Mole Damage is Often Too Visible
It’s been a busy Spring for mole trapping in the Akron, Canton, Kent, Ohio area!
As grass cutting, flower planting, and mulching seasons peak, many homeowners have noticed the presence of moles in their yards. Mole damage typically found in Northeast Ohio lawns consists of raised tunnels through the grass, brown spots, or mounds of dirt on the surface.
All these types of lawn damage result from moles digging around looking for delicious earthworms or other invertebrates to eat.
Here are some pictures of typical damage from moles mounding. As they excavate, dirt is brought to the surface.
If the moles tunnel close to the surface, the grass yellows along the path of the tunnel as the roots are disturbed where the tunnel is.
See if you can locate where the tunnel is in this picture to the left.
It’s pretty easy to see, right?
And with this high visibility of mole damage, we’ve arrived at the heart of the conflict between lawn caretaker and mole–the amount of mole damage that can be tolerated.
Mole damage is often too visible for many homeowners who spend a lot of energy and money keeping their lawns looking very nice.
As one client once described it, “It feels like there is mole graffiti all over my lawn”.
Thus, because lawns get damaged by mounding or having spots brown out, moles come into conflict with homeowners.
Yard Moles can be Managed with Trapping
So what can be done to combat lawn damaging moles? Let’s discuss.
The choices are:
- Live with them. If you don’t mind stamping down the tunnels, removing the mounds, and re-seeding spots from time to time, you might be a candidate for the live-with-them approach. A lot of people have small amounts of mole damage and don’t even notice it.
- Try to put up barriers. Heavy clay, rock, and wire mesh can stop moles. If there is an area where you really don’t want them, some excavating and installation of a mole resistant barrier is a good idea. But, for a lot of people excluding their yards from mole entry is just not too practical.
- Try to combat them with chemicals, smoke, and sonic devices. We’ve written about some of these before; mainly about how our experience tells us they are poor ideas. But, you can always do some research and try it.
- Trap the moles. This is a proven method of managing moles. Successful trapping results in a dead mole which you know will no longer harm the yard. Moles are territorial so there aren’t an unlimited supply of them in your yard. Remove one or a few and the damage will be much less pronounced in the short term.
Our suggestion is to either live with them or trap them when damage is being done.
Trapping will stop the current troublemaker (s) from doing damage. It is a concrete, results-oriented approach that manages the mole population around your home for the near term.
Here are some results from the past few weeks’ mole jobs. The result in client’s lawns in terms of new damage is immediate.
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