How to get rid of moles?

CDGator

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Help! Every year the moles are getting worse. This will be the second year using grub x to kill the food source but we have 5 acres and can’t do it all. I’ve tried the poison worms and pellets last year. Just bought two different death traps. Is there something better?


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Okeechobee Joe

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Pellets, grub worms, castor bean plants etc. won't work. Castor beans can toxic to animals. Trap them with a scissors type mole trap device made out of metal. I've used them and have caught about six moles over the last two years. I would trap them if I had a manicured yard that you spend a lot time on. If I had 5 acres I'd just let the moles alone. But be prepared because if you trap or kill them on your property a new mole will just invade the previous mole's space. Moles in your yard can mean you have a healthy lawn with plenty of worms for the moles to eat.

You have to know where to set the traps but this can be easily learned watching you tube videos.
 

CDGator

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Pellets, grub worms, castor bean plants etc. won't work. Castor beans can toxic to animals. Trap them with a scissors type mole trap device made out of metal. I've used them and have caught about six moles over the last two years. I would trap them if I had a manicured yard that you spend a lot time on. If I had 5 acres I'd just let the moles alone. But be prepared because if you trap or kill them on your property a new mole will just invade the previous mole's space. Moles in your yard can mean you have a healthy lawn with plenty of worms for the moles to eat.

You have to know where to set the traps but this can be easily learned watching you tube videos.

Thanks. We do have a lot of worms in the rich soil. I thought grubs were what they were after. I want them primarily out of the front yard. We bought two traps. One was the scissor type and the other is a spike. Hoping to kill a mole or two tonight. I feel like Bill Murray in Caddyshack.
 

bradgator2

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You cant.

Many of us have had this exact conversation multiple times over the years on this board. I have tried EVERY solution that has ever been presented or found on the internet. None of them work.

The only real solution is to eliminate their food source (worms and grubs), but that is simply not a viable solution when it comes to properties that you and I own.

It took many frustrating years but I finally admitted defeat. Every few days I will walk around the property with my head hung low like a biiitch and with a rake in hand and level out the mounds they make.

Then Zambo comes along a few years ago with a new kind of trap called the "Gopherhawk". I have had great success with this trap. It takes a little luck and a lot of patience and daily movements.... but you can catch them. My favorite is when it catches just a paw or something. It'll still be alive when you rip it out of the ground and screaming it pain. I'll shove the dead bodies back into the hole so that hopefully their kids will come across their rotting corpse.

You can get them on Amazon or directly from them:
Homepage - GopherHawk
 

Nalt

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Here is a list of 12 predators of moles. Using these means that you will need to fence in your property in such a manner to prevent either of them from escaping. Make it your own little predator prison. Of course, I'm not sure how well skunks, foxes, weasels, badgers, and coyotes are going to get along together, not to mention your own pets...
Our house is up in the woods so we have moles or shrews that tunnel in our yard too. I just leave them alone and let the opossums and armadillos take care of them...
 

CDGator

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You cant.

My favorite is when it catches just a paw or something. It'll still be alive when you rip it out of the ground and screaming it pain. I'll shove the dead bodies back into the hole so that hopefully their kids will come across their rotting corpse.

You can get them on Amazon or directly from them:
Homepage - GopherHawk

This was not the negative kind of answer I was looking for. :headslap:


You must be mistaken about your link. It says “GopherHawk kills Gophers and Moles humanely without digging or disrupting your garden.” :lol:
 

CDGator

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Here is a list of 12 predators of moles. Using these means that you will need to fence in your property in such a manner to prevent either of them from escaping. Make it your own little predator prison. Of course, I'm not sure how well skunks, foxes, weasels, badgers, and coyotes are going to get along together, not to mention your own pets...
Our house is up in the woods so we have moles or shrews that tunnel in our yard too. I just leave them alone and let the opossums and armadillos take care of them...

My niece said her dog can jump on a tunnel and come up with a mole in his mouth. Then of course he will kill it and roll in it. We need a mole dog.
 

bradgator2

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This was not the negative kind of answer I was looking for. :headslap:


You must be mistaken about your link. It says “GopherHawk kills Gophers and Moles humanely without digging or disrupting your garden.” :lol:

90% of the time they are dead dead. But it’s way more fun when they are not.
 

bradgator2

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I’m not a monster!
I would probably put it back in the ground until it was dead dead.

Hand caught in a trap and stuffed back into the hole so that he dies slowly by starving to death over the course of several days? I like it!

here is a recent kill where both hands were caught. He was dead dead.
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CDGator

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Hand caught in a trap and stuffed back into the hole so that he dies slowly by starving to death over the course of several days? I like it!

here is a recent kill where both hands were caught. He was dead dead.
40790
:lol:
I hate these suckers. Wish the worms and pellets worked. Seedy will open up the kitchen window and shoot the chipmunks with a BB gun.

Do you have gophers and voles too?
 

bradgator2

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:lol:
I hate these suckers. Wish the worms and pellets worked. Seedy will open up the kitchen window and shoot the chipmunks with a BB gun.

Do you have gophers and voles too?

No moles or gophers. And I am not 100% sure what kind of moles I am catching. Every website and book says an Eastern Mole, but these look nothing like that. It looks more like mole rat, but the internet says those are only in Africa. These suckers produce an incredible mound in a single evening. Never during the day. I can usually fill 3 5 gallon buckets of dirt from a fresh mound. They also move constantly forward. Here is a satellite photo of my neighbors property. Those white dots are mole hills:

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bradgator2

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:lol:
I hate these suckers. Wish the worms and pellets worked. Seedy will open up the kitchen window and shoot the chipmunks with a BB gun.

Do you have gophers and voles too?

You know…. These might be what is called a pocket gopher. It deserves to die whatever it is.
 

grengadgy

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You know…. These might be what is called a pocket gopher. It deserves to die whatever it is.
Probably right.........Quote:. Moles have small teeth and tiny, unapparent eyes, gophers have long incisors that protrude from the mouth, and their eyes are easy to see. In addition, mole tunnels leave raised ridges in the ground, whereas pocket gopher tunnels do not.
 

CDGator

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This is what we have in the front yard. the cat will kill them too but she doesn’t really like going outside. In the back pasture we must have gophers because the dirt piles are huge.

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Okeechobee Joe

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This is what we have in the front yard. the cat will kill them too but she doesn’t really like going outside. In the back pasture we must have gophers because the dirt piles are huge.

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That's definitely a mole. To set your scissors trap try to find a tunnel that is relatively long and straight. Don't set the trap over a mound. Set it between the mounds. Take a hand spade and dig down just underneath the surface of the ground to find the tunnel. Take you index finger and probe the openings of the tunnel. Set the scissors trap so that when the mole goes through the tunnel and through the trap will be triggered, Can usually find an active tunnel by just looking without tamping down soil etc. so you can skip that part. When the soils is wet and soft moles can make a pretty large pile of dirt.
 
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CDGator

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That's definitely a mole. To set your scissors trap try to find a tunnel that is relatively long and straight. Don't set the trap over a mound. Set it between the mounds. Take a hand spade and dig down just underneath the surface of the ground to find the tunnel. Take you index finger and probe the openings of the tunnel. Set the scissors trap so that when the mole goes through the tunnel and through the trap will be triggered, Can usually find an active tunnel by just looking without tamping down soil etc. so you can skip that part. When the soils is wet and soft moles can make a pretty large pile of dirt.


The scissor trap popped last night but nothing was in it. I’ll have to follow your advice and will set it better tomorrow.
 

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