain in the rump for sure but, as TnPhil demonstrated, you can combat them.

Voles, on the other hand, are an absolute nightmare. Moles are more or less carnivores while voles are more or less herbivores. Moles can cause your yard to look like crap, but at least they leave the landscaping alone -- unless you're so infested with them that their tunnel system ruins the root system. Voles, on the other hand, wreak complete havoc on the landscaping.

I have a major mole problem, but I pretty much just leave them alone. The voles, on the other hand, I am constantly combatting. Like moles, voles will sometimes leave a raised burrow behind (though their tunnels are often deeper; a lot of times they'll use moles' runway systems if they're available). The difference is you'll find a lot more exit holes because voles will come above ground to eat.

Year before last, my vole battles intensified after they destroyed my garden. I had about 200 young corn plants coming up and they ate the roots off every one of them. I walked through the garden and pulled rootless young corn stalks up one after the other. But last winter was when it was absolutely at its worst. They destroyed my landscaping. I noticed something wrong when a redbud tree just toppled over. There had been no wind, and the tree was young enough that the wind shouldn't have hurt it anyway. I investigated and the tree was loose; most of the roots had been disconnected. I knew voles would eat roots, but i had never read about them eating tree roots before. This was a tree that was probably 3-4 inches in diameter at the trunk. Then a couple of knockout rose bushes just fell over...they were completely rootless. I asked our county agent about it and his theory was root rot due to the wet winter we had. Like me, he didn't really think voles would tackle roots the size of those. I figured he was right about the rose bushes; they were in areas that didn't drain very well in extremely wet weather. But the rosebud was on a bit of a sidling where wet ground shouldn't have been an issue. I started investigating and the roots were still in the ground in some spots; they weren't rotten. They had just been chewed apart. Then, when hostas and other plants started coming up in spring, everything above the ground would just collapse. All in all, they did about $500 in damage just to landscaping plants. I would plant new hostas to replace the old ones and they would eat them overnight. One morning I walked outside to find a hosta that was completely gone. I got to looking and found the tip of one of the leaves sticking out of a hole. I pulled it out, stem and all. And then another, and another. Stupid voles had tried to drag the stems into their burrow but the leaves were getting stuck.

The bad thing about voles is mole traps don't work. Neither does the mole poison because of different food habits. And obviously getting rid of grubs/worms won't work. I finally started setting out regular mouse traps with peanut butter. I caught quite a few, but I caught more field mice than anything. I suspected that they had moved into some of the empty mole/vole burrows and were doing some of the above-ground plant damage. This winter I scattered moth balls all around. Supposedly the smell keeps them away. It appears to have worked, but I haven't really gone out to check.

[Tnphil]

Voles are a pain in the AZZ....I've had some but not like moles......Voles will eat bird seed too. We got several feeders and I watched a vole one day pop his head out of a hole like a gopher...run to the seed that was on the ground and then run back to his hole. Watched him do that time after time.

They love fruit trees too... To them its like us loving a good steak.

[VOLveeta]

This is awesome info guys, thank you.  I do think it's moles... with one exception, I planted a couple of baby cherry trees a couple of years ago and they've failed to grow an inch now I'm betting I won't like what I find if I pull on those little guys.

I'm gonna try the spray route first.  I used a grub killer last year with little success, probably need to do it more often but maybe a combination of the castor oil and some mothballs?  When I had a smaller yard years ago, I went the milky spore route... I should go over there and see if it's been successful.  It's just so expensive!