Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles? I have tried
a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have looked on the web and
seen several options: scissor traps, worm type bait and eliminating grubs.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Ed

edja wrote:
Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles? I
have tried a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have
looked on the web and seen several options: scissor traps, worm
type bait and eliminating grubs. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Ed

Moles are one of the good guys. They eat the bad (grubs) guys.
Leave then be.

--
Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

In article , "edja"
wrote:

Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles? I have tried
a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have looked on the web and
seen several options: scissor traps, worm type bait and eliminating grubs.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Ed

Check this out:
http://www.paghat.com/mole.html
The Victorian maxim that starts out the article, "The ground swells
greenest o'er the laboring moles," seems to have been forgotten by
envirophobic moderns, but it was once common gardener knowledge that moles
do not harm plants but do great good aerating soil & controlling
populations of grubs & beetle larvae that do harm plants.

If per chance you really do have the rare & unusual mole who is a serious
problem (& they have enough individuality that one out of every few
thousand may find some method of being an actual rather than assumed
nuisance), no solution other than scissor traps are likely to work in your
behalf, & even scissor traps won't work if you're not ultra-expert at
placing them.

Once you've made the awful decision not to tolerate such wildlife, your
life thereafter as a mighty slayer of moles will be perpetual frustration.
Even if you have an occasional "success" in killing a mole & can put your
foot on its scissored corpse & raise your fist to heaven singing a great
song of victory against God's worthless creation, another mole will move
into the vacated underground mole-runs the next day. You'll have to kill
them serially for the whole of your ambulatory life, then when you're
dead, a wee beady-eyed & pointy head will pop its head out of the sod over
your grave & blow raspberries at your tombstone.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

paghat wrote:
In article , "edja"
wrote:

Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles? I
have tried a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have
looked on the web and seen several options: scissor traps, worm
type bait and eliminating grubs. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Ed

Check this out:
http://www.paghat.com/mole.html
The Victorian maxim that starts out the article, "The ground swells
greenest o'er the laboring moles," seems to have been forgotten by
envirophobic moderns, but it was once common gardener knowledge
that moles do not harm plants but do great good aerating soil &
controlling populations of grubs & beetle larvae that do harm
plants.

If per chance you really do have the rare & unusual mole who is a
serious problem (& they have enough individuality that one out of
every few thousand may find some method of being an actual rather
than assumed nuisance), no solution other than scissor traps are
likely to work in your behalf, & even scissor traps won't work if
you're not ultra-expert at placing them.

Once you've made the awful decision not to tolerate such wildlife,
your life thereafter as a mighty slayer of moles will be perpetual
frustration. Even if you have an occasional "success" in killing a
mole & can put your foot on its scissored corpse & raise your fist
to heaven singing a great song of victory against God's worthless
creation, another mole will move into the vacated underground
mole-runs the next day. You'll have to kill them serially for the
whole of your ambulatory life, then when you're dead, a wee
beady-eyed & pointy head will pop its head out of the sod over your
grave & blow raspberries at your tombstone.

-paghat the ratgirl

Well put Ratgirl.

--
Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

"edja" wrote in
:

Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of
moles? I have tried a pesticide (mole tox) with little
success. I have looked on the web and seen several options:
scissor traps, worm type bait and eliminating grubs. Any
suggestions would be helpful.

my barn cats are pretty good at getting rid of moles, voles &
mice too. (for the birdy lovers out there, they seldom bother
birds because there are enough fun mole, vole, mouse toys
around to keep them occupied... plus the overly aggressive
rooster seems to have put the fear of birds into them g).
Rudh recently brought me a Star-nosed mole. what a facinating
creature! personally, i'm happier when they get the voles.
those things are far more destructive than the moles.
oh, & eliminating grubs does remove the moles food supply &
is probably the best method for non-cat folks g. i have 62
acres & grub eradication is not much of an option due to my
pending organic status & size of the acreage. i just don't
worry too much about the lumps in the lawn (now the woodchuck
in the pasture is another thing entirely...)
lee

You have my sympathy. There are several types of moles. Some are
harmless, creating just a few small mounds and almost unnoticable
tunnels. These ones are kinda cute. Some are destructive; these are
not cute.

I could easily live with harmless ones. Most of your replie are about
these. Heck, I'd like one. I prefer to live in harmony with nature if
I can. The moles I had were not the harmless cute kind. They
destroyed my back yard. I am not kidding. We are talking about more
than 50 mounds (each at least 2 feet across and 6 inches high) in a
smallish surbaban backyard. This was in a dulex, and the tennents
could not mow because of the mounds. If I raked them all flat, the
next day there would be half a dozen more... and more the next. One of
our tennents sprained an ancle when her foot sunk into one of the
hollow spots.

Traps eventually worked. However, you must follow the directions
carefully and monitor them closely (several times a day) if you want
any success. I could not check them daily, so it took a whole season.
They yard needed to be reseeded completely come fall.

A few harmless ones... enjoy them.
Destructive yard destroyers, trap them or give up and move.

gf

In article . com,
"greenfoot" wrote:

You have my sympathy. There are several types of moles. Some are
harmless, creating just a few small mounds and almost unnoticable
tunnels. These ones are kinda cute. Some are destructive; these are
not cute.

I could easily live with harmless ones. Most of your replie are about
these. Heck, I'd like one. I prefer to live in harmony with nature if
I can. The moles I had were not the harmless cute kind. They
destroyed my back yard. I am not kidding. We are talking about more
than 50 mounds (each at least 2 feet across and 6 inches high) in a
smallish surbaban backyard. This was in a dulex, and the tennents
could not mow because of the mounds. If I raked them all flat, the
next day there would be half a dozen more... and more the next. One of
our tennents sprained an ancle when her foot sunk into one of the
hollow spots.

With rare exceptions, in the main there are no "harmful" moles, if actual
damage to property or plantlife is the measure of harm. But a single
Townsend's mole certainly can make dozens of mole-hills all by itself.
This activity does no harm & much good in an ecological context, but
anyone who wants a perfect lawn will naturally regard it is unsightly to
the highest degree. "Perfect lawn" is to me a horrible thing (see:
http://www.paghat.com/lawnloony.html ); even so, I can certainly
understand why thirty, forty, or fifty piles of dirt in the front yard
would not be tolerable to a lot of homeowners.

If its not a Townsend's though, no other mole is that mightily
industrious. And the real issue would be this: If there are fifty
mole-hills in the front yard, the sod is greatly infested with grubs which
can kill lawns, as otherwise the mole would be industrious somewhere else,
so the Townsend's is doing good work rather than harmful, even if those
piles of dirt aren't attractive.

Traps eventually worked. However, you must follow the directions
carefully and monitor them closely (several times a day) if you want
any success. I could not check them daily, so it took a whole season.
They yard needed to be reseeded completely come fall.

A few harmless ones... enjoy them.
Destructive yard destroyers, trap them or give up and move.

I agree with that final sentiment more than not. The FIRST choice should
always be tolerance if not outright enjoyment. Sometimes that's not
possible. Where the margin between tolerable & not tolerable begins or
ends is going to be a personal call with each gardener. My complaint is
that most people automatically assume they have to kill things & don't
actually think about it rationally, as more often than not there's no
reason at all.

If a mole really must be killed & it can be done without too much
disfigurement to the pelt, it is super-soft & worth saving. Turn it into a
dollhouse carpet.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000 Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

Thank you for your many replies and suggestions. It is winter here in Jersey
, but we had a week of 50 to 60 degree weather and I was surprised the 1 the
moles were active and 2 the extent of the area they had covered(10 ft by 30
to 40 ft) from the back yard to the front. In the beginning they were
confined to the fringes of the backyard. So I will probably try to keep my
grubs down and let them live as long as I can mow the lawn, one of my fav
things to do.(ha)


"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article . com,
"greenfoot" wrote:

You have my sympathy. There are several types of moles. Some are
harmless, creating just a few small mounds and almost unnoticable
tunnels. These ones are kinda cute. Some are destructive; these are
not cute.

I could easily live with harmless ones. Most of your replie are about
these. Heck, I'd like one. I prefer to live in harmony with nature if
I can. The moles I had were not the harmless cute kind. They
destroyed my back yard. I am not kidding. We are talking about more
than 50 mounds (each at least 2 feet across and 6 inches high) in a
smallish surbaban backyard. This was in a dulex, and the tennents
could not mow because of the mounds. If I raked them all flat, the
next day there would be half a dozen more... and more the next. One of
our tennents sprained an ancle when her foot sunk into one of the
hollow spots.

With rare exceptions, in the main there are no "harmful" moles, if actual
damage to property or plantlife is the measure of harm. But a single
Townsend's mole certainly can make dozens of mole-hills all by itself.
This activity does no harm & much good in an ecological context, but
anyone who wants a perfect lawn will naturally regard it is unsightly to
the highest degree. "Perfect lawn" is to me a horrible thing (see:
http://www.paghat.com/lawnloony.html ); even so, I can certainly
understand why thirty, forty, or fifty piles of dirt in the front yard
would not be tolerable to a lot of homeowners.

If its not a Townsend's though, no other mole is that mightily
industrious. And the real issue would be this: If there are fifty
mole-hills in the front yard, the sod is greatly infested with grubs which
can kill lawns, as otherwise the mole would be industrious somewhere else,
so the Townsend's is doing good work rather than harmful, even if those
piles of dirt aren't attractive.

Traps eventually worked. However, you must follow the directions
carefully and monitor them closely (several times a day) if you want
any success. I could not check them daily, so it took a whole season.
They yard needed to be reseeded completely come fall.

A few harmless ones... enjoy them.
Destructive yard destroyers, trap them or give up and move.

I agree with that final sentiment more than not. The FIRST choice should
always be tolerance if not outright enjoyment. Sometimes that's not
possible. Where the margin between tolerable & not tolerable begins or
ends is going to be a personal call with each gardener. My complaint is
that most people automatically assume they have to kill things & don't
actually think about it rationally, as more often than not there's no
reason at all.

If a mole really must be killed & it can be done without too much
disfigurement to the pelt, it is super-soft & worth saving. Turn it into a
dollhouse carpet.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com


----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet
News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 100,000
Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---

I repeatedly see the assertion that lots of mole activity is an indicator of
grub infestation. We have a lot of Townsends moles and I haven't found a
corresponding abundance of grubs in our soil, but earthworms are aplenty.

This is an interesting factsheet I pulled up - about Townsends in BC - that
covers their behavior and diet in detail. Really very interesting. Thought
others might enjoy reading it. Also note it says earthworms comprise over
70% of their diet, which certainly confirms my experience.
http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/wld/documen...nsendsmole.pdf

Perhaps the earthworm/grub connection holds true for other species.

Don't blame me. I voted for "edja" .

Does anyone have any good experience with getting rid of moles?

Laser surgery? LOL?

I have tried
a pesticide (mole tox) with little success. I have looked on the web and
seen several options: scissor traps, worm type bait and eliminating grubs.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Ed

Check of moles
If there is uncertainty about malignant melanomas, it is important with a check of the mole. There are different types of moles. They are formed in childhood and into adulthood. As one gets older you stop to develop new moles, but then get rather age warts and pigmentation of the skin caused by sun exposure. Moles represents accumulation of pigment in the skin.
See more at:- http://www.oslohudlegesenter.no/beha...f-flekker.html

http://www.oslohudlegesenter.no/