War on Moles

[ThomWV]

Generally I don't kill much of anything in the garden. Room's not a problem, seed's cheap enough, and we don't eat all that much so I've got sort of a live and let live attitude about the garden. Also, I believe in the harmony and interconnectedness of life - or something like that - so if it wants to live in the garden its OK with me and if it eats some of the garden I'll just plant a little more and we'll be all right.

Last year I planted my grapes. I have been meaning to plant them for 30 years, but I'm slow sometimes. I took great care in setting up my supports. Five treated fence posts set in concrete three feed deep. I dug the holes where the grapes would be planted a year early, they were filled with compost and left to settle for the following season's planting. This was a lot of work. I'm old and I really wanted to plant something that would far outlive me, but of course I still want to get a decade or so's worth of eating out of it myself; this ain't all for posterity. So last year I got my plants in, and I pruned them just like you're supposed to and I cared for them like a newborn infant. Winter comes and all is well. We never did have any extended deep cold periods and I had mulched everything heavily in the fall anyway. I uncovered a month ago and have been watching the vines since. Of the dozen plants a dam mole has killed 4. I dam near got him yesterday evening. I saw the ground moving right as he was furrowing. I planted a boot heel headed for hell in an attempt to smash his filthy little head. Apparently he made it away unscathed, there was a fresh trench this morning.

I want to scream! How do you kill these creatures from hell? I'm all ears and the method does not have to be particularly painless either.

[sazemisery]

1. Here's a link with advice

http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/pests/2000072622007867.html

We have moles. I have treated the immediate area (1 acre) with milky spore 2 years in a row. I have seen a vast drop in the mole population. It doesn't kill them it just kills the food they eat (Japanese beetle grubs). My neighbors have seen a growth in the number of tunnels in their yards so it seems I have chased them out of my immediate area!
Here's the link for more infor:
http://www.milkyspore.com/milkyspore.htm

Hope this helps. :hi:

[ThomWV]

11. My local Southern States carries it too

Do I need one of those despensers or is there a home-made way to get it where it goes in an effective way? Can it be broadcast or does it have to be imbedded in the soil? What about rain soon after application - good or bad? Hot or cold weather, time of year? The stuff I find on line doesn't say much about application. This is something I should be doing anyway.

[noamnety]

2. metal fencing under the plants.

I would redig around the grapes, and put a metal mesh around the area. If you feel like you can uproot the grapes at this point, put it under them completely. If they are too settled in to go through a transplant routine, do the best you can around them. Make sure the mesh is smaller than mole size. We had to do that at the corner of our house, the ground hog kept wanting to check how deep the basement is - not the best thing for drainage.

Used cat litter dumped in their holes/tunnels is a big turnoff for them, and you might be able to dig some of that in around your grapes.

My husband's got a bit of a temper and when we were badly invaded by moles one year, he went after the moving tunnels with a pitchfork, despite my yelling at him. I know we still have grubs because the skunks been digging up the yard again, but the mole tunnels have stopped. We redid a section of the lawn in wildflowers, and who knows, maybe they decided they like it there better - and that area hides their tunnels. (It effectively hid some sort of ground hog luxury condo with front and back entrances, til the riding mower tire found it in the annual mowing.)

[GregD]

3. castor beans!

We have a large lawn and the moles love it. Love to tear it up that is... We sprayed a castor-based liquid that comes in a spray bottle that attaches to the garden hose. We also used caator pellets and kitty litter at the locations of their holes. Between the 3 non-toxic strategies, the moles split. Totally gonners.

[Blue Gardener]

9. Gardeners Supply has it

If you can't find it at a local garden center;

http://www.gardeners.com/Mole%20Skunk%20and%20Vole%20Repellent/Rodents_Cat,34-603,default,cp.html

[formercia]

4. 2 successful ways

Anhydrous Ammonia. Flood the burrows. You can literally see the grass turn brown as the Ammonia goes down the tunnel. They never came back and the grass grew back even greener. Before that I used to sit by my garden with my 03A3 Springfield, and when one of my pepper plants that they so relished began to wobble and disappear into the ground, I would fire a 180 Grain max load right at the base of the plant. Noisy but effective.

[ThomWV]

5. Do you think 240 grain from a 25-'06 will work as well?

Other wise we go to 12 Gage slugs.

For us some of the other methods have drawbacks. I am not totally against any means, no matter if it is chemical or savage, within reason I would prefer not using nitrogen fertilizer if I can help it, though I'll go to that if all else fails. The reason is not that I think that man made fertilizers are utterly horrible things. I just prefer not to buy the stuff these days because it seems to me to be a very fast way to get your phone tapped and your name on all sorts of watch-lists; the Department of Homeland Security is everywhere these days. The last few days I've been trying flooding the tunnels but I have doubts as to how effective that will be with plain water. We don't have cats and wouldn't have friends that do, not to mention that even if we did I'd feel funny about asking anyone for a bucket full of cat shit; I could claim it was for moles but the people I know would suspect other uses were more likely. I am interested in the Castor Bean solution. That's a new one for me and I'll have to look into it.

I feel like McLame about Iraq on this one, I don't care if I have to stay in that Garden for 100 years, this attack by unprovoked moles will not stand!

[formercia]

6. Ammonia is natural

You can boil household Ammonia and feed the vapor into the burrow. Moles and other creatures mark their territory with urine and Ammonia is a breakdown product. I think the Ammonia keeps them away because it disrupts their scent marking by making them think there is a much bigger and nastier creature down their burrow.

You might just try poking a hole in their burrow and poring in a few cc's. It's non-lethal but will probably deter them from using that burrow for a while.

[ThomWV]

7. Now that's an interesting thought

I'll give that a try, putting a little amounia on their main passage. It begs one to wonder, and I hate to be crude about this but ..., if I were just to go out and piss on every furrow I saw if that might not help a bit?

[formercia]

8. That would help a lot

Send them a nasty P Mail.

Marking territory is something most animals understand. Since we don't, they feel it's theirs.

[sazemisery]

10. It works on bears, here's the post from Rural/Farm forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x1501