Moles!

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RockRiverTiff

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Well I have yet to see one of the little stinkers above ground, but I can see evidence of moles all over my front pastures. I went to the farm supply store and they were pushing the poision worms that you drop in the tunnels, but it seems questionable to me to put poison at root level with the grass the horses are eating. What's worked for you guys?
 
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There is NO way to get rid of moles- if you find one you could make a fortune selling the "cure" to golf courses the world over!

Sorry.
 
We hate moles. Holes are just the right size for mini feet.

We've got them everywhere. Tried most every old time theory to no avail.

Trapping is illegal, in our state, of small furry animals. Disgustingly,

moles fell into that category and no ones seems inclined to rewrite the law.

We met a man who traps for the mayor and sheriff of our town, it just isn't

advertised.

He taught us how to trap them and it's the ONLY effective battle against them.

You have to find a fresh tunnel that goes both ways of the hole, insert trap

and wait for one to come into it. Sometimes it happens quickly sometimes not

so much but eventually they'll come back to that tunnel.

He says on say 250 acres there is probably only 2 to 3 moles at work.

They are very territorial but will take over others tunnels, of one that has met

it's demise, in about 5 weeks.

We've found that to be true and stay vigilant to new hills appearing.

The man we bought our property from says in Idaho, they run the exhaust from

their big tractors,etc, down the tunnels and gas them out but it's crop land

not grazing ground. He says it's effective but we're not inclined to try that

method. Trapping is easy and cheap.
 
Juicy Fruit Gum (and only the original of that brand of gum works)..... seriously... they hate the smell and go away. Will last 2 to 3 months. Its not a perm fix but I have found it works well, been using that trick for years.

I find a tunnel entrance (aka mounts of soil), pop a stick of gum in and cover the tunnel back up.
 
We use this device that we got at our local feed store. It works! It doesn't miss...but, they have to go through it.

Caveat....my husband now puts a flag next to it in our pasture. I ran over one with the tractor when I didn't see it in the taller grass.
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Hi,

Mostly of Decker (bigger size rat terrier, about 20" to 18" tall), Standard (under 18" to 13" tall) or Miniature (under 13" tall) Rat Terrier, Jack Russel will hunts for moles, rats, squirrel and anything that they stalk on. Our rat terrier never harm on our miniatures, sometime they play together. But sometime if our mares pick on each other, my rat terrier will try to straighten them out.
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We used to have mini horses for 2 years and we sold all of them, my passion is for big horse to riding.

We only have ONE big horse.
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These breeds are very high hunting prey for rats, mouse, moles and squirrel.

Hope that helped. ;) -- Just in case if you want a dog. ;)
 
I have used moth balls down the holes and that seemed to work. Pop them in then cover them up. Up here we have alot of Japanese Beetles and I was told that they lay their eggs in the ground, when the larve hatch here come the moles who love to eat them. Maybe you have some tasty critter hatching out at your house now
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Folks at Lowes suggested spraying the area with soapy water. I haven't tried it yet - too much rain - but am going to give that a shot. I'm also going to try the Juicy fruit gum!
 
A good cat--that is what has worked here. We haven't had a big problem with them on our place; once years ago had one in the garden, chewing off the carrots & such just below ground level. Cat got that one. Last year one of the cats brought one into the yard--whichever cat had it must have gotten it out in the back pasture. Haven't seen any hills since then so that must have been the only one out there.

I wouldn't worry about the poison down a hole at root level--I don't believe the grass absorbs poison and so wouldn't poison the horses. You should, though, check daily to make sure that nothing has dug the poison up and left it on top the ground where a horse (or dog or cat) could get at it. At the same time you check for dead moles that may have died on the surface, and pick those up so that no other animal can eat them. I can't say how effective the poison is for moles. We only ever once had to poison the ground squirrels--our pastures were full of them at that time, with so many holes--some of which were made even more dangerous by the neighbor's dog digging them out. The bait we used that time was mixed with grain so we had to be especially careful--we checked once or twice a day to make sure none of the poisoned grain got dug out and at the same time picked up dead gophers (and told the neighbor to keep his dog home if he didn't want to risk its life). We did get rid of the gophers without poisoning any horses or pets. I took a shovel & filled in all the holes & have had no further infestations.
 
My sister's Basenji-Shepherd mix is an amazing mole catcher - last summer shw caught 14, so far this year she's at four. (She has her own official Facebook count...)

Prior to getting this dog, she tried every method known to little avail.
 
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We have terrible moles here and pocket gophers too. Frank traps the gophers which are VERY destructive and dangerous for the horses. For the moles I have found little chunks of Irish Spring bath soap works. Put in tunnels, but we have hundresd of tunnels! :eek:( You have to replace the soap every so often. Here about once every 4 months or so. It doesn't kill moles, just has a very strong scent which the little monsters don't like.

I can't plant flowers in my flower beds if I don't 'soap' them. The moles tunnel under and kill flowers and also large landscape plants.

Our Jack Russel was very good at getting moles and even some gophers if you don't mind the holes he dug.

GOOD LUCK Tiff!

Charlotte
 
GOOD LUCK Tiff!
No kidding - I feel like I'm going to war! Unfortunately a dog is out of the question right now, but I do wonder if the Corgi mix we used to have at the farm wasn't taking care of this problem for us. Also, unfortunately, our barn cats have been disappearing for a week, and until I find out why I'm not going to be getting any more.
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So I guess I'll start with the easiest suggestions and go out and fill the tunnels with gum, soap and mothballs tomorrow. Take that moles! I think...
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If that doesn't work we'll have to try trapping I guess. Thanks everybody!
 

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