Your lawn is the welcome mat of your home. In many closed communities the lawn is a structure controlled by the chairs of the complex. In this situation damage to your lawn is blamed on you and you can even be fined for having a lawn that is not up to code. This situation makes lawn damage even harder to deal with and when that damage is being caused by a wild animal the stakes are raised to a fever pitch. Your lawn is being devoured and the devourer is one of the most well known and despised lawn pests in the history of lawns. The mole. A simple animal, mostly blind and barely able to function. Still, they are highly aggressive and territorial. It’s not likely you have multiple moles on a single property. They are not interested in being near each other and will fight if needed. A mole generally functions over a full acre of land meaning that you may be sharing a mole with a few of your neighbours. In this situation, you would want to work in tandem to rid yourselves of the pest.
A mole is a burrowing insectivore that is about 8 inches long. They are barely able to see which is clear by their appearance. They have very soft velvety fur that is usually brown or black and large menacing claws that can do real damage to a pet that tries to eat it. They have very large front teeth which can also do serious damage to a pet and use both to dig and find grubs and worms. The mole is an insectivore and does not eat roots or other things like gophers who will pull them down into the tunnel. They want insects specifically.
Moles will create runways they use frequently to create tunnels that lead to good spots to hunt for food. They will rarely ever enter a tunnel more than once but the runways are used constantly. When digging up out of the ground to make air holes they create a volcano-like mound of dirt that is easily distinguishable from other types of burrowing mammals. They are raised and will be messy inside but the tunnel should still be visible.
Getting rid of moles is not a difficult process when you know something about them. Their favourite food is grubs and worms so the bait used for grubs is made to look and feel like real grubs and worms. The poison used takes about twelve to twenty-four hours to take effect and will kill the mole in its tunnel as it will start to feel ill and want to return to a safe place to sleep. You will also have to remove their food source before they will willingly eat the bait. You can do this with herbicides and insecticides to get rid of plants that attract grubs as well as the grubs themselves. One of the things moles look for in a yard is moisture. They do not like dry or clay-filled soil and prefer crumbly soil that is good for growing. If you water your grass as little as possible to keep it looking green it will dry out the soil enough that moles may not want to dig there. The final option in dealing with moles is to trap them using snap traps baited with a grub or worm. The trap should be simple and humane in the way it kills the animal, The Tomcat Mole Trap is an excellent choice as it kills the mole humanely with minimal blood and gore, unlike other more aggressive mole traps that will make an ugly mess on your lawn.
