Moles: Crush, Kill, Destroy!

Factual Questions
1

My boss has moles in his yard and has tried all kinds of ways to get rid of them.

So far he has tried flooding the tunnels, smoke bombs, skunk spray, and chewing gum. Oh, he’s even peed in the holes.

Meanwhile they have turned his yard into a collection of little volcanos and have undermined his front walkway. Dynamite could be next.

Anybody have a full prove method of killing moles?

2

Oh, this is going to dig up a classic. Let me see if I can find it.

3
      • The stab traps are the only thing that I have known to work. There’s variations on them, but they all have a trigger that sticks down into the tunnel, and that releases a spike that stabs downward killing the mole. It’s bloodless to use, after the trap is sprung you just pull it up and re-set it on another fresh tunnel, you don’t need to remove the mole or even see it.
        (first item shown)
        http://www.victorpest.com/mole_gopher_products.htm
        [assorted cautions about small children and pets apply, but this is really the safest, most effective way–the only animal that will be using a fresh mole tunnel is a mole]
        …
        Although I do note that they sell farther on down a mole repellant, the copy claims that castor oil is an effective ingredient. I have my doubts and will stick with the stab traps (yuk yuk!).
        ~
4

DANGER
Growing up in Seattle the only thing that worked was this: Get a can of calcium carbide, remove all the volcanoes so you can see into the tunnels. Put about a cup of the stuff in a hole, ump a quart or so of water on it & lay a brick or a rock over the hole. Watch for smoke to come out of another hole, block that one up when you see it. Continue this process until all the tunnel openings have been exposed to gas. It’s acetylene IIRC, so DON’T LIGHT THE GAS ! ! !

DANGER

5

My neighbor always used stab traps as I was growing up. But he’d always pull up the dead mole and dispose of it. Those tunnels aren’t that deep, and moles are waaay bigger than a typical rat. Does it really not cause any problems to have a decomposing mole so shallow under the earth? Stink, nosey cats, etc?

6

Too slow, Cisco: How to kill evil Nazi Groundhogs

7

Stupid coding: How to kill evil Nazi Groundhogs

8

I always wondered if maybe using dry ice against the bastards would work. Just get a bunch of it and shove as much as you can into the holes. Carbon Dioxide is heavier than air so theoretically the moles should die because the oxygen is gonna be pushed out of their tunnel network by the melting dry ice. Tell you boss to try it and let us know if it works.

9

Rake leaves thoroughly in the fall and get a cat.

10

What worked for us was a good hunting cat. He looooved catching moles. They eventually went away.

I’ve also heard that putting the right bug-killer on your lawn will do the trick since it kills what the moles are eating and they also go away. Don’t know if that works, and of course there’s the usual disadvantage that you’re putting some sort of poison in a place where people and pets may be walking.

11

I third the cat. I no longer have problems with: gophers, mice, scorpions, vinegaroons (sp?), spiders, etc. They even catch houseflies!

12

Weren’t dachshunds originally bred to go after badgers? Surely among some of their wimpier descendants there exist those who would hunt down That Which Must Not Be Named.

13

I once found (and posted about it here) a device which killed underground varmints by flooding the burrows with propane gas. Then the gas was ignited, which efficiently killed the critters in the burrow. Scylla said he was going to look into it, but never posted back any results. It sounded pretty effective.

14

In response to MLS, he has a cat and that cat kills a couple per month. Apparently, this is not enough as the moles are still thriving. Plus the cat leaves the dead moles in the house or garage. These are not found until putridly odorous.

Falderon - the Dry Ice is a great idea!

15

Ah, I found the aforementioned rodent blasting device. It kills the critter and collapses the tunnel all at one go, the advertising claims.

16

Ferrets?

17

And when they get out of hand, you can get trained gorillas to go after the ferrets. The good thing about the gorilla’s is they’ll freeze to death in the winter, and no more problems.

Yeah, yeah, concept stolen from the Simpsons.

18
      • I don’t know where you saw them exactly, but in Illinois, a mole is somewhat larger than a hamster, but still quite a bit smaller than a typical brown rat. Like say, if they were lying down, a hamster might be 4.5 inches from rump to nose, a mole might be six inches, and a rat might be 10 inches.
  • This is true, they mostly are looking for one certain large white beetle larvae locally and if they don’t find any they will wander off on their own–but the problem with this plan is that the insecticide has to be applied at a certain time of year (just before the beeles lay their eggs in the ground or something like that), or it won’t kill the larvae.
    ~
19
      • I seem to remember the talk about that, but are you sure you’re supposed to light the gas? I don’t think that would work. Propane is heavier than normal air, and so the propane would just displace all the oxygen in the tunnels, suffocating the moles. But then–there would not be enough oxygen left in the tunnels for the propane to burn, I would bet…
        ~
20

Rather safer than Inigo’s method, back your car onto the lawn, attach a hose to the exhaust and put the other end of the hose down the holes.