Holy moley: natural mole repellent
Earlier this summer, I began to notice small round holes in my lawn. I thought maybe a snake or spider had made them, so I poked a stick down a few of them hoping the resident of the hole would scurry out so I could see who he/she was. No one came out, and the holes began to rapidly multiply. After asking my friends on Facebook, I determined that these holes were made by moles.
This surprised me as I’d never seen a mole. (To be fair, the grass on my lawn is REALLY long right now, so they could be throwing parties out there, and I probably wouldn’t know.) I was told that the moles eat the grubs, who eat your plants. So, I pondered about which one I’d rather have under the my lawn… the moles or the grubs. I decided I truly needed to eradicate the moles because my lawn was starting to look like Swiss cheese and feel all squishy when you walked on it. I either had an army of moles or one highly productive Type A personality mole.
I, of course, did not want to kill this cadre of moles, but I did need them to stop building Mole City under my lawn. I researched natural mole repellents and decided to order two solar powered mole chasers. They are stakes that you stick into your lawn, and every 30 seconds or so they produce a high pitched noise that apparently really peeves the moles. It peeves them so much that they look for a new home. The trick is to make sure your neighbors don’t have MORE annoying mole chasers on their own property.
I looked at one other mole chasing product online that was actually driven by the wind. It had to be mounted on a tall metal pole, and the whirring of the blades was said to be very unpleasant to the moles. That seemed a bit more noisy and troublesome to me given that the solar powered models I bought sit flush to the ground and are hardly audible at all.
It seems like logically this product will work, but only time will tell.
6 Comments
Dill
Love the initiative you put into this. If only we all would take time researching new and innovated solutions to some of the most common problems. Will be interested to see how it works. Often annoying the pests away works better then killing or chemical treatments. We kept having problems with the squirrels eating our avocados so Raylon hung moth balls in the tree and the awful smell seemed to scare them away.
admin
I also had the option to buy garlic pellets to stick in the mole holes. That would work double duty in keeping vampires away. 😉
Elena
Thank you for this article, well done. I will try this as we have many moles too. Tell me do you have any good and green ideas on how to scare off a pesky raccoon that “swims” in our pool and leaves behind some very gross evidence.
admin
A quick search online came up with this, which claims to be completely organic:
http://www.critter-repellent.com/raccoon/raccoon-repellent/
Read the testimonial toward the bottom of the page from the person in Florida.
Mike Quick
Information like the one you cited here will be very useful to me! I will place a link to this page on my blog. I am sure enough my visitors will find that very utilizable.
David Hill
Sorry for the late response but I just found this site. I have my degree in horticulture, have managed garden centers and owned a landscaping contracting company and have been operating commercial and municipal compost sites for the past 16 years. Now that we’re done with credentials:
Moles eat animals that live beneath the soil surface. Usually it is white grubs, ants, beetles and other subterranean insects but could also be earth worms – although not usually. A mole will eat almost its own weight in food daily and in the process tunnel up to 15 feet per hour.If you see an abundance of moles, it’s usually an indication of something else going on. Treating the symptoms with “mole clackers”, garlic, etc. may be somewhat effective on a short term basis but essentially ignore the cause. The best, long-term approach is to determine what the moles (or voles) are feasting on and treating for them. In the mean time, Juicy Fruit gum is very effective in eliminating the moles: They cannot resist it and when they eat it, it binds-up their bowls and they starve. Tear a strip of gum into four pieces or so and put a piece in each hole.