Send your moles to 'Mole Heaven'

Anyone ever heard this concerning eradicating moles?
Gary/Louisville

From the Spartanburg Hearld-Journal Newspaper:

'Mole heaven'
"We're facing threats of international terrorism, a floundering economy, a shortage of jobs, winter and liberal Democrats loud-mouthing us to death with inane chatter, so let's turn to something on a lighter side," says Douglas M. Audsley of Spartanburg. "For all you folks being tormented by moles tunneling through your lawns, gardens and flower beds, buy a pack of Juicy Fruit chewing gum the next time you shop. Locate the moles' breathing holes in their tunnels and gently expand them just enough to drop in a quarter of a stick of gum. The mole will feast on Juicy Fruit that he's unable to digest, and as a consequence take a quick journey to mole heaven. That'll ease your mind on at least one problem you're facing."

Friday, Jan. 16, 2004

I have never heard of that. But since I've tried many other things I will try this also.
I'll post in spring with results.

Gary, West KY moles seem to thrive on Juicy Fruit. My Mom had a horrible mole problem for many years. We tried the gum. No luck. Someone said you had to chew it first...no luck. Someone said it had to be untouched by human hands or the moles wouldn't eat it. We got rubber gloves. The mole population thrived.

We tried huge bags of dog hair...human hair...cat hair. We think they made nests.

We got the poison peanuts...no decrease in the population.

We got some of those electronic zapper thingys that are supposed to emit sounds that moles hate. The runs came to within 2 feet of the zappers. That was about the line of effectivness.

We flushed them out with the water hose...they dug deeper.
We hooked up the car exhaust to the runs...still moles.
We got mole traps, and that got a few, but the things were hard to set for a little old lady.

The only thing that seemed to decrease the population was applications of Spectracide to kill the grubs that the moles ate. This only seemed to make a difference for a couple of weeks.

Mom finally won.....she sold the place and moved to a condo.

We have found that castor bean and garlic are the only 2 things that moles/voles consistantly avoid. To that end I have both planted all over the yard and in every flower and raised bed on the place. They also don't like a lot of noise so the mower running over their runs daily tends to make them move elsewhere. Firecrackers thrown down the holes seem to make them move on too.

Leaflady,

**"We have found that castor bean and garlic are the only 2 things that moles/voles consistantly avoid."**

Be aware that castor beans are dangerously poisonous. If a kid eats one or two beans it could be fatal. The pretty color patterns on the beans are attractive to kids. Castor beans contain the organic poison, ricin. I think there was a story about a Russian KGB agent carrying out an assassination with a ricin-tipped thorn-like dart.

-- Burton --

Good point, we should always keep an eye on small kids in the garden, and teach them not to sample things. Many, many, many garden plants are poisonous.
I am still willing to try Castor beans and or Garlic as Mole deterents. Thanks Leaflady and maine man

I know that mole traps work. The scissor jaw are the most effective. Not dangerous to pets, unless they travel through the burrows. I usually trap 6-12 a year on my 5 acres, they seem to have unlimited reinforcements. Maybe I should raise guard ferrets to eradicate the little guys.

Human hair has worked for me. I cut our hair. I save it and sprinkle it (not in clumps, but "rained down" evenly) on every forkful of garden that I turn over. The areas that have been treated have no moles. They seem to stop at the perimeter of the hair-infested area. Maybe the secret is having it well distributed in the soil and replenished regularly. Hair also seems to add a little fertility to the soil. But maybe it's just our moles that don't like hair.

Nobody has mentioned cats. Mine are good mole catchers but they don't eat them, that's one way I know they are catching them, I find presents on the doormat. Good kittys.

I've got a Sheltie that does the same thing. She keeps them cleaned out here at my house.

A mole catching cat is better than a dog though. My yard looks like a mine field when she gets done and a cat will just sit patiently by a run till a mole comes by. A quick pounce and a tiny hole is all you see. My dog, on the other hand, will follow a tunnel for yards to get the varmint.

I've heard that spraying casor oil on all the tunnel entrances, regularly, will get rid of them. I imagine if you mixed in some crushed garlic, it would work even better.

Hi All,

I agree with MaryE that a cat is the best way to rid yourself of moles. My yard and garden were overrun with moles until my neighbors cat started reducing the population. Now, I have no moles and I don't have to feed the cat. A few years back I had my own cat which killed a few from time to time, but I neighbors cat is a hunting machine. I think the trick to that is not to feed the cat too often.

Cheers Bubba

I have tried the gum and it worked--at least it killed two of them, but more have moved in, and i just don't buy gum much.

Our cat stays inside so as not to become hawk or coyote or puma food, but my dog has actually dug them up and eaten them whole!!!

I recently read that getting a long-necked wine bottle and burying it in the ground would scare them away because of the wind whistling, but my mother says she and my granny tried things like that to no avail.

I agree that they are an indication of grub in the soil, so I quit trying to kill them off since the grubs would do more damage, I decided to let the moles stay till they have eaten their fill of grubs. I did scare them away from my tomato palnt by building a raised bed around it, then surrounding it with plastic jugs filled with water. The very next day, seeds were in a pile by the hole, and a spider had already spun a web over it. I could just picture the little guy poking his head out only to find that a larger creature had moved in, in a very big way, and he left a peace offering and skeddaddled!!! And since my carrots were planted with the tomato, I didn't lose any carrots to moles or ground squirrels...