Ways to Get Rid of Moles in the Garden
I spend hundreds of dollars to make my Garden beautiful with lush green grass, even a surface with lots of plants trees, But one morning, I woke up and saw there were a lot of volcanos that ruined the beauty of my Garden.
What are these volcanos/mounds or ridges?
Who made them so quickly?
Suddenly I saw a tiny creature heads up from the opening of the volcano and hides again as he was playing hide-and-seek with me.
What was that?
When I Google them, I found they are Moles.
A tiny, cute mammal lives in underground soil. They make underground deep tunnels and 3-to 5 inches soil mounds at the surface. They very strong senses, especially the sense of smell and hear. Furthermore, they love a peaceful dark environment and their favorite food is insects, earthworms, pests, and grubs. Read more about moles here.
Benefit of Moles
Moles are although dangerous for your Garden but a good way of soil aeration. They can mix and refresh underground soil and nutrients to the top layer of soil. They can control the population of insects, worms, and grubs in the soil.
Why Moles are Hazardous?
- Moles can deform the even ground surface
- They live in tunnels, so digging of ground at a very deep level can be hazardous
- During the rainy season, these underground tunnels can be flooded with rainwater and increase underground water table that leads to waterlogging and salinity
- Due to the increased level of underground water, you cannot grow plants or trees that require less amount of water
- The appearance of salt patches at the surface of the ground is known as Salinity that leads to infertility of soil and land become barren
- Moles directly damage the plant roots because the plant will expose to surface air through tunneling
- Moles eat healthy worms that are essential in soil for the decomposition of organic substances
How to Get Rid of Moles?
There are several home remedies as well mechanical and chemical procedures to get rid of moles from the Garden. Let’s discuss one by one each method to get rid of moles from your garden:
- 3.1-Home Remedies
- Produce unpleasant sounds
Moles hate noisy areas, so produce music and unwanted sounds to get rid of them such as wind chimes, or music systems. You can use Sonic spike, a device that produces electronic pulses to create annoying sounds. Place this device underground and they will run away
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- Dump solid waste in Mole’s tunnels
Moles will run away from your garden, if you dump solid waste in their mounds, having nasty smells such as pet’s waste (especially dog) or kitchen waste of seafood (fish).
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- Plants
Some plants (allium family), trees, and flowers are unacceptable for Moles such as Marigold, Daffodils, Eucalyptus, Castor beans, Crown imperial, etc. contains strong fragrances.
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- Grooves
Dig deep trenches outside the boundary wall of your Garden to avoid Mole’s access towards the ground.
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- Cut the Food Supply of Moles
It is a common way that food supply (earthworms, grubs, and insects) must be eliminated to get rid of moles.
- Mechanical Ways
- Mole Traps
Use a scissor trap or a harpoon trap to catch a mole.
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- Ultrasonic Mole Spikes
They produce high-frequency sound in ways to chase moles out of an area. See the list of the best sonic mole spikes here.
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- Use Smoke
Cover all tunnel openings of the moles and fix a pipe that releases carbon monoxide in them. This gas will kill the Moles.
- Chemical Ways
- Mole Baits
They are poison and used to kill moles, but illegal in most countries. Tom Cat earthworms, Mole Patrol, Talpirid Mole Bait, Zinc Phosphide baits, and Tom Cat grubs are the example of mole baits. Bromethalin is the neurotoxin most often used in mole baits. They look like earthworms or grubs, paste with poison, when Mole eat them they die within two days.
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- Use Repellents
Avoid poisonous repellents to kill them, but you can use granular or liquid base repellents that have a strong odor and unbearable taste, enough to scare the Mole.
In granular repellents, we can use:
- Mole Max
- Repellex
- Sweeney’s
- Mole Scram
Liquid repellents are more effective, especially having a castor oil mixture.
Conclusion
Use whatever method, you wanted to use but keep in mind that they are natural living creatures and there is always a purpose behind their creation, it’s better to manage their destruction. Try to avoid those methods that are killing in nature because they work against nature and illegal in most countries.