You should always eat what you kill. Trouble is it takes to many mole asses to make molasses for your pancakes.
See it's little things like this that upset me. I was raised a city slicker. We were told molasses come from trees. I never did really believe such a story. This makes more sense.
OK, some great ideas - tried almost all excepting the pellets so I will see if I can find them here. But even with that, I hate to know I've caused something to suffer for a long time (for it at least). Chewing gum for squirrels - now that's a new one to me. Do people actually still buy Juicy Fruit gum? As to my dislike of trap - if it does not kill immediately and causes the critter to die a slow painful death rather than "wham" it's over like a mouse trap (tried one in the holes, did not work) then I'm just not wanting to do that. I've seen a gopher leg in a trap, it chewed it off to get away - what a horrible thing to have to do just to live but then again, I hate gophers, just not that much. I think even humans must die a slow painful death if they chew Juicy Fruit gum A friend put antifreeze down the various holes and for a time that seemed to work (????) but the moles are back. It has been two whole days and with all he holes opened up (that made sense didn't it?) no new dirt piles. Maybe things are trending positive, just not sure but I'm not spending another wet evening sitting beside a new dirt pile when one happens to try again. I must say that picture Tedy posted was probably what my wife was envisioning as she watched me out in the rain on the lawn. I do know a fellow who says you put ant powder down the holes and that seems to chase them off so I will try that. Doesn't kill them but they don't like it so they move on and I have this large natural area out back of the property they are welcome to move to. Mind you, if it is sunny out, and I see a new dirt pile building, and I happen to have the dandelion stick - aka harpoon........
Just go to your handy helpful hardware man and ask for Mole Pellets. You move the dirt and find the hole which is slightly larger than a soda can around. Put a small amount of pellets down the hole, use the dandilion stick or any other type poker-inner and try to work the pellets down tlll the hole turns. Put something over the hole. I used a 6" square tile I happened to have. Then rake dirt over that. Repeat at each hole with a fresh dirt mound. Don't do it in the rain. The Moles will wait for a sunny day. It's painless and makes the Moles happy to get a free lunch. Kinda like chewing Juicy Fruit chewing gum.
Watch Caddy Shack? One of our ex-members had a ground squirrel problem like that. I found a link to an old Mother Earth News article on that, and it seemed to work, but I can't recall what they did. Huge problem in Southern California, apparently. Some pockets of Western Manitoba get a rash of them, but we don't here in the Red River valley basin. Too much clay.
And considering it's made in China, you know this has to work good! http://www.imexbb.com/garden-mole-repellent-solar-mole-chaser-10872866.htm
I will search the Mother Earth site. Great idea. Mole Pellets - I'm on it, looking at least, so far, nada in my area but I've got a lot of calls to make. Tedy, I actually got sucked in to buying solar powered mole vibrators by a neighbor who said they worked great. He forgot to tell me they only worked great for a few days and then the moles were back. I'm wondering if since I caught a chill/cold from out trying to get the mole in the damp the other night if I might be coming down with "molio" or "pneumolenia" :banghead3: Yeah, my wife just shook her head too when I told her that and walked away saying I have far too much time on my hands and to get the wagon done or anything else productive
Look up "TALPIRID" on your 'puter Guyz 'N Galz. The stuff is not cheep but when you follow the directions and feed 'um one ah them little rubbery worms they go toes up right there in the little tunnel and yeah know what else? Their already buried 'cuz maybe once every year or two one gets stupid and wonders on to my ponderosa and I gotta feed 'um another one ah them wormz! see Jer laughing...
....alright Old man....I finally got ya home....dont over do it !! besides...do you really want your epitath to read .... "here lies Saf57...a mole got him " coffee this week...or else i'll stalk ya !!
Moles are actually beneficial for a garden. The dirt they churn up is perfect potting soil. The only problem with moles is that gophers use their tunneling. It's the gophers who are the pests, since moles don't feed on crops. Over here, gophers have become a plague, because their natural enemies have become scarce
their natural enemies have become scarce---Hans that would be us humans, an endangered species here in Florida. These things some call moles, others call gophers, or ground sqirrels, even ground rats, are different types of rat that make different types of holes, hills, or mounds. The type we and most others who are describing look like ugly blind rats with web feet containing claws. They build hills looking like small volcanoes that ruin the looks of a nice lawn and make mowing a chore. Sometimes tipping over pretty blue shiny yard balls and plastic flamingos, a sign of snow birds in the area. . Another type, a smaller mole type critter makes those half hill tunnels we see in the grass. I don't think they come up to look around. And there are the Chipmunks, some which sing Christmas carols, that I remember from around Lake Michigan, popping up from hole to hole and begging for food. Out west are their relatives, a much larger Chipmunk, not to be confused with those male Chippendales. Personally they should all be banned from Florida and deported to Canada where many people love hunting them with various stabbing devices for sport. It's another variation of their sport Hocky.
If we're talking lawns, then I can agree that they are a nuissance. However, Sir, they were here first and a few potting dirt volcanoes are a small price to pay for how much they benefit a garden. My father in law used to hunt them with a shovel and was pretty good at it. He'd know exactly when they were near the surface. Then, he would use the shovel blade like a guillotine. Over here, we have these rodents which dwell underground and are similar to your gophers. As cute as they are to see, the works of this varmint make them quite loathfull. I've only seen them in the mouth of this one cat who used to fetch them about every 15 minutes and stash them somewhere. People tend to confuse them with the carnivore mole. However, when you have these gopher types, get ready to forfeit a lion's share of your crops and they can be so clever that you would think they have some kind of devine intervention on their side. For example, when they pick upon you attempting to hunt them, they'll munch away at your potatoes just enough to keep the upper foliage intact. You'd only notice they were eating them away, only through accident when your foot sinks into the dirt. Sooner or later, they foliage dies offand at that point, you can forget harvesting. Over here, you can't legally get smoke bombs. I ended up having to make my own, using available fireworks and added sulfer. I'd break apart the fireworks to get the fuse and the powder. Then mix the stuff together with sulfur and assorted plastic chips. There is no mistaking mole tunnels with gopher ones, since the sneaky gopher leaves no mounds and the only sign that a gopher is even in your garden is the entrance hole Here's one method of dealing with them: Here's something I've never seen before. It looks like a device holding a sort of shotgun shell which gets triggered by the gopher: http://www.sportwaffen-schneider.de/product_info.php/products_id/23395 This is what's decorating your lawn at work: Since those things eat worms, I can't imagine why they shouldn't eat the following garden pest which belong to the grasshopper/cricket family and live in underground nests. They feed on potatoes, also. However, the damage they do is on a moderate scale, compared to how gophers devestate: https://www.google.nl/search?q=w%C3%BChlmaus&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=n5piU-mRLayp7AbGroHgCw&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1510&bih=707&dpr=0.9#q=maulwurf+grillen&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=s9nrlPj6CaSoEM%253A%3BkqERzJwwwzTdaM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fweb.ard.de%252Fgalerie%252Fcontent%252Fnothumbs%252Fdefault%252F962%252Fmedia%252F15969_20100407_Maulwurfsgrille_dp.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fweb.ard.de%252Fgalerie%252Fcontent%252Fnothumbs%252Fdefault%252F962%252Fhtml%252F1274_8951.html%3B580%3B420
Since I put two things down the various holes and opened up the tunnels in several places he moles have desisted from marring my lawn further. It was starting to look like the Rocky Mountains given they push the rocks up to get them out of the way. I used both ant powder and lawn fertilizer which has quite a strong scent to it. Old stuff I had for several years and it was either use it this way or take it to a chemical detox site. It has been a week and no signs of hills. I did another tour of duty today topping up various places where I found tunnels and we'll see if this works long term. These are the worm eating critters with front paws that look almost like a tiny human hand, but some webbing. In the past the neighbors cat has been quite adept at taking care of them but in the past year he has lost his desire to sit at a hole and wait for the little guy to pop up and instead is more interested in the treats my wife has stashed away for him that I'm not supposed to know about. :banghead3: No wonder he's not out doing proper "mole'ing", he's getting pets, treats, and paid attention to up on the deck. Oh well.........
I'll bet your moles can't smile like my cricket. Judging by the pose, the photographer was probably playing hip-hop on hois ghetto blaster Well, now you know, Sir
