mole in my yard

help!!! a mole is tunneling through my garden beds and backyard lawn. every day i have new tunnels, since i smoosh down the old ones. what is the best way to rid myself of this intruder? one astilbe plant is already dead because of it and the lawn is getting awfully bumpy underfoot. any and all suggestions to rid myself of this problem will be appreciated.

The neighbors cat FINALLY took care of my moles after having them all spring & summer. One day last week she came out of my front flower bed with one, then a few hours later she came out of my backyard with the other! Wish she would've went hunting a little earlier, but better late than never!

JUST SHOOT IT!!!!!!!!!! THEY EAT MY HOSTA AND I JUST WANT TO MUSH THEM!!!!!! I just had to get that off my chest!!! THANK'S!!!!
sue

Quick! Get Horseshoe and his ginnea pig patrol!!! Hehehe...

ahhhhhhhhh i actually can say i hate this thing. now it seems that a snake has taken over one of its tunnels and made it a home. ugh!!!!!!! i hate snakes. i look like a [profanity removed] fool jumping around my garden bed when i see one slither out. now i know it is running from me, but that does not matter. and neither does it matter that it is not harmful to me and probably eats all those nasty bugs that hurt my plants. personnally i just want him to be out of sight and out of my mind. thank you very much. :)

god certainly has a sense of humor.

and they say husbands are proof that wives can take a joke...hehehe!!

Good luck on getting rid of your snake, Debi, I'd sure hate to find one in my garden!!!

I've heard that borrowing a machine-gun from the Army,with 15,000 rounds of ammunition, and just blasting casually into your ground, removes most subterranean creatures, and has the wonderful effect of aerating your soil.
Who could ask for more ;-)

Wintermoor

LOL!!! I think Debi may want to keep the garden, though, Wintermoor, just get rid of the snake, although the aerating of the soil is an asset. Aim vert carefully, Debi!!! Should you happen to accidentally shoot off any good cuttings, though...?

LOL my belly hurts!!!!!! one day i thought i had the mole spotted in one of the garden beds. a neighbor gave me an ax and i had a pitchfork. and i'm hacking and jabbing into the mole trails. did i get the mole? noooooo did it outsmart me? yes.... so if you hear on the news about a crazy lady running around her back yard in massachusetts with leathal weapons in her hands trying to eliminate a mole. LOL
i have an air force base nearby, do you think they'll be condusive to lending me a gun for mole elimination.? probably not with my ax and pitchfork background. :)

yesterday i stuck the garden hose into a hole the snake made and blasted it. so maybe it did absolutely nothing, but it sure felt good. !!!! LOL
my husband just suggested a presision guided bomb. what do you think?

HAHAHAHA...Gosh, I love DGs...we have gardeners with attitude, gardeners with a sense of humor, and gardeners with great gift of gab!!!! If I ever learn to garden, I'm gonna fit right in!!!!

meiyu,
are you a newbie? 3 years for me.

about 3 weeks for me

I don't know if it works but recently read an article about just putting cod liver oil into a yard sprayer and saturating your yard with the spray OR just putting cod liver oil down into their tunnels. I know you can get cod liver oil at most drug stores pretty cheaply so you might give this a try. Good luck. Lani

The answer to your mole problem is Castor Bean plants!! I have always been told that this will keep the moles and voles out of your yard and garden. Have you ever seen these? I have quiet a few growing this year and they all have seeds pods now, I will be collecting them this week if you want to try them next year. They make a real pretty tropical looking plant too. I have had them come back from seed 2 years in a row. It's worth a shot! Let me know if you want some seeds.
http://davesgarden.com/s/314981.html

i heard that moles are a symptom of grub worms? just read it today in a thread oompaul started about grubs. i think it was wintermoor's hyperlinks, can't remember. if that's what they eat, shouldn't you work on getting rid of the source of their food supply? or do they eat other stuff? never even seen a mole myself!!

Folk lore!!!! Only way to rid of him is to buy a good mole trap. The ridges in the ground are only feeding runs and hardlly used more then once. Find a main run. Normally around a building, along a fence ect. They are deeper and is normally where they nest also. If you buy the spiked trap let me know and I will give you a few pointers. One acre will support two moles. I got rid of mine after finally learning how to trap them. Knew one fellow who was a welder by trade. He used carbide pellets and a neighbor came over and threw a cigerate on the ground. Blew ulp his yard and uprooted two trees. HA HA

Go to this link for more info: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/pests/2000072622007867.html

just a note snakes do not like ceder chips
(used to raise snakes when i had time)

thank you all for your advice and information. blowing up the yard doesn't sound bad at times. :)

Moles only eat grubs and worms and not plants or Hostas.