sorry to bum you out. This is exactly what happened to me. The snow melted, and I had paths criss-crossing my entire front yard. Those little bastards. The yard looks bad enough without the mole damage, but with it, it looks horrid. Depressing.
What does acetylene do to moles? It’s flammable to the point of being explosive, but not toxic. If it’s just to suffocate them, propane would be cheaper and easier.
A tungsten telephone pole dropped from orbit should take them out.
Rods from God
My folks recently got rid of a gopher by flooding it’s tunnels with a hose. It was relocated.
Well, we never lit it. Which is odd because On more than one occasion I remember wondering. “Hm, what gas is that and is it flammable? Like would it help kill the moles even more if I lit it?” God looks after fools, I guess.
If it’s not toxic then it must just suffocate them. We tried pinch traps and “gopher getter” smoke bombs, stuff with the express purpose of eliminating the denizens of Underyard, but none come close to being as effective as the old calcium carbide & water trick. Probably because it was so fun to do (what kid can resist pouring water on something and watch the resulting bubbles & smoke?) that I’d do it fairly regularly just for something to do.
A zany co-worker of mine supposedly used to kill gophers by pumping exhaust into their holes, but it stopped working after he bought a newer pollution-controlled truck.
Get a dachshund or jack russell terrier. I had one of each and they could kill 3-4 a day.
They would walk around the yard and stop, cock their head to one side, wait, and then dig like mad. They seldom missed. One good shake and it was over.
I echo what dragonlady posted. I used to know a guy who leased out his Jack Russell for mole extermination.
I once had a cat that would bring home dead moles. They didn’t come from our yard.