You’ve put a lot of work into your yard and it’s paid off. The garden is in full bloom, your lawn is healthy and green, and there are little hills of dirt poking out of the ground. Wait, little hills of dirt?
Those aren’t supposed to be there. Upon further inspection, you realize that you’re dealing with moles. They’re drawn to your yard for a variety of reasons but the main one is the food source.
It can be dangerous to deal with ground mole removal by yourself but if you don’t have a choice, we can tell you how to do it the right way. Keep reading to learn more.
What Are Moles?
Moles are carnivores that burrow themselves in the ground and feed on insects. You would think the fact that they eat the harmful insects in your yard would make moles helpful but this isn’t the case. They can ruin the roots in your plants and if you have any germinating plants, the moles might eat them if that’s their only food option.
During the winter, the moles may decide to dig closer to your home to seek out warmth. As you can imagine, this won’t do your foundation any favors. They’ll also destroy that expensive sprinkler system you had installed.
Most of the time, they travel by themselves. The only exception is for the mating season.
So, rest assured there’s most likely only one in your yard. That makes it a little less daunting to deal with, right?
Why They’re on Your Property
Moles will enter your property for two reasons. The main one is for the food source. Moles eat grubs, warms, and many other things that lurk in the ground.
Moles use up so much energy with their digging that they have to literally consume their weight in insects each day to stay alive. The more they eat, the deeper they have to plummet to find their food source.
Moles may also enter your property so they can give birth. They’ll build nests in your yard to hold and raise their young.
Identifying Moles
The first step in getting rid of moles is to identify them. They’ll leave obvious volcano-shaped mounds all over your yard. You may see them pop their heads out after it rains.
They have a hairless snout that extends outward. From far away, it doesn’t look like they have eyes because they’re covered by the mole’s fur.
Their forefeet are large and webbed. Their hind feet are skinny with long, slender claws.
Getting Rid of Moles
Now that you’re sure you have moles, it’s time to discuss getting rid of them. There are several ground mole removal methods that will work. Some of them are more effective than others.
The Shovel Stakeout, and Why It Rarely Works
You will see this one recommended everywhere. Flatten the entry mounds with the back of a shovel, stand well back, watch for the soil to move, and dig the animal out.
We are including it because people ask about it, not because we would send you out to do it. The stakeout asks you to stand still in a yard for hours waiting on an animal that runs on roughly four hour cycles and that feels your footsteps coming long before you are close enough to act. On the rare occasion it works, you are then holding a live mole, and moving it somewhere else is restricted in many places and usually fatal for the animal anyway.
If you want to spend an afternoon on it, no harm done. Just know it is a long shot, and that flattening the mounds is genuinely useful for a different reason: it tells you which runs are still in use. That is the first real step in the next section.
Traps
Traps can be humane depending on which one you get. First, we’ll go over the not so humane option. Take a shovel and flatten one of their entry mounds.
Wait a few days. If the mound has been uncovered, you know that’s where you should place your trap. Check the trap every so often to see if you’ve got your little pest.
Keep in mind that killing one mole might not be the end of your issue. It’s rare but you could have multiple house guests. Set your trap again and check it for further activity.
Rules vary by state, so check yours before you set anything. Live capture sounds like the kinder route, but relocation is restricted in many places and a mole moved into unfamiliar ground rarely survives long, so it is not the humane win it appears to be. Placement matters far more than the style of trap: a correctly seated trap in a run the mole is genuinely using is most of the job, which is why the same trap off the shelf gets very different results in different hands. We walk through the whole method in everything you need to know about ground mole trapping.
Call a Professional
If the digging keeps coming back, it is usually worth handing over. A professional ground mole removal service reads the yard for active runs, sets to them, and stays with it until the activity actually stops, which is what makes a guarantee possible in the first place. You can see how that has gone for other homeowners on our testimonials page.
They are equipped with all the knowledge and tools needed to get rid of your mole problem the right way.
Preventing Moles
Prevention is worth being realistic about, because moles are not drawn in by mess or neglect. They follow food, and the food is earthworms. A healthy, well watered lawn in good soil is exactly what a mole wants, which is the unfair part: the better your turf, the more attractive your yard is.
That means there is no reliable way to make a good lawn unappealing. Castor oil can taint a stretch of tunnel enough to push feeding elsewhere for a while, and it washes out with rain, so treat it as a nuisance to the mole rather than a fix. We tested it in castor oil for moles.
Ultrasonic and vibrating spikes are worth skipping entirely. Moles habituate to a repeating sound the same way they ignore mowers and traffic, and abandoning a finished tunnel network over a harmless buzz is a trade the animal will not make. More on that, and on what moles genuinely sound like, in do moles make noise.
What prevention can realistically do is catch the problem early. Watch for fresh ridges and mounds, and act on the first ones rather than after a season of digging.
The Secret to Ground Mole Removal
You’ve worked hard on your yard. You don’t want to see it get destroyed by moles. While letting them stay can prove beneficial, they may also eat your germinating plants and destroy the roots with their digging.
Don’t let it get that far. Contact us today to tell us about your issue and set up an appointment for ground mole removal.