• Plants mysteriously topple over or disappear. When you investigate, these plants usually appear wilted, and upon pulling them up, you find that the roots have been eaten.
• There are holes in the ground about the size of broomsticks (one or two inches in diameter) and there is no loose or dug up soil around the hole.
• The ground feels soft or spongy when you walk on it; this is a sign of burrowing activity close to the surface.
• There are very small, irregular, square teeth marks (about 1/16^th of an inch wide) on the stems of woody perennials or shrubs. Teeth marks about 1/8^th of an inch wide are a sign of rabbits, not moles or voles.
• Runways or small, round tunnels about and inch or two wide run through your grassy vegetation.
• Your tulip, lily or allium bulbs have disappeared.

Moles: Friend or Foe?

You should keep in mind that you may not necessarily want to get rid of the moles in your garden.  Unlike voles, moles do not eat plant material.  However, they can damage root systems with their tunneling.  But on the bright side, moles eat about their own body weight in insects each day. Therefore, getting rid of moles also means dealing with a baby boom of bugs in your yard.  It’s important to weigh the pros and cons.

When to tackle the problem:

The first thing to remember is that control and prevention methods against rodents are most effective in the late fall, just before or during the first few frosts - but after the first snowfall, forget it!  The snow will protect rodents from predators while they continue to feed off of plant material throughout the winter.  In the spring and summer months, voles and mice will find other feeding areas while you try to get rid of them, but sooner or later, they’ll be back, and they’ll probably bring friends. Late fall, when most natural vegetation dies down and food supply is limited is, therefore, the best time to tackle your mole or vole problem.

How to tackle the problem:

Don’t waste your money.  These “solutions” either don’t work or don’t work well:

• Battery or solar powered devices
• Fumigants

Tried and true: The best ways to fix the problem:                   

• Maximize bare soil.  This will take away the moles’ and voles’ primary protection from natural predators.  If you mulch in your garden, use coarser mulch and layer no thicker than two inches (this should still be plenty to keep your plant protected).  Also, keep the mulch a few inches away from plant crowns and a few feet away from woody stems.
• Do a thorough fall cleanup.  Keep the ground free of leaves, weeds, litter and ornamental grasses and perennials.  Keeping your lawn clean and clear all year round is a good way to discourage moles and voles.
• Put mesh around tree trunks and woody stems to prevent damage to young or tender trees and plants. When green vegetation is sparse in the winter, mice and voles resort to woody plants for food. Creating a cylinder of galvanized hardware cloth (available at your local hardware store) with a mesh no larger than ¼” around the trunks will prevent damage from chewing. The cylinder should be buried 6-10” into the ground to keep rodents from burrowing underneath. The cylinder should at least be higher than the expected snowfall, but a much higher cylinder will protect from deer, as well as rodents.
• Bonide's Repels-All is an all-natural, granular product that safely repels moles and voles, as well as a whole list of other animals.  We haven't received much feedback from customers regarding this product and moles or voles, but we have several customers that regularly use it to keep away deer, rabbits and skunks.
• You can also use traps or poisons to remove moles and other rodents; however, both of these methods require repeated applications to ensure success and also carry a certain amount of risk.  Traps and poisons can endanger harmless and helpful animals in your garden such as shrews, which eat many harmful insects.  Furthermore, poisons, in particular, can be deadly to children and pets. To that end, we would recommend the non-lethal methods listed above before resorting to either traps or poison.