I've never found moles to be much of a problem--and I have a LOT of them. Now voles, which will use the mole tunnels, are another story completely.

I have several stone walls and they and the surrounding lawn and bed areas were overrun with voles this year. I had an exterminator who charged me $350 to put D-con or TomKat pellets down the holes. He pushed it in as far as it would go. He told me to wait a week, then fill in the holes with soil and watch for new activity. Would have cost about $10 to do it myself, though I am not comfortable using this stuff outdoors. I do use it my basement crawl space for mice. Doubt it would work on moles.

Are there any cats in your neighbourhood? My neighbor has two, at first I wasn’t crazy about them visiting, but there are no rodents around. I’ve planted Nepeta to keep them coming! :)

I have a starving neighbor cat (don't get me started), who lives in my yard. I still have moles. I don't think cats will keep them away, but it's nice that you have nepeta. You get the benefit of pretty plants.

hydrangeahead, I agree, I wil not be using any poisons outdoors for the voles again. I didn’t know what the exterminator was gong to do, I should have asked more questions ahead of time. My comment about it being cheaper to do it myself was more about being ripped off in additon to it being a bad idea, not that I plan on doing it. Most of the damage was being done by moles anyway, and I’m not sure there’s any way to get rid of them without killing earthworms.

I read an article not that long ago about a gardener who had a lot of trouble with moles/voles and she ended up planting a lot of garlic around the plants that she was specifically trying to protect - and it worked. If I have another problem over the winter, I am going to try that. She used a variety called "Music" which I thought was a very attractive variety. The article was in the Horticulture magazine November 2017 issue. It had photos of how she used it in the landscape.

I haven't had perennials disturbed during the growing season, just missing perennials in the spring, and I've only seen one critter that had the blind eyes, I believe which is a mole, right? I've started paying attention to making purchases of plants they don't enjoy. They love crocus, but don't touch snow drops, etc.

Prairiemoon, that's a really great idea! I was looking all over my yard for somewhere to plant more garlic as this year was my first year and it was a successful exercise. I did just tuck it in my sunny flower beds, but I'm not sure how it will do in the shade. I guess it doesn't really matter, if it keeps the rodents from wrecking my beds, huh?

It's not the most ornamental, though. Anyone use it like this? Any photos?

Hydrangeahead - I found the issue of Horticulture at the library and you might try finding it where you are. The article is called 'Alliums to Eat' in the Nov 2017 issue. It did have photos in it.

Thanks, prairiemoon, l will have to look for that :)

You can kill moles with a "mole trap", but it is not humane. If the trap makes good hit, the kill is rather quick, but if not, death comes slower. Most of the time, its a lethal hit in the head and neck area. Mole trap is a misnomer; The thing is a death machine. It kills by driving sharp, spring loaded, spikes into the mole. If you want more information, I know how to select the location and set the trap.

There is a Euphorbia you can plant that's supposed to repel them. The moles are a sign that you've done good things to your soil. The moles just want the critters your soil draws, not your plants. I think they are fascinating. I'd love to have some visit my yard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_lathyris

Jay - Add a lot of leaf mulch year after year and make new beds with lasagna gardening methods, with plenty of cardboard as a layer and you'll have plenty of earthworms and moles. [g]

Prairie, the previous homeowner went way overboard on using landcape fabric, so I've been removing as much as I can, and the red lava rocks he threw on top of everything isn't helping, but I'm in the middle of several old oaks so there's never a shortage of leaves. I'm seeing worms under the fabric so hopefully I'll be making their enviroment a lot better. I'm a big believer in having good soil. Thanks for the tips!

Jay - Sounds like you are going in the right direction. I hope at least that the landscape fabric is the newer variety and not the older plastic variety. We used that old plastic stuff under bark mulch in some beds when we first started out - what a mistake that was. It was horrible trying to get it all out. Luckily we didn't use all that much of it. We have more of the newer variety that is easier to install and remove and we've only used it under pathways. Now we prefer using cardboard under our bark mulch in the beds and that really works the best for us. It keeps the weeds down for about a season and just about the time we need to add more bark mulch, it's time for another layer of cardboard. And it helps the soil. It's all a lot easier than pulling weeds all season.

Oak leaves are great - we have only Maple - any leaves are great. We have a neighbor who would rather rake his leaves to our lot line and push them into our yard than bag them up and he has 3 mature Maples, so I get a lot of leaves in addition to our own, with very little effort on our part.

Never had a mole once for 13 years.. then got them. I tried the castor oil replants... but they didn't seem to care... even with spreading it heavy handed. Poisons... no good. So i ended up doing the traps... which took care of the issue quickly. As with many of the rodent traps... there is the chance of not a quick kill.

You can buy 'mole bulbs' on the internet...or, a better and far cheaper solution is to buy ornamental alliums to strategically plant around beds, along the edges and so on. In fact, this is what 'mole bulbs' are - I think a.moly is the suggested allium (cheap and attractive)

I have moles..for years now. They never really do any plant damage as they go around the roots. Although I’ve had soil/tunnels collapse after heavy rains on my sloped side bed. So yes, they annoy me...

It has been stated that if you spread the milky spore bacillis around the edge of the lawn area to kill off the grubs there, then moles will not cross the barren zone to get into your lawn. I've never tried this myself. We have moles and voles, but compared to the local deer they are a very minor nuisance so I generally ignore them.

As an FYI on the milky spore... it will take a while to become effective and does not effect all grubs in the soil.

Im surprised not many people talk about using the castor oil repellants. I see them in retail as much as the traps or poisons.

I have millions of them - the woods look like a lunar landscape some weeks. The only feasible solution is to send grand-daughter to jump on the molehills, then sow seeds in the nicely friable soil...but I have more or less abandonned any attempt to 'garden' in the woods and am now just aiming to increase diversity by random seeding of wild flowers.