Like many homeowners, Laurel and I have had a love-hate relationship with moles. On balance it’s been about 1% love and 99% hate, with a mild feeling of closeness to the bastards arising only when our dog manages to dig one up, starts playing with it, and the mole frantically tries to wave its paws and dig its way to safety—a tough job when you’re caught between the jaws of a gentle-mouthed Lab-Shepherd mix.
If you’re looking for a solution to your own mole problem, I’ll get right to our current approach to controlling the S.O.B.s. These boxes contain 80 recently-purchased pounds of dry Mole-Med. That’s an amazingly large amount (Mole-Med usually comes in 7.5 pound bags), but we have an amazingly large amount of landscaping around our house. And when it comes to moles, we’ve learned that there’s no point in messing around with half-hearted measures.
So we cover the earth with Mole-Med, a repellant that uses castor oil to drive the nuisances onto someone else’s more agreeable-smelling property. There actually is some research that supports the effectiveness of Mole-Med and similar castor-oil approaches to repelling moles. For us that was reason enough to give Mole-Med a try, since over the years we’ve gone through every mole control approach known to man, woman, and dog. To wit…
Vibrators. We’ve tried several kinds of vibrators intended to disturb mole peace of mind (not to be confused with mole vibrators intended for another purpose). They seem like a great idea: simple, cheap, easy to use, non-lethal. However, in our yard the moles seemed to cozy up to them for a massage rather than flee from the supposedly irritating vibrations. When I returned some to Sharper Image I enclosed a photo of mole earth mounds piled up right around the product that they said would keep a yard mole-free for a 100 foot circumference, or whatever. Yeah, right.
Poison. So we turned to meaner methods. I’ve dropped can after can of poison pellets into mole runs (and also gopher holes). I felt terrible doing this, imagining the moles and gophers coughing their little critter lungs out as they died a slow, painful, lonely death underground. Yet since I never could discern any lessening in mole/gopher activity after dispensing the poison pellets, I soon stopped feeling guilty. I started up again, though, after we moved to…
Professional trapping. Yes, some pest control companies will try to trap moles. Not many, but we found a company that seemed fairly competent and signed up for a several-month mole trapping service. A guy would come out several times a week at first, and then only when we called and said that a trap appeared to have sprung. I think they got three or four, at a cost of somewhere around $75 a mole, more or less. Not particularly cost-effective. We learned that mole trapping is tricky, since you have to be super careful to wear gloves and keep your scent off the traps. One mole guy had a knack for trapping them; the next guy didn’t. We decided to find a cheaper mole service…
Serena, the Wonder Dog. She works for the joy of the kill, or rather, given her gentle Lab sensibilities, the joy of the playing. Serena probably has captured as many moles for free as the professional trappers did for a fairly hefty monthly fee. The main drawback is obvious: in the course of digging up a mole, a dog will do more damage to your garden than the mole did. Plus, Serena would rather chase squirrels and chipmunks, who race around visibly, than burrow after the elusive mole. Which turned us to…
Home remedies. Such as pepper—both black and red. Also, home-brewed liquid castor oil repellent. The Mole Man doesn’t put much stock in such approaches. He favors the good old-fashioned trapping approach. I agree that none of the nostrums we cooked up and spread around the yard seemed to do any good. But, as noted above, trapping takes quite a bit of skill and the willingness to look dead moles in the eye—something we soft-hearted vegetarians would prefer not to do.
So we’ve settled on Mole-Med. It is easy to scatter around, doesn’t look bad, and seems to do a decent job of repelling moles for a few months after it has been watered in. There are similar castor oil products that we’ve tried. We like dry Mole-Med because it is lightweight (corn base, I believe), so we think we get more mole deterrent for our money compared with the heavier clay-based competitors.
I note that the Mole-Med web page says that “even moles have a purpose.” Yes, I’m sure they do in the grand scheme of Nature. That’s why we have come to feel better trying to drive them away rather than killing them. If you’ve been screaming epithets while you pound a pitchfork into newly-raised mole runs, do your karma a favor and give Mole-Med a try.
Where can I find some of this Mole-med dry?
Posted by: Paul Rogers | August 25, 2006 at 10:56 AM
Paul, we've bought it from Gardens Alive:
http://www.gardensalive.com/category.asp?c=14
There are other sources too, judging from a Google search on "mole med dry."
Posted by: Brian | August 25, 2006 at 01:36 PM
Do you know if it is safe around dogs?
Posted by: Beth | September 08, 2006 at 07:34 AM
Beth, I'm sure it's safe around dogs. We have a dog. She's not a big chow hound, but I've seen her sniffing the Mole-Med. It's just corn gluten, I believe, impregnated with castor oil (could be wrong about this--we haven't used it for a while; have had some success with mole bait).
Posted by: Brian | September 08, 2006 at 10:40 AM
Take a look @ our website!
We offer you special prices to catch your moles!
Posted by: Luc Roeland | March 02, 2007 at 04:10 AM
it's http://www.mollenvanger.be
Posted by: Luc Roeland | March 02, 2007 at 04:11 AM
HELP! My daughter wants a wedding reception
in the fron yard the end of May--the moles are having a great time, tearing-up all my attempts to beautify the grass and landscaping. I am willing to try the mole-med dry stuff, but need someone to respond to this msg about whether it makes your yard smell funny? What have I gained if all the wedding guest are sickened by the smell, but I have no more tunnels??? How
long until you see possible results? I have tried for years to put poison gum-ball size poison in their tunnels, with some small amount of positive results, but now they are taking over the entire yard!!
HELP PlEASE ASAP debbie and butch
Posted by: Everett Porter | March 28, 2008 at 08:14 AM
Everett, sorry for the delayed response to your comment. My wife has been using Mole Patrol with considerable success. It's bait, sort of like what you've been using, but she finds it more effective than other brands.
Give it a try.
http://www.pestproducts.com/molepatrol_mole_bait.htm
http://web1.msue.msu.edu/vanburen/97mole2.htm
Posted by: Brian | April 17, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Expert view on mole trapping to be found on
http://www.walcotefarm.co.uk/
Posted by: jan bus | July 23, 2010 at 12:26 AM