Mole Control in the Organic Garden
Safe, Effective Solutions for Nuisance Digging Pests
Next to deer, moles probably incense organic gardeners more than any other lawn and garden pest. Learn how to control moles without harmful chemicals.
Identify Moles and Mole Damage
The seven species of moles found in the U.S. aren’t classified as rodents, but are more closely related to shrews and bats, which are beneficial animals in the garden. You will rarely spot a living mole above ground, but mole burrows are relatively easy to identify. If you spot shallow burrows across the top of your lawn, consider that chipmunks, voles, and shrews also create shallow burrows. To complicate the situation further, mice and voles enjoy using the tunnels moles create for them. Unlike moles, which are strict carnivores, mice and voles eat roots, grains, and other plant matter. This puts the mole in the position of scapegoat, as gardeners mistakenly believe the mole is guilty of causing plant damage.
Mole Traps
If you wish to trap moles, you can choose between live traps or kill traps. Regardless of your trapping preference, you must acknowledge that trapping will be an ongoing activity throughout the lifetime of your garden stewardship. Nature abhors a vacuum, and where one mole moves out, another will soon fill the vacancy.
If you want to trap and relocate moles, you can fashion a live trap from a quart-sized jar or a coffee can. You must first determine which mole tunnels are active. Depress the earth of each tunnel with your shoe, and check the depressions the next day for signs of repair. Bury the jar in an active tunnel so that it functions as a pit trap. Cover the surface with a board so the burrow remains dark for the mole. Check the trap daily for an occupant.
If you elect to exterminate moles with a kill trap, you can use a harpoon variety, which impales the animal, or you can buy a choker trap, which kills the mole with a loop. As with the live traps, you must place these in an active tunnel to get results.
Mole Repellant and Physical Barriers
If your yard is small, consider using a mole repelling spray or a physical barrier to exclude the animal from your garden. You can buy castor oil spray to apply to the soil, which makes the mole’s prey unpalatable. The spray is expensive, and you must reapply it every six weeks. If the richly tilled earth and accompanying earthworms make your small garden plot a mole’s favorite stomping grounds, bury hardware cloth to a depth of 12 inches around the entire plot.
Grub Control
About 2/3 of a mole’s diet may consist of grubs, so while grub control alone isn’t sufficient to eradicate moles, a lack of grubs can encourage moles to seek greener pastures. Moles also relish earthworms, and you certainly don’t want to eliminate those. Since grubs eat roots, which in turn damages plants, you can’t go wrong with the grub control method, even if the moles remain.
You can purchase two biological control agents to rid your yard of grubs. Milky spore is a disease that infects grubs, but it takes several years to achieve maximum efficacy. Parasitic nematodes work quickly, but require moist soil to migrate toward their hosts.
Living with Moles
Before you allow a mole to get your goat, consider its attributes. The tunnels moles create allow them to seek and destroy a large number of grubs. In fact, moles must eat their body weight in insects each day to replace the energy they spend digging. The presence of moles is an indicator of soil health, as moles disdain hardpan soil. Moles further contribute to soil health by aerating it, and their deeper tunneling activities, which you can’t see, bring humus to different levels of the soil. If you can’t win the war on moles, perhaps you can reach a grudging truce.
Source:
Internet center for wildlife damage management
