Moles are soil borne larva eaters. Get ride of the larva, grubs, and the moles will look for dinner in your neighbors yard.

Moles unfortunately love earth worms too, those same worms that are a sign of - and beneficial to - healthy productive soil. I don't find eliminating their food a good cure...

wmmihail, the damage you are describing sounds more like voles than moles. Moles leave obvious mounds of dirt pushed up (hills)...damage can occur when they tunnel under plants leaving roots (still attached) dangling in air space, create enough tunnels your irrigation water is drained away, or my personal favorite, when they push up a mound of earth that covers the crown of an expensive perennial, burying and smothering it.

I've actually seem and caught some of the critters in my yard and I know they are moles. I've also observed the mounds in various places. I don't know what a vole looks like so I can't say if I do or don't have them. Never heard of anyone in my locale saying they have had voles. I know I have to deal with the moles somehow, the only thing I was looking to find out is if I have another problem or is it possible that a mole will sever a pretty sizable plant at its base.

wmmahail, moles won't sever a plant of any size at its base. They will tunnel around and under roots and disturb them but not feeding on them. They aren't interested in plants, they are meat eaters.

I'm not doubting you, but curious...How did you see and catch them? They are somewhat hard to trap (underground traps), don't cross your yard or beds above ground, strictly tunnelers and subterranian. DH has managed to dispatch a couple, but after standing patiently at an active run for quite some time with a foresters hoe in hand, waiting for them to push up fresh earth. His aim can be less than true (and messy) - that's how I know they have tummies full of earth worms.

Here is a link that might be useful:

the consensus .... at the hosta forum .. yeah.. believe it or not ...

YOU HAVE VOLES. ... De Nile.. is not a river in Egypt either ...

a lot of east coast peeps actually grow hosta in cages to keep their hosta viable .....

voles are vegetarians .... they eat hosta ...

moles eat bugs/worms/etc ... and NOT with a side of veggie ... you have voles ...

the ONLY damage moles do to hosta ... is that they run down drip irrigation lines.. and small hosta can fall into the hole .. and a hosta that gets 2 inches big.. buried 4 inches down.. will die ... otherwise.. they are too lazy to try to tunnel thru a big mess of hosta roots.. and will go the easy way round ....

so.... to specifically answer your title question ... NO .. MOLES ARE NOT KILLING YOUR HOSTA ...

ken