I'm having a mole problem. They are tearing up my 2+ acre yard. I know they are there because of the grubs/food sources. People say I need to kill the food source. I'll be honest, I can't afford to spend the money that it would cost to spread Grubbex over my entire yard. Any other suggestions? I've tried a couple different traps including the kind with 6 spikes. The trap has triggered probably a dozen times, but no dead moles! Any old tricks out there to help?
You can spike a hundred of them and if you still have grubs, more will come. I can definitely say using Grubbex works but then I'm on like 1/8th of an acre.
Copperheads around our place usually keep them in check... Even using something like triacide/dursban/Diazanon (some of those probably are no longer sold) might help with the grubs. Barring that, cats.
Hey Pat, It's really funny that you should post this now. I've had the same problem for a couple of years. Yes, moles eat grubs, but you can put Grub-Ex or some other grub killer down until you empty your bank account and it won't really help. Moles don't only eat grubs. They eat earthworms too, and even if you could eradicate those you really don't want to because they're beneficial. Spikes don't work. Repellants don't work. Poisons don't work. The only thing that works is trapping them, and I don't mean "live" trapping. Like I said, I had the same problem for a couple of years. My front yard was a disaster and the fence and gate area of my back yard was the same. This year time I decided to try trapping. I did my homework and last month I ordered three Victor Out O'Sight traps from Amazon at around $10.00 apiece. These traps are the real thing. I kid you not when I say that I killed two moles with them in the first 96 hours of the traps arriving and I've yet to see any sign of mole activity since. At first I couldn't believe that only two moles could cause so much damage, but they did. There's a trick to setting mole traps properly, though First, you don't set them on the tunnels that curve all over the place. Those are their "hunting/feeding" tunnels and they don't return to them with any regularity. Look for the long, straight runs. Those are their "highways". Set the traps on those "highways" and you'll kill them. Second, mole tunnels are at different depths depending on the soil type. My soil is Tennessee clay, which means that the tunnels are a bit deeper than they would be if you had a sandy soil. I had to dig out a bit, fill in the tunnel and set the trap a bit below ground level. You want the "scissors" of the trap to be positioned at the right height to hammer the little vermin when they try to push their tunnel back open. Check out the reviews section on the traps I mentioned above on Amazon.com. There's one guy who has really learned his stuff. You'll know his review if you come across it. I followed his advice and, for the time being, I'm mole free. I'm sure more will move in at some point, but I'm armed and dangerous now. Here's an evidence pic. This was mole number 1 and as you can see, I almost didn't get the trap set deep enough, but it was deep enough to get the job done.
You're welcome. One nice aspect of this trap is that you can set them with cats and dogs around and not have to worry about them getting hurt. Oh, I'm sure that if they managed to trip one it would scare them and maybe even sting them a bit because those springs are STRONG, but you don't have to worry about a paw or a muzzle getting impaled. :D
Littlechief, thanks for the mole trap recommendation. I read that review and found the updates a little comical. Just ordered a trap to give it a try. Moles are terrible at my place this year!
The updates were quite funny. I got all mine flattened out and the grass cut short so I'll be watching over the next couple of days to see where Moley is working. Then it's time to move in for the kill.
Just remember to make sure you set the traps deep enough and also remember to use some sort of tool to make the perpendicular cuts in the soil for the jaws to travel in when the trap is tripped. I used a regular old flat pry bar. It makes a more substantial cut than a putty knife.
I have waged war on these little bastards! I'm glad (sorry) that I'm not the only one. I tried poison pellets, the solar powered buzzy things, GrubEx, etc. Nothing seemed to work until I noticed a new mound within an hour of not seeing it prior. I knew the little bugger was in there somewhere so I took the water hose and pushed it down the hole and turned on the water for 10 minutes, I think I drowned him because I haven't see any new mounds in about 2 weeks now. I have also seen a product that you hook up to the exhaust on your car and push the hose down the hole essentially killing him with CO2.
