Anyone out there have a mole & gopher problems in their yard and garden?
I don’t have all the facts, but I suspect many of these rodents are beneficial in that they eat a fair number of insects. Unfortunately for them, I have no idea how many bad bugs they kill for me – I just see the mounds of dirt here, there, and everywhere, my plants toppling over, and the expressways they provide for other critters to my fresh veggies. Whether they are actually moles, voles, gophers, groundhogs, or other rodent species makes little difference to me, but I draw the line when they start getting into my garlic patch!
I have run across a variety of ideas for running them off:
- Running a pipe from a vehicle exhaust to the hole: Gassing them seems a bit extreme to me and not something I advocate. Too much like WWII. Needless suffering is not acceptable in my book.
- Running a hose down the hole and flooding it: I admit I have been known to try this, but it is a huge waste of water and they just come up somewhere else.
- Battery-fired electrical jolts: Those little rods that you push into the ground seemed like an interesting solution as long as you didn’t mind buying a bunch of batteries. What do they do to worms and microbes? I quit using them.
- Large “watch” animals: I used to have 5 llamas and have always had an assortment of dogs and cats; however, as “watch” animals, they did more watching than running off. We currently have an old yellow lab who is pretty good at pointing them out and sometimes does a little surface digging when she is feeling frisky.
- Kitty litter poured down the holes: Our cats are outdoor cats, so I haven’t tried this, but I hear it works. Personally, I would worry about chemicals and parasites. My cat, however, thinks the whole garden is his personal cat box, and particularly enjoys doing his “business” wherever I happen to be gardening. I get a little area cleaned out and he promptly comes right over and squats beside me. It is very annoying! He cares little about my parasite phobia.
- Cayenne pepper – buy by the gallon at Costco. You might need several gallons if you have a large garden. Sprinkle around in dry weather and re-sprinkle after a rain. Not very practical in my case.
- Juicy Fruit gum: My grandfather swore by this one – and only Juicy Fruit would do. He would simply stick a stick down the hole. We lived in an area that had a bounty on groundhogs, so he could have been out there shooting them. It hasn’t worked as well for me, though.
- Wine bottles: If you have stuck with me this far, here is my personal method by which I swear. Take a bottle of wine out to your field or garden where you have a mole problem. Yes, that’s right: a bottle of wine. Those large 1.5-liter bottles are just right, but you can go smaller. Cheap wine is fine, but I suggest you get something you like. Bringing along a friend is optional. Sit down and drink it. Remember, if you have a friend, sharing is caring. Curse all you want – or not – the end result is about the same – but since I mentioned I swear by this, it doesn’t hurt to vent a little, and in fact, it might help. When the bottle is empty (no use wasting cheap wine!), put it upside down into the mole hole — not too far. That’s it. Walk, stumble, crawl away, as appropriate.
My theory on why it works is twofold: 1) the wind rattles the bottle and causes vibrations and noises that the rodent finds disturbing, and 2) you no longer care.
Witness my field full of mole hills (no bottles out here – moles are free to blindly roam):
This picture shows correct placement of the wine bottle:
Now look at my garlic patch: almost completely mole-free. Ok, maybe it’s hard to tell by this photo, but trust me. This is soft, tilled up, enriched soil. Normally they would be having a field day here.
Good luck to you all, and happy gardening!
