Recently I had noticed little mounds of dirt popping up in the perimeter of my flower beds in the front yard. I knew this signaled some sort of ground dweller, but being the (usual) animal lover that I am, I figured what was there was no big deal and I'd just keep an eye on things and assess it from there. Wellllll.... over the last few weeks those mounds of dirt have gotten bigger and more of them have been popping up. First in the side backyard, and then on the other end of the yard nearest my garden bed. Now I know that moles don't eat your veggies- but I do know that those little bastards are known for killing them by clawing at their roots to get all the yummy worms outta there. Once I saw them closing in on my garden, I knew they had to go.
I did a Google search of natural ways to get rid of moles and I stumbled across "Grandpa's Ultimate Mole Attack Survival Guide" which is a hilarious but well written how-to for ridding your yard of moles. In it, he explains how he's tried every method under the sun to get those pesky critters outta his yard to no avail. And because he wasn't the first to write about how difficult they can be to eradicate without actually killing them, I decided to follow the advice of Grandpa, and I ran out to purchase the specific trap he claims to have best success with.
After two trips to two different hardware stores, and after purchasing and setting up (with a lot of cursing) the two different types of traps, I'm patiently waiting (and hoping) that in the morning I'll find a DEAD MOLE..or two!!
Wish me luck.....
3 comments:
good luck! Get those bastards!!
Are they for sure moles? Might be gophers, at least that is what leaves mounds of dirt here. Our moles tend to leave tunnels just under the surface. I like the BLACK HOLE traps for gophers! LOVE FINDING THEM DEAD!! WA HAHA!! :)
(why am I still not getting email notification of comments?! Guess I should recheck the settings..)
I'm pretty confident they are moles- as that's apparently the predominant ground dweller around here based on what I've seen available at the hardware stores and what neighbors have told me about... maybe I should check out gophers too- I know they get them on the East side of the state.
And WTF!! YES!! This thing has been leaving tunnels just under the surface too- so I can see "veins" of dirt all around my flower beds, which is part of the reason I wasn't as concerned, I could just smash those down with no problem. In my lawn though- and near my garden- hellll no!
The trap I bought though friggin BROKE. I had to adjust it 3 times, as two times it ended up still set with dirt pushed all around it. Looks like the damn thing might have gone around it (my fault- which I was kind of expecting since I've never done this before). But the 3rd time the area looked untouched, and I saw that the trap was broken- one of the legs/claws literally snapped in HALF. SO I'm taking it back.
No signed of new activity so I'm wondering what is up.....
Thanks for inquiring as to the mole/gopher identification issue, Erin- I did some googling and found there *is* one type of gopher that is in my area, and was able to identify the differences in their mound/tunneling appearance. Pretty sure at this point it's a mole based on that info, but if it's a gopher I'm not supposed to use lethal measures to eradicate it....because apparently it's a dying species. Kinda sad, but really, THOSE things eat your plants!
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