Mole Extermination

08.14.2008 - This is a nice photo of a Townsend's Mole, taken in the Portland area by my friend Joel.  He traps and removes moles.  I don't really do any mole extermination here in Florida.  It's not worth my time, and frankly, I just never got good at it.  Mole control is difficult.  Even for me, who did it for a while in Pennsylvania and experimented in Florida.

Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy way to exterminate moles.  Many people want to buy poison to kill moles.  The problem is that moles eat only live food - almost entirely earthworms, and they won't eat anything inanimate, certainly not any poison.  So unless you can inject poison into a live worm and get a mole to eat it, poison won't work.  There's also no effective mole repellents.  You're talking about a critter that lives underground.  There's no substance, from castor oil to soap, or device, like a vibrating unit, to make them leave the area.

The only way to exterminate moles is with traps.  And there are no live traps that could possibly catch a mole, so it's all lethal traps.  There's scissor traps, harpoon traps, and more.  Alas, these traps are hard to use, and it takes a lot of expertise to set them correctly.  Mole trapping is a lot more specialized than rat or opossum trapping, where you can just set a snap trap or cage respectively, and catch them any old place.  You have to set the difficult traps, juuuust right, on the active tunnels that the moles use.  And how do you know which ones are active?  Usually only a seasoned pro with a lot of experience under his belt has success.  Your best bet for mole extermination is to hire an expert.  But not me, I'm no good at it.

Do it yourself: Visit my How To Get Rid of Moles page for tips and advice.
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HOW TO KILL A MOLE - The mole is a very interesting creature and with admirable qualities. It has very good sense of smell for tracking its food and also very strong forelimbs for easy and fast digging of tunnels underground when navigating and equally when looking for food or building its habitat. The mole's meals or what it feed on is mostly located in the ground. These include earthworms, small insects and other small invertebrates that are located in the ground. Moles can sometimes also feed on plants that grow downwards. Vegetables like potatoes and yams are usually prone to eating from moles. In this process of looking for food and digging tunnels in the ground, burrows are created. These burrows can be so many that the usually disturb the aesthetic value of your property.

This is the reason why people have taken the initiative to eliminate these pests from their property for good. There is the option of removing the moles without trapping them and there is also the option of killing them. Among the harmless options is fencing, using one way exclusion funnels and the use of mole repellents which are not advisable to use because they are not effective in their operations.

On the other hand, there are harmful options of removing moles from your property. This means killing them. Killing is a very effective option to take because it completely takes care of the lineage that was meant to invade your yard for the coming months. Cutting of the reproducers means there will be no more reproduction hence no more moles digging up your yard. The following are the way you can use to kill all the moles in your yard.

1. Lethal Trapping. This is one of the most effective methods of mole elimination. Spear and scissor traps can become lethal as they hurt the mole by piercing or squeezing it to death. Before you take the action of killing a mole, you must ensure that you are aware of the rules and regulations that your state has put in place regarding the killing of wild animals. You might kill it and get in trouble. If your state however allows the killing of these organisms. Then do so.

2. Poisoning. This is also another effective method. You can place mole poison in the soil to get in touch with the living organisms in it. If the mole eats these organisms then it will die. However, you have to be really careful with these poisons because they might be dangerous to you, your children who play on the soil and the pets and farm animals.

These are the best methods to use when you want to kill a mole.

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One of the most common and equally annoying signs of having moles in your property is when you see your beautiful landscaping ruined. Moles create tunnels not too deep below the ground which causes the surface to look messed up. Understandably, this is reason enough to want to exterminate the moles in your garden. Here is a comprehensive guide on how to do this. Moles feed off of creatures found in the soil including grubs, earthworms, and beetles. Sometimes, they also eat seeds and vegetables. Just like with other nuisance animals, if you remove their food source, they are not likely to come back. In this case, the food source is in the soil which is very hard to control. For this reason, extermination is the best way to deal with this problem. Here are some methods you can choose from.

Baiting or poisoning

There are several brands available on the market. What this method does is that the poison mimics the appearance of moles' primary food source which is the earthworm. Once they intake this poison, it will kill them within 24 hours. Watch out for dead bodies of moles. Keep in mind that you still have to properly dispose of them immediately before it attracts other unwanted animals to your property.

Trapping

In this method, you will have to find an active mole tunnel. This means that the trap will have to be placed and set underground. Most mole traps have triggers that can be set by stepping on it. These traps are made to be low-profile so as not to be easily detected by moles. Once an activity is sensed nearby and the trap is activated, the heavy-duty spring and metal will automatically be engaged and the animal will die instantly. Check the trap at least every 8 hours and dispose of the body properly.

Use of Insecticides

No, moles are not insects and no, the insecticides are not for exterminating moles. It is simply for their food source which are the tiny little creatures found in the soil such as worms. Naturally, once moles find out that there is no food for them in your lawn, they will permanently leave. However, there is a drawback. Getting rid of worms will cause moles to aggressively search for them. This means that they will dig deeper and longer tunnels. This will last for 2 to 4 weeks until they finally leave in search of greener pastures. Moles who fail to find new food sources will die on your property out of hunger and fatigue.

Repelling

Using a repellent is not exactly a way to exterminate moles but it is a good technique to prevent this problem from coming back. Even after you've exterminated all the moles on your property, it will still be helpful to use repellents so as to warn other moles lurking around not to pay your lawn a visit. Here are the scents that are most hated by moles: dried blood, tobacco, powdered red pepper, coffee grounds, and last and probably the most effective - castor oil.