HELP !!! I HAVE MOLES ! ! !

Ros I just sat down with tea and toast for a break from paperwork and saw your post. Wow. That does seem more like a bigger creature than a mole, the way it is sprayed over the path. Gopher? Racoon? Terrier? The camera will help, because you need to know what it is in order to deal with it.
It vaguely reminds me of having some rock walls put in, and they delivered some "soil" and put in sod over half my yard. The moles/voles had a field day the next spring, in the nice soft dirt. The holes pretty much stopped at the line of my native packed clay and rocks. I bet this creature was thanking you for the nice buffet.
I think what you really need is a big hungry barn cat, though most will not take on a coon.
I attribute some of the mole explosion to the recent trend to never let any cat outside. The idea, I think, is that they are not a "natural" predator here. This means they kill some songbirds that wouldn't live here either, except that we humans cleared the Douglas Fir forests. However, since humans and cats teamed up, the major job of the cat was to keep the vermin population down in our unnatural human environments. Now we have lots of vermin, and crazy bored obese cats trapped in the house in solitary confinement. I had hardly any moles when I had a hunter cat. A tunnel would appear, I would see him staking out the area, and a few days later I would get a "gift".
Well, enough soapboxing (I do appreciate mine is not necessarily the one true answer to this issue).
Back to the moles. The mole expert is speaking all three days of the Everett Home and Garden Show. I have tomorrow off, and will try to go. I will report back.

We had mole problems. I looked it up on YouTube. One British gentleman used a trap that is on sale at Home Depot for about $7 each. Inconvenient: Once it catches something, you have to get rid of the dead mole, something a lot of people don't relish. I don't mind. And there is a peanut-butter based poison bait (also available at Home Depot) that is very effective. Advantage: the mole eats its fill, retires to its den and keels over in there. No burial required, it's already in the ground. That last method is working wonders for us. Three days after the first signs of infestation, we were mole-free. Or at least, there is new mole hole being dug all over the garden.

I have checked and it appears that moles and groundhogs are not good eating. However, I'm told that fried squirrel is good fried or fricasséed. You catch it, I'll cook it.

Sylvain.

Eating lunch, will give you the "Cliff Notes" version from the Mole Researcher Dave Pehling of WSU:

Voles are herbivores, there can be >500 per acre. the holes do not have mounds, and are 3/4" to 1 1/2" diameter. They make trails through/under the grass, they eat bark, roots, crops. They love strawberries.
To find out the extent of your problem find the holes, put an apple slice in each opening. Check in 24 hours. Now divide the # nibbled by the #placed. If over 25% there is potential for severe crop damage.
Things that help keep population/damage down:
1-Don't use over 1 or 2" of mulch, they burrow under it.
2-no plastic or cloth weed barriers, it protects them
3-keep a 3 foot radius clear of mulch around precious tree or shrub
These are all "vegetation management" Cats and some dogs (he had photos of a rat terrier and a Norwegian Elkhound with their "prey") are good too.
4- regular mouse traps work, but you might need 100 per acre. It is a royal pain because you must prevent birds and pets from getting at it. You can use a cardboard cover, staked to the ground. Check traps once or twice a day or coyotes will learn you are doing this.

Moles These make the mounds.They eat insects and worms and slugs. There is usually only 1 moles per 2.5 acres, but each may have 200-400 mounds built in one winter (he is describing the Coast Mole which is the common one in Western WA, there are lots of species and they are different in terms of control). If undisturbed, that mole and descendents may inhabit the same tunnels for decades without new mound building. Young moles migrate, often only 200 yards to try to establish new territory.
What to do about it: "Body gripping" traps are illegal here. You can own one but not use it. He has tried all kinds of things.
1- a true buried mole barrier has to be 24" deep, with at least a 6" rim above ground, so is almost impossible.
2-staple hardware cloth (mesh) to bottom of new raised beds, they don't usually climb over the sides, preferring to stay in tunnels. So this actually helps.
3-the best poisons are restricted use so we can't get them easily here in WA.
4-Our moles here eat lots of earthworms and slugs, so soaking your lawn in pesticide to kill insects/grubs just does not work.
5-Our species of moles are too smart for tube traps-they fill them with dirt! In the east these are useful.
6-vibrating,thumping,and sonic devices are absolutely useless
7-He thinks castor oil pellets are also useless, oh well.
8-In summer, the moles go very deep, following the worms, so they are very hard to get-the flooding thing pretty much requires a person at each hole with a barrell of water, or a firehose.
9- However, check out The Rodenator, which does indeed work but may set your home on fire!
http://www.rodenator.com/
10-He likes the idea of the bait that looks like a worm, but they rarely actually eat it.
11- If you live where you can shoot, if you flatten a new hill and plug the entrance, later the mole will excavate it. You can see the hill shuddering as it comes up from below, and use your gun. He says a sledgehammer also works.Yes he said that I am not making this up.

The problem with all these things and various home-grown ideas, is the moles move into an area, dig the burrows and make mounds, then after a few weeks move to another part of their large territory, so it is very hard to know if the "improvement" is real or not.

The good news: If you just get rid of the mole's mound, the moles will not make a new tunnel there. Leave the tunnels alone, and just remove the mound and rake flat, they will live peacefully with you, and help keep down your insect and slug population. Voles are really more problematic in your garden, because they do eat some plants.


Here is a link, but he says the chemical control info is out of date. (fact sheet #50):
Ros check this one out-if the holes are 6" it is often a Mountain Beaver, if 2" a rat.

http://ext100.wsu.edu/snohomish/garden/gardening-resources/gardening-fact-sheets/

Here are some of his old blogs about moles:
http://ext100.wsu.edu/snohomish/garden/gardening-resources/the-mole-hill-gazette-archive/

p.s Sylvain I think FL may have fewer silly laws about traps and poisons, but thanks for the idea. You seem to be on a virtual vacation to the PNW-welcome!

OMG PISTIL you are AMAZING! Thank you SO MUCH for this information. I am going to actually print out what you wrote and keep it in my gardening journal and make a few copies to give to friends. This is just amazing I can't even describe to you how grateful I am for this information. :). I am going to try the apple trick, what a clever test.

I have been busy revamping areas where plants have been destroyed, which has taken a lot of time since things were really destroyed :(..

But it is good to know about preventative measures to protect plants. I like the idea of living peacefully by just removing top dirt of any mounds too. I think I have a mole and also voles.. as by the lake my neighbor has recently accumulated 20+ large mounds, but since he has a cement pathway separating our properties before my side garden, the recent mounds have not crossed over.. but the holes are still popping up.. I just have a tough time personally killing any life, so hopefully I can do the tests, let my dog hunt at night, and do preventative measures, plus enlist my neighbor (who has a gun) as a last resort to participate in the suggestions. I don't know if I have already mentioned this.. but someone around my neighborhood must feed racoons at their slider door, because I have had them try and get in my house before (but am pretty positive their actual home is not on my property).. but my neighbor keeps his slider open slightly for his cat to come and go, and whenever the racoons try and squeeze their head in through the slider (he sets the slider just wide enough for his cat to squeeze in) he shoots them in the head with a pellet gun. Apparently he did this 7 times last summer.. Attached are raccoon photos for your enjoyment.. good thing I woke up in time to close my slider as they were trying to get in!

Thank you so much again for taking the time for all the responses and the writing up the notes!