Fighting moles on the site with your own hands: how to deal with the pest?

The appearance of moles in the garden can lead to real chaos. Animals do not cause much damage to plants - they feed on insects, but their underground passages often attract other burrowing pests. Nobody wants a dug up area covered in piles of earth.

There are many products available to remove moles from your yard, but they all have temporary effects. In addition to traps and poisons, there are natural mole repellers. A natural repellent will help drive harmful animals away from the area.

This method is not only safe for the environment, pets, children and the moles themselves, but will also add beauty to the landscape. A hedge of plants will help get rid of moles and shrews.

What flowers will drive away moles?

The scent of some flowers repels moles. Plant them around the perimeter of the site to drive away annoying animals.

Daffodils

Marigold

Beautiful marigold flowers do not require special care. Their pungent aroma will drive away shrews. This is a simple, beautiful and safe means of fighting moles (and mole crickets).

Imperial hazel grouse

The bulbous plant has bright drooping flowers, the aroma of which is very disliked by moles and shrews. The hazel grouse will also save your garden from the gardener's nightmare - the mole cricket.

Castor bean

Plants in the Euphorbia family are commonly grown in the garden for their unusual star-shaped foliage. Castor oil is obtained from castor bean seeds. This is what moles cannot tolerate.

For your information! Castor oil is a popular ingredient in mole repellents. You can make this remedy yourself by mixing 150 ml of castor oil and 2 tablespoons of dish soap. Add 1 tbsp. l. mixture to two liters of water, and apply to the area (best after rain or watering).

Using sound

Soil inhabitants (moles, mole crickets, mice, worms, etc.) are sensitive to the effects of impacts on the surface, which are transmitted deeper. To effectively scare away moles, summer residents often use simple ratchet structures. You will need:

cuttings of metal water pipes longer than 80 cm;
reinforcing rod or welding steel wire 0.7-1 cm thick;
wooden plugs for the pipe, equal to its internal diameter;
plastic mineral water bottles (hard and transparent) or 0.5 liter aluminum beer containers.

When installing such repellers, you need to know that the main mole tunnels run at a depth of at least 70 cm, and you will have to drive the pipe into the ground at approximately the same distance. It is better not to dig in the pipes, but to hammer them in with a sledgehammer, so as not to disturb the density of the soil and its ability to transmit sound.

The ratchet is made from a lightweight plastic or aluminum can:

In the bottom of a PET bottle or the top of an aluminum container, a hole is made slightly larger than a rod. When rotating, the container should swing slightly, tapping the rod. The easiest way to burn a hole in a plastic bottle is with a soldering iron.
Cut several “doors” on the sides and bend each flap outward. The doors should bend in one direction.
Try the prepared ratchet on the rod. When using aluminum cans, you will have to push the central part of the bottom a little so that the can body can rotate. For a PET bottle, the pin fits comfortably into the neck (do not remove the cap).
Insert a wooden plug into the hole of the driven pipe. Drive the pin into the wood and put a pinwheel from a bottle on top.

The design works even in low winds. The noise, which is almost inaudible to humans, is amplified by the pipe and transmitted into the soil, scaring off not only the mole, but also other soil inhabitants.

How to prevent moles from appearing

To prevent pests from settling in your area, follow simple rules:

Too wet soil causes wormholes to rise closer to the surface. Therefore, limiting the amount of moisture in the area helps to get rid of burrowing pests.
Check the area for sources of moles' favorite food (insects, worms). In fact, sometimes nature itself does all the work for us. Changes in weather and soil moisture can actually cause moles to leave on their own.
Loose, fertile soil filled with larvae and insects is a real paradise for moles.

Taking drastic measures to control pests is not always acceptable. Before resorting to harsh methods of getting rid of moles, try planting flowers in the garden that will drive pests away from the area without dangerous consequences.

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Destroy all individuals on the site

If there is only one mole or there are few of them, the pests can be destroyed mechanically:

track when new molehills appear;
prepare a shovel and wait until the mole begins to make its way to the surface, forming a mound;
quickly drive the shovel to the maximum depth next to the molehill and dig out the animal.

A hunted mole is defenseless. It can be taken away from the site into the forest or killed.

You can fight moles by placing special mole traps and traps on the site. The structures are purchased, they need to be dug into the ground or installed in places where the pest constantly appears, as specified by the manufacturer.

If there are a lot of moles, then such methods will be ineffective. There are special teams that carry out gassing of tunnels with toxic substances. You cannot try to do this on your own using pepper spray or household gas, and it can be dangerous for the owner himself. The use of poisoned baits is not used: moles do not feed on grain or sweets and are sensitive to foreign odors.

The use of mole breakers - special electrical devices that are installed in existing tunnels - is also effective. While moving, the mole will be killed by a strong electric shock. The disadvantage of this method is the high cost of the devices, but this way you can destroy pests as they appear over many years.

Ways to fight moles

So, what is a safe way for animals to get rid of moles on your property? And many such methods have been invented over many years of “confrontation” between these animals and summer residents.

For example, underground passages can be filled with water. The method, frankly speaking, is not entirely effective and not very cheap. Firstly, the passages can be very deep and branched - the mole will simply go into non-flooded areas, and at the same time begin to expand the “living space” to replace the damaged one. And secondly, if you are determined to do this, expelling animals from their homes may require tons of water, for which the summer resident will have to pay.

It is also proposed to clog the mole passages with something sharp-smelling - to compensate for their undeveloped vision, the animals have an extremely acute sense of smell. A lot of things will work for these purposes: cloth soaked in vinegar, kerosene or onion infusion, rotten fish heads, and so on. The moles, perhaps, really won’t like this turn of events - but will you and your household enjoy being in a “fragrant” area? After all, the smells will have to be “updated” regularly, otherwise the animals will return.

There is an opinion that some bulbous flowers - daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, as well as marigolds, legumes and milkweed cause unpleasant sensations in moles and encourage them to retreat. Try to plant, why not, but you understand – there is no guarantee.

It is also recommended to drive out moles with noise - to create vibrations that are unpleasant for them, metal rods with empty cans and tins placed on top of them as rattles are installed throughout the entire area in the upper layers of the soil. We don’t know how much vibration this crackling will transmit to the soil, but we guarantee that you and your neighbors will soon get tired of the constant strumming in any breeze worse than a bitter radish.

They also use large trap jars dug into the ground, into which the animal falls “blindly”, and then it is taken out and taken away from the site. But, firstly, placing such traps in different places in the garden is simply unsafe for children and pets, who can fall into them themselves and injure their limbs, and, secondly, moles are strongly attached to “their” territory and can easily return to the site after some time if they were carried away nearby.

Or another method of control is a mesh with small holes (plastic or metal) or sheets of roofing material against moles. These structures are dug under beds and lawns at a depth of approximately 50-70 cm and do not allow the animals to rise to the fertile layer with roots. Yes, let's face it - it works. But the method is very labor-intensive and will require a lot of time and effort from you, as well as money - you need to purchase many meters of mesh, remove a fairly large top layer of soil, attach the mesh to the ground over the entire surface, fill the area with soil again and level it, organize the beds " in a new way" or sow the lawn...

Is it really impossible to get by with less labor if you really want to drive moles out of the area? Actually it is possible.

Temporary measures to get rid of moles

There are ways to expel a mole from the territory of a plot of land for some time or permanently. It is more difficult to drive out an animal permanently, but temporary measures are used to scare the animals or drive them away with unpleasant odors. Moles do not like to live in noisy or smelly places.

For many summer residents, the news about the proximity to moles on their summer cottage was an unpleasant surprise.

There are benefits from a mole

It should be noted that many gardeners consider moles not pests, but helpers. Moles are insectivorous predators that eat wireworms that spoil potato tubers, mole crickets that destroy seedlings and flowers, and May beetle larvae that gnaw on the roots of vegetables, flowers, and young fruit plants.

The mole does not damage the roots and tubers, except that it may spoil the appearance of the lawn. In this case, it may make sense to plant repellent plants around the lawn to protect it from the mole's visit.

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Biological description

The mole (specific name Talpidae) belongs to the class Mammals, order Insectivores, family Moles. Its name means “digger” in Latin. This is a small, well-fed animal, dressed in dense brown, dark gray or black fur. The length of the spindle-shaped body of the animal is about 15 cm.

The head is round in shape and narrowed towards the nose, which is a movable proboscis. The ears are poorly developed, and the eyes are very small; they have practically lost their functions. In the mouth of the mole there is a set of sharp teeth, their number, depending on the type of animal, is 34 or 44. The front paws with wide hands are turned with the palms outward and are armed with strong long claws. The hind legs are thin, rat-like. The short tail, covered with coarse hair-vibrissae, serves as an additional organ of touch.

Protecting your garden from birds

The average life expectancy is from 4 to 6 years, the mating season begins in February and lasts almost six months. Females give birth to 3-4 cubs, which, like many other mammals, are born “naked”, without hair.

Animal taxonomy includes several species of moles:

European (Talpa europaea),
small (Talpa caeca),
long-tailed (Scaptonyx fusicaudus),
Caucasian Talpa caucasica)
Altai (Talpa altaica),
starfish (Condylura cristata).

Exposure to ultrasound

Ultrasonic devices can be purchased at garden stores and markets; they vary in power and area of effect depending on the price. Most often they are powered by a solar battery, but there are also ordinary batteries. Usually two or three devices are installed per site.

Since many animals can hear ultrasound, this will also help get rid of rodents and snakes.

Does hazel grouse protect the garden from moles and mice?

They say there are flowers that can scare away moles and mice. By planting these marvelous flowers on your site, you will forever get rid of unwanted visitors. Sellers of flowers and plants often laughingly say how gardeners and gardeners come to them in the fall and ask for hazel grouse bulbs, which mice and moles extremely dislike.

There is really a lot of information on the Internet that by planting hazel grouse on your plot, you will repel rodents from the beds. The thing is that moles and mice hate the smell of the tubers of these plants. And hazel grouse actually have a very specific smell.

Fritillaries are very beautiful flowers and they look simply gorgeous. But the question is: do the bulbs of these flowers really repel rodents?

For answers, we turned to experienced gardeners who have been growing hazel grouse on their plot for many years. Firstly, it is believed that moles and mice are afraid of imperial hazel grouse. However, neither mice, nor moles, nor water voles are afraid of the smell of even this plant. It has already been proven that rodents dig their burrows right in the middle of hazel grouse bulbs. Moles, of course, may not like the smell of a flower, but only if the rodent buries its nose in it. Some gardeners say that moles are not only not afraid of hazel grouse, but can even feast on them. This flower does have a specific smell, especially the imperial yellow flower, but moles dig holes in the flower garden, not paying any attention to this smell.

So, if you are going to use hazel grouse to protect your areas from rodents, then you should not hope too much that this will help. So as not to be disappointed later. It’s better to just plant these flowers on your plot or in a flower garden to enjoy their beauty. Well, if the moles really don’t like them on your site, that’s just great!

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