Seemingly overnight the pretty green well-watered yard at your brand new home can take on the appearance of a battle-field, with visible holes and tunnels that look bad and pose a hazard for twisting ankles. Unfortunately, moles are a staple of the typical Southern yard and the more active you are in caring for your lawn, the more likely the moles will be attracted to it. They seek out moist ground with a plentiful earthworm population to feed on. It takes a well-organized and consistent plan of attack to eradicate them and reclaim your lawn.
Danny Lipford with Today’s Home Improvement offers the following mole-elimination tips:
- Make sure that moles are active. Stomp on an existing molehills and check over the next few days
- Purchase some traps, follow the directions exactly and trap the pesky varmints.
- Consider hiring a professional exterminator to fumigate your yard or apply poisons.
Don’t try the following old housewives approaches, they have little documented success:
- Attempting to control grubs. Moles don’t limit their diet to grubs and will tunnel further to find food if they cannot find grubs.
- Home remedies such as human hair, broken glass, bleach, mothballs, etc. typically aren’t worth the effort.
- Ultrasonic and vibrating devices seem good in theory but aren’t worth the investment.
Once you’ve gotten rid of the moles, try and prohibit their return with a mole-resistant approach to landscaping:
- Downsize your actual lawn area. Since the lawn area is the primary target for moles, reduce the area grass with naturalized areas and shrubbery.
- Cut back on watering. Overwatering draws earthworms (and thus moles) to the surface. Planting drought-tolerant grasses and plants can reduce your water requirements. Using native plants can also reduce water needs.
- Keep moles out by lining raised beds with ¼” metal hardware cloth. Consider laying a mole barrier around the perimeter of the yard. Be sure to bury hardware cloth or whatever material is used at least two feet and sticking up about six inches.
- Introduce your domestic furry friends to the joys of mole hunting. It could keep your pet entertained and the moles at bay.
Are you in the process of shopping for a brand-new yard of your very own? Check out the following areas for great values on a new home: Berkeley, Charleston or Dorchester counties.
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