Effective and Humane Ways to Get Rid of Moles (and Take Back Your Lawn)
Moles can cause severe damage to your lawn, pavement patios, gravel beds, and landscaping if left unchecked.
Here at Highland Pest Control, we’ve helped Hundreds of homeowners throughout the Highland area to remove moles from their property.
In this post, we’re sharing the exact strategies we use in the field for getting a mole-free yard and garden.
This is an Image of a day’s trapping in local farmer’s field
Mole Facts
Mole Behaviour
- Activities: Known for their solitary lifestyles, the female mole may come out to the surface to breed her young ones. On most occasions, they prefer the underground territories where they dig and nest in alternating shifts.
- Moles’ Activities at Night
Moles often come out of their hideouts at night to feed and search for new hunting territories.
Because of their secluded underground life and their strong, stench, moles do not make an easy meal for most mammals. However, a few animals like the badger and Fox may dig them out to devour them. - Reproduction: Moles reach sexual adulthood at ten months and breed in their first winter. Depending on the species, mating occurs from winter to early summer. Moles reach adulthood, become sexually active at about ten months of age, and breed during their first winter.
- Moles prepare a burrow before mating by making deep tunnels to accommodate the couple for the mating session.
- When a male mole finds his partner, also known as a sow, the tw mates and the male mole immediately leave the sow to tend to her pregnancy, give birth, and look after her young ones.
- The gestation period is thirty days, and the moles produce a litter of 2-7 young ones.
- The males do not partake in raising the young ones. The young ones begin to move at about three weeks old, and by the time they are ten weeks old, the little moles leave their mother’s nest to go and fend for themselves.
- The highest life span of moles ranges four to six years.
Digging: How deep do moles dig? Moles hills using forelimbs to dig, moles shear soil from the sides of the underground walls with quick strokes to create tunnels. They use the hind limbs to force their bodies forward against the tunnel walls. They then turn around and scoop the heaps of soil with their large forelimbs pushing it along the deep end leading closer to the surface.
The fore limbs dig deep, shoving soil to the sides of the earth tunnel with alternate strokes. The rear legs are used to support the mole’s body against the channel walls. The mole turns around, gathers up accumulated soil using its thick frontal limbs, and shoves it along the sides as it moves forward towards the surface.
During dry weather periods, moles dig deeper into the ground in search of moist areas where worms flock – under sidewalks, near sewer drain fields, rocky areas, and shaded hedges.
How do they dig deep tunnels? A mole’s typical terrain resembles a maze-like system of interlocked underground burrows.
Moles construct dark tunnels and surface tunnels.
Surface tunnels run approximately 4 inches deep into the ground. These appear as broad ridges 3-inch rips in the in the soil, or as mounds. In lawns, surface tunnels reveal the seams held collectively by the surrounding grass roots, – the peaks are visible and built without any particular plan.
1. Traps
Trapping is the most reliable method to get rid of moles.
Modern mole traps, including Spring traps and scissor-traps, use lethal methods to kill moles and quickly eradicate mole populations.
They also offer a high degree of target-specificity for moles and no potential for chemical buildup or secondary poisoning in the surrounding ecosystem.
Keep in mind that trapping moles requires consistency and creativity.
Moles are smart, and they, more than many other small mammals, are excellent at detecting and avoiding traps that aren’t set or placed properly.
How to do it:
- To make your trapping efforts as effective as possible, we recommend placing traps directly in active mole runways and trapping during the spring and fall, when moles are most active.
- Trapping during the spring allows you to eliminate females before they give birth to young, which is an effective way to limit infestations.
- Use about 15-20 traps per acre of property.
- If possible, you should seek to place at least one trap in each of the moles’ main runways. Mole runways are pathways they use again and again, so setting the traps in or near them improves the efficacy of your trapping program.
- You can find runways by poking holes into the top of the soil near a mole hole using a stick (dibber) or Breadknife. If the hole is repaired within a day or two, it’s a prime runway and a great place to trap moles.
Putange Spring Trap
Scissor Trap
2. Eliminate mole food sources
- When you eliminate the grubs and other insects moles feed on in your yard, you make the habitat less attractive for moles.
- We recommend controlling grub populations by using beneficial nematodes or milky spore to kill grubs.
3. Create dig-proof barriers
- To form a human-made boundary around your lawn and garden, dig a trench that is roughly 2 feet deep and six inches wide around the space you’d like to protect.
- Fill the trench with rocks or line it with wire mesh or hardware cloth with holes ¾ wide or smaller.
- This is a time-consuming but effective, long-term solution to keep moles from burrowing their way into your yard.
- You can also install wire mesh across your lawn and around your newly planted landscaping items to keep moles from digging through the moist soil surrounding the roots.
4. Keep your lawn tidy
Moles feel safest under cover. Because of this, eliminating their shelter is a great way to encourage them to go elsewhere.
Here’s what to do:
- Mow Regularly: Keep your lawn well-maintained by mowing often. This improves the appearance and helps prevent moles, as they prefer longer grass.
- Avoid Overwatering: Don’t overwater your lawn. Excessively moist soil attracts insects and grubs, which moles eat. Water your lawn deeply but not too often.
- Fill Tunnels: If you see mole tunnels, fill them in right away. This can stop moles from coming back or making new tunnels.
- Install Barriers: To keep moles out, dig trenches around your lawn’s edges and fill them with rocks or wire mesh.
Remember that most lawns only need about an inch of water per week to stay healthy, so this approach won’t make your outdoor space any less beautiful.
When to get professional help?
You should consider calling a pro if you’ve tried some or all of the strategies listed but are still seeing signs of Moles. It can be challenging to locate mole tunnels, but a professional will know exactly where to look and how to remove the activity.