Moles

hostadad · Post by **hostadad** » Jul 04, 2007 5:58 pm

1 down...... 57,327 more to go!

newtohosta-no more · Post by **newtohosta-no more** » Jul 04, 2007 6:02 pm

Rotten little buggers!! Good for you! Go get em!!

Kittenann · Post by **Kittenann** » Jul 04, 2007 6:33 pm

This is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask anyway.

Will moles hurt my hostas? I thought they ate the slugs and worms. Should I be finding a way to get rid of the annoying tunnel diggers?

Thanks
Kitten

hostadad · Post by **hostadad** » Jul 04, 2007 6:56 pm

They do indeed eat worms and probably slugs too, if slugs lived where worms live. No they do not eat roots.....BUT, they will tunnel under garden beds and push up mounds of dirt everywhere, so much so that it literally looks like a miniature war zone

Also the tunnels collapse when you are walking over them. Now......... if moles can be trained to come to the surface and delicately climb into the hostas at night, then carefully lick the slugs off the leaves. I would have raised a mole farm years ago

David.

LucyGoose · Post by **LucyGoose** » Jul 04, 2007 9:53 pm

Hi David!!

I hate the moles and everyone around here are complaining about how bad they are this year....Including ME!

They have been making the biggest, widest mounds! There is a small patch of grass on my north side of the house and that whole strip is like a huge pillow......I don't know what to do between the Liquid Fence not working for the rabbits and neither is the blood meal.....rabbits in my newly fenced yard every fricken night and morning and even in the middle of the day!

....Willie chases them but I do not let him because I don't want to see what he might do.....

Okay, I am stopping the soapbox!

Well it's your fault David!

hostadad · Post by **hostadad** » Jul 04, 2007 9:56 pm

E-Gads what have I started........

LucyGoose · Post by **LucyGoose** » Jul 04, 2007 10:26 pm

.....It's okay, David!!

madmama · Post by **madmama** » Jul 04, 2007 11:31 pm

One of the worst things moles do is tunnel under your hostas without raising the soil and so you have no idea that they even went through. First you notice that your hosta is not looking well. You try water and other things only to find out later that there is no soil for the roots and your hosta has now really gone down hill.
I have LOTS of plants that are at least half the size they were last year due to this. Add to that the late frost and I only have 2 hostas that look mature this year. And darn it, I should have an entire garden of mature hostas this year!!!!

VThosta/daylilylover · Post by **VThosta/daylilylover** » Jul 05, 2007 12:58 am

How do you know if it's moles vs voles or does it really matter?

baja220 · Post by **baja220** » Jul 05, 2007 1:43 am

Voles do eat the roots, all of them, and I think the voles don't have a tail or it very short.

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Jul 05, 2007 7:50 am

Hostadad....how dare a mole enter your garden! Now, here in the country, I expect them and have learned to sort of live with them. But not in your island hosta paradise! I'm so disillusioned.

I think the worst thing about mole tunnels is that the voles sometimes run in them. Since it's underground, I've never seen it happen, but my dad told me years ago that they do, and he's usually right about such things. So, if you have moles tunneling under your hosta bed, and they go right under a hosta, that leaves an open invitation to all the voles to come in and dine. What a scary thought.

Linda P

HostaDesigner · Post by **HostaDesigner** » Jul 05, 2007 8:10 am

Did you actually post a picture of a dead mole??

(I just can't stop laughing)

Easily one of the most frustrating pests on the planet!

madmama · Post by **madmama** » Jul 05, 2007 8:17 am

Linda your dad is absolutely right! I had this happen a couple of years ago in a small bed and lost all my plants. Thankfully they were all common and nothing was very big. And my mom lost a bunch of tulips the same way. I wonder if the nasty little monsters have meetings to see just how much trouble they can cause us together.

Kittenann · Post by **Kittenann** » Jul 05, 2007 10:18 am

So, what is the most effective way to get rid of them?

Thanks
Kitten

renaldo75 · Post by **renaldo75** » Jul 05, 2007 12:07 pm

Lucy - your 'pillows' of soil all over sound like gophers - not moles. They're an entirely different and larger critter. Had them on the farm when I was growing up. Sometimes they'd decide that our yard was as good as the alfalfa fields. My brother used to trap them by digging into the mounds at a certain spot & placing a trap. I think he got about 10 cents a pelt back in the mid-60's. When the price dropped down to pennies, his motivation for trapping them disappeared.

hostadad · Post by **hostadad** » Jul 05, 2007 3:13 pm

Naa....the mole isn't dead, it's just resting on it's arm.

Jamie · Post by **Jamie** » Jul 05, 2007 3:44 pm

Wheww glad to see I'm not alone in fighting these little buggers..

Do you sit in the yard with a pitch fork in hand waiting to see the dang mounds rising that you just smashed? Well they get so bad here I do and the neighbors sit in there dang windows and laugh there arses off at me. Then it gets even funnier watching me dart across the yard to get behind the bugger and stomp on the tunnel to trap him in the cave.. Then just start stabbing the run and when you hear a squeal you know you hit the right spot .

.. It's rather funny to watch them hunt though. I've been out a few times and seen a earth worm come flying out of the ground and I thought WTH. Only to see a big piece of ground move several seconds after the worm bails the ground. Then the chair and pitch fork come out again LOLL.

Linda P · Post by **Linda P** » Jul 05, 2007 3:44 pm

hostadad wrote:Naa....the mole isn't dead, it's just resting on it's arm.

Linda P

eastwood2007 · Post by **eastwood2007** » Jul 05, 2007 4:36 pm

Moles...urrrgggghhh!

One of the biggest problems I have with moles is the Rottweilers trying to dig them out and they can move alot of dirt in a short time! Last year I thought I had voles, but it is mole runs. Castor oil solution does work. I just used 4 oz. of Castor oil, and about 1/4 cup liquid dishsoap pured into about a cup of hot water in a hose-end sprayer. I pour it in hot water cuz the castor oil is so thick, I thought it would help thin it enough to spray. The way the castor oil works is that they don't like the smell (I hear), so they leave the area. So when you spray, start your spraying and spray in bands a day or 1/2 day apart so you "chase" the moles out of the area they are in. I hope that makes sense, I don't know how else to describe it. What you don't want to do is spray all around where they are so they don't have a castor-oil-free escape route or you'll just get them trapped where they are. The castor oil isn't so offensive to them to kill them, they will just go the opposite direction from where they encounter it.

Castor oil is the main ingredient in most mole/vole repellents you would purchase at garden centers. It is alot cheaper at the drugstore! Jerry Baker says to add 1/2 c. human urine to the mix. The DHs may help with that!

I haven't tried it on mine yet this year, but it did seem to work last year. May need to do it every couple weeks for awhile, especially if you have had lots of rain. I didn't discover it till end of season last year and two time took care of it.

hostadad · Post by **hostadad** » Jul 05, 2007 5:23 pm

I was a gardener at a park which had a beautiful conservatory, framed by an exquisite formal flower bed with a golf course type lawn in front. For weeks I had to put up with a mole destroying the lawn. There were many safety issues for removing moles in a high public area. (I wish I had known the Castor bean solution back then). I did remove it in an environmentally safe way though, except for my wrist. While mowing the lawn early in the morning I saw the little volcano spewing out dirt, I ran over and punched it with my fist as hard as I can. Someone told me that moles have very thin skulls..... Its true

Ouch