Moles are disturbing pest that often run your garden or yard area. That is why a lot of people are wondering how to get rid of moles in yard as not all methods are working.

Moles are very common pest that often sighted in North America region. On the eastern part of America Eastern mole is more common, but it can also be found in Atlantic until the Rockies area, Southern part of Canada until Florida. Then on the Washington to the Oregon area, Townsend’s mole is more common. Meanwhile in California you can find Broad-footed mole. As this type of moles is spreading widely in the largest area, this type of moles is also called as common mole as well as grey mole in some areas. It is the strongest among all types of moles which commonly associated with mound and tunnels by yard owners.

What is Moles?

Actually the mole is not a rodent; in fact they are mammals which feed on insects thus it is called as insectivore. They will feed on larvae, grubs, earthworm as well as other type of insects on the ground. They also have high rate of metabolism, which make them need to eat in large amount. They can eat as much as their weight within a day. They will not store any fat or food thus they would not hibernate.

They dig the tunnels all year even though most of them are only used one time but some can be used repeatedly. As the moles will not disturbed and eat your plant roots or flower bulb which make them different from voles. Sometimes it is actually helpful as they also eat insect and other pests in your yard. However, yard owner usually disturbed as the moles will push mounds of soil up as well as disturbing the roots of the plants in the garden.

Furthermore, their activity may occur in the day and even at night. In the summer as well as spring season, they often do their activity after raining or in any damp day, in which they will dig their tunnels. They usually prefers soil which are damp, moist and cool as it is the soil that is loved by earthworm and grub which are the mole food.

This process will continue until the soil surface is freezing during the winter season. But when the soil surface is freezing as well as when the soil is very dry during the summer season, they may also dig deeper tunnels. Thus it may cause severe damage during the active season which causes the yard owners to want to remove the moles from the yard permanently.

The mating period of moles happen on March and February. And the gestation process takes around six weeks to complete which will produce around three until five moles at once. If there are female moles born during the period, then it will be able to make as soon as the next spring season begin. This will then begin the mating cycle from the start.

Moles Identification

Moles can be identified by looking at their fur which in bluish-black color. Their snout is slender and their teeth are small and sharp like needles. They also have small ears and eyes which cover up by their furs. They also have flat feet with claws which shaped like spade and the wide is actually more than the length. They can grow to as big as twelve inches in length but it will also depend to their species.

If you cannot distinguish them from gopher, shrew or voles which make you want to learn about how to get rid of voles, and then you can pay attention on their nose. You can see that they have pointy nose which extend outwards right from the front of their mouth. You can identify the presence of moles from the soil that they mounded as well as runways which heaved that they created.

About Mole Tunnel

There are two types of tunnels that the mole will create in your yard. The first one is sub-surface tunnel and the second one is deep tunnel. There are certain tunnels which may be consist of both the deep tunnel as well as sub-surface tunnel that are used as the main tunnel. This main tunnel may even be used by more than one mole in that area. They usually dig the tunnel in search of their food such as insects as well as searching for a good place to nest.

Excavations created by moles are uniform which create neat rows of mound. This is different from the one created by gopher since their excavation is done randomly. Furthermore the mounds created by moles are shaped in a volcano mountain shape. However the mounds created by gopher are shaped in horse shoes like shape.

The Sub-surface tunnel is actually used as feeding tunnel which digs right under the surface of the soil. You can easily see this tunnel as raised ridges which run through the yard. The mole will be able to dig around 100 feet every day to extend this tunnel. This type of tunnel can be use every day or they may also use it regularly with intervals. But it can also be use one time to search for food source before being abandoned.

Meanwhile the deep tunnel is digs around three to twelve inches under the surface of the soil. It is a rule not to create mound in the sub-surface tunnel digging process. This deep tunnel is usually used as main tunnel and will be use daily. They will use this tunnel to travel from their nest to the main subsurface tunnel and vice versa.

The soil which resulted from the excavated process of this deep tunnel will be thrown to the surface of the soil in vertical tunnel which shaped in mounds. However number of surface ridges or the mound does not represent on the number of moles available in an area. But in average if your yard is in one acre size, then usually there will be around two to three moles available in that area. However, if your yard is located in area right besides a large forest or tract, then your area may be invaded continuously as the main area which is the forest or tract is large enough to holds multiple moles.

However, that should not discourage you from trying to remove the moles from your yard. As there are plenty of method, that can be used according to the situation of your yard. Here are some of the methods that are very effective to remove moles from your yard.

How to Get Rid Of Moles in Yard in 5 Methods

1. Trapping

First and might be the most effective way if you want to learn how to get rid of moles in yard fast it is by set up a trap. This trap is work effectively since the mole itself has natural instinct where they will try to clear any blocked tunnels. However if you want to do this method, then you should try to do it when the spring season start or when the first rain start to pour in fall season. It is the time when the tunnels are showing up so it will be easier for you to identify active tunnels. Plus the female usually pregnant in the spring thus you will be able to dramatically reduce the population when the trapping is done in spring season.

Identifying the tunnel itself is pretty easy. You need to pay attention on the tunnel, as there will be some mounds as the moles build their tunnels. Then try to block some of them by pushing down the soil. If some of the tunnels are back on within the next day and two, then it is active tunnel. Now, you can put some of your trap in that tunnels and check within a few days whether there is any moles trapped.

2. Eliminating Food Source

Another effective way that you can use to remove moles from your yard is by eliminating their food source. The moles will eat a lot of insects inside your yard such as grubs and other type of pests. That is why; if you do not want the moles to search for food in your yard, then you should try to remove the food itself. You can try to use insecticide or other methods to remove the grubs from your yard. Then it will dramatically reduce the moles activity to search for food in your yard. However, one thing that you need to take note is, the moles will also feed on the earthworm. So if your soil itself is very fertile, then the earthworms may be available in your yard.

Remember that during the application of this method the moles will be more active for two to four weeks. Especially, since they are more aggressive in searching for their food source as it is highly reduced which causes the damage to increase during those weeks. But you should not have to worry as after those weeks has passed, then their activity in your yard area will be reduced to minimum.

3. Repellent

If you want more natural and humane way when learning about how to get rid of voles, then you can try to use natural repellent. There are various repellent which created to remove the moles from your yard using natural ingredients. However, there are also some repellents that use chemical ingredients so you should be very careful and choose the right repellents that will suit you more. Furthermore there are two types of repellents that you can use which are liquid repellent and granulated repellent.

4. Barrier

Another effective way to prevent the moles from coming into your yard is by setting some barrier so they cannot access your yard. This method will need some patients to do as you will need to do heavy labor work. You need to make some trench with around six inches in wide as well as two feet in deep. Make those trenches to go around your yard area so the moles cannot access it. Then you need to fill those trenches using rocks or other things such as wire which able to prevent the moles from digging through it.

5. Ultrasonic Device

If you want to have more advanced method to get rid of the moles in your yard that uses high tech equipment. Then the answer is to use ultrasonic device that already available in the market. This kind of device will produce some ultrasonic sound that is very disturbing to the moles.

But you should not have to worry as it would not disturb you since you would not be able to hear any ultrasonic sound. If you have some pets at home, they would not be disturbed either as the device is already set so it will only affect the moles. The moles hate this kind of sound thus they would not even want to go to areas that are near to the sound source.

When you purchase this kind of device, you need to make sure the distance that the device can cover will be able to cover your entire yard. Of course, you can also try to use more than one device to cover your entire yard if your yard area is very large.

Learning how to get rid of moles in yard actually pretty easy, but it need some dedication and hard work for you to be able to find suitable method that works with your yard condition. You may have heard about the methods to get rid of moles using home remedies. However, there are a lot of studies that already done which show that those methods that uses home remedies are not working. The reason is because the substance which uses in the home remedies methods is actually ignored by the moles. That is why; you should really know which substance works or not before using any of those methods.