Moles?

[Myk Rian]

Someone had mentioned in the past that spraying for grubs will get rid of he moles because the food source for the moles will have vanished.

Got moles? You got grubs.

[roger wiegand]

A healthy ecosystem in most parts of the country will have several hundred to over one thousand mice, moles, voles, and shrews per acre. Trying to get rid of them would be a fool's errand, not to mention a very foolish disruption of Mother Nature's systems.

[Jason Roehl]

Milky spore.

Treat your lawn with it--it will infect the grubs, killing them off, and the moles will leave because there is no food for them. You may have to re-treat after 5-10 years.

Another benefit is that with no grubs, you won't have Japanese beetles, either.

[Myk Rian]

A healthy ecosystem in most parts of the country will have several hundred to over one thousand mice, moles, voles, and shrews per acre. Trying to get rid of them would be a fool's errand, not to mention a very foolish disruption of Mother Nature's systems.

And where did you learn that?

[Garth Almgren]

I discovered the state of Washington doesn't like people to set traps for mammals. You can put out bait for them. Some are against this as a poisoned animal may get caught by an owl, cat, dog or other predator causing them to suffer ill effects up to and including death.

Yep, thanks to unintended consequences of I-713 in 2000, the most effective mole traps ("body-gripping") are illegal to use in WA. Eastside Exterminators had to close up their mole division when that passed.
The only other effective way is to kill all the grubs that the moles feed on, but grubs help make your lawn healthy so killing them all isn't really a good idea. The WDFW has more info: http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/moles.html

I don't mind all the mole hills - I'll just shovel up the excess dirt into a wheelbarrow before mowing - but my rat terrier is determined to hunt them down by digging up all their feeding tunnels, so the back yard looks like the eastern front with trenches everywhere. The problem is that she is getting older and hasn't managed to catch any moles yet. It'll probably take two yards of topsoil to undo the damage, and then no guarantee that she won't dig it all up again.

[Randy Red Bemont]

If you have moles...you have grubs. A treatment of Milky spore will kill the grubs (not an overnight fix buy any means) and the moles will move on. In the spring through fall if your yard gets dug up at night that is skunks looking for grubs.

Red

[John Terefenko]

If you have moles...you have grubs. A treatment of Milky spore will kill the grubs (not an overnight fix buy any means) and the moles will move on. In the spring through fall if your yard gets dug up at night that is skunks looking for grubs.

Red

This is the second time this was mentioned about the Milky spore thing. I will have to look into this. Thanks.

What is the best stuff to use. Granular or powder or is there a liquid??? Any particular brand better than another???

[Marty Gulseth]

Thanks for all of the insights and ideas. Personally, I'd just as soon chase them off as take them out. One thing I was curious about was whether anyone has tried, and if so, had any success with those "ultrasonic probes" which get stuck down in the soil and allegedly annoy the critters until they leave. I wondered if they do any good at anything other than costing me more money for D cell batteries (I have my suspicions.)

Marty

[roger wiegand]

And where did you learn that?

Most states do wildlife surveys and report results on a state website. Looking at a variety of them it seems that voles are most common, running 10-100 per acre, but, as in this article http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/voles.asp infestations can run up to 4000/acre. Shrews are more territorial and tend to be in single digits per acre.

When I mow my meadow in MA in the fall I see at least one small critter scurrying away every 10-20 feet; I'm sure there are many more I don't see.

[Ken Combs]

Got moles? You got grubs.

That's funny, as the only thing I remember from a management seminar years ago was a presentation that started with a story about killing moles over and over before zeroing in on the root cause: moles eat grubs.

The message was: you can play whack-a-mole forever, or you can find the cause and fix it.

[BOB OLINGER]

Milky spores - for what it's worth. I did the application process (like 3 consecutive years) of the milky spore thing. However, the last 2 years, especially in Sept. - Oct., we've been invaded by moles harder than ever. I complained at Earl May that the milky spore application didn't work. I can't remember the reply, only that it wasn't a guaranteed fix. So this year, I'm going to treat more intensively for grubs - not only once but multiple times to see if that works better.

[Mark Patoka]

We get voles quite often living next to a woods. I use a regular snap mousetrap, set it next to the vole hole and put a pail or pot over it to protect it/keep it dark. I've caught quite a few of them that way.

My dad had a bad gopher problem and used mousetraps for them also. Bait them with peanut butter and you're all set. Found out if the trap doesn't get them, the peanut butter will choke them off a few feet from the hole. He caught over 70 gophers this way one summer.