Prairie,

I've found commercial formulations such as Mole Go and (I think) Gopher Be Gone. Castor oil is listed as the working ingredient.

I thought I might make it more economically myself, but I couldn't find a source on the iternet for straight castor oil.

It can be expensive, but it does work.

Kate

What about a drugstore? It used to be sold at pharmacies when I was growing up. Haven't wanted to look for it for years, tho. Too many bad memories LOL. That or a UFA, Co-op or farm supply. If not, ask them if they can order it in. Just a thought.

Shauna

I use castor in some of my soap recipes, I buy my oils online at soaper supply shops, cannot find it in pharmacies anymore. It would be an expensive option though. Maybe you could try some industrial supply companies in Calgary, the soaper shops get it in bulk from somewhere, just have to find it.

tabardca,

could you name one of the suppliers you are using ? I can only find advertisements for refined products suitable for medical or cosmetic uses. Also, I did not get a single Canadian source. Thanks for your help !

Went to UFA today and learned that they are trying to bring in smoke cartridges from BC because of the huge demand. Everyone seems to have a mole problem. But, as I said in my orginal posting, the smoke cartridges are of now use for me right now anyway since the holes cave in in the crumbly soil before I get an idea where they might be.

prairie gardener, the castor I buy is cosmetic grade oil so would be expensive, I even use it sparingly in soap! I don't have a clue as to where you could get it in bulk or a lower grade than cosmetic, but it must be out there somewhere if people use it for mole control. It is a thick oil and awesome for the skin.

Here is a link to were my wife orders some of here soap supplies from. I'm not sure how the prices are but they do offer bulk discounts.
Andre

Here is a link that might be useful: Well, Naturally

Thanks Andre !

This is the type of source I was looking for. Don't know why I cannot find it myself. Anyhow, will give them a call and see what they recommend in my case.

1,000 ml or 1 litre for C$ 11.03 is not bad. Particularly, when I consider my time, effort and material trying to "fortify" the perimeter with chicken wire folded several times and burried along the fence. All for nothing - these critters chew straight through it. That is 1" mesh size and folded 3 to 4 times !!

There is another inhumane way to trap moles by locating the tunnel and using a gopher trap. When my father first built his acreage he had a serious mole problem and did manage to trap 30 moles in one season. After 25 years he still has to trap one or two a year but nothing like it used to be. If you are interested I'll explain how to set the trap.
Andre

I purchased castor oil at pharmacy in the grocery store (Sunmart) It was a small bottle.

Andre
thanks for your offer. Problem is that I cannot locate the main run ways/ entrance hole(s).

One exception, the first morning after they have cut through the fence and the burried chicken wire. This is the only time, they leave a big (open) hole. Then, I can bundle 3 smoke cartridges and stuff them into the hole - worked a few times and gave me peace for 2 weeks until the next invasion. Appears, this early on when the tunnel system is not too extensive, 3 combined smoke cartridges seem to saturate it.

Smoke cartridges or traps are means applied after the fact. If I could keep the critters away to start with, so much better.

Hi,
I found a place to get castor oil granules!!! It is called Growers Solution. Their phone # 931 528 3390. I found it by using google for castor oil granules look on the second page.
Hope this helps.
Judy

Are you sure you have moles? Leaving a "big open hole" is not what a mole does, rather a pocket gopher. A mole will dig a tunnel, then leave a mound of dirt over the whole thing and then close the tunnel off after himself. When trapping moles I buy a pkg of juicy fruit gum, set my trap (a wooden box with a wire inside that I set, having a little open hole at the otherside of the wire), dig my trap into the ground with only the little hole showing any light into the box and place a half or whole stick of juicy fruit gum outside the box, right in front of the hole. Gets them everytime. They love the smell of the juicy fruit gum and on their way to get it they have to go through the wire I set. The next morning I dispose of the mole and put my piece of juicy fruit gum in a ziploc bag back into the freezer to use next time.

Instead of burying chicken wire, we opted to buy a mesh "screen" that I believe that they use inside cement. This "screen" we bought at a lumber yard and it was 2' x 4'. My husband rented a trencher and in it went. This screen is heavier than chicken wire and he used the leftover screen to use like rebar inside the cement in the sunroom when he was building up the floor to be sloped towards the hot tub.

Yup actually there was a second thread about this later, where it was established that the problem was pocket gophers and not moles.

Pocket gophers are probably worse...the only thing that we do to get rid of them is to wait for a nice sunny day when the gophers are sunning themselves and add one teenage boy with a gun to the mixture and voila...no pocket gopher problem anymore! (temporarily, until the ones down the gravel road and in the field realize that there is an unpopulated "city of tunnels" here in my yard again!)

I'm somewhat dismayed and more alarmed than ever for our environmnet when reading a thread like this one. 'Kill it' when you have no idea what you are even trying to kill.

With all due respect Greenstar, pocket gophers are a very serious economic problem in Alberta and this message was posted looking for information so the poster could control the problem. Not wildly killing everything in the "environmnet".

Head lice or scabies, pocket gophers or moles, support your own nuisances.

Northspruce,
I very much appreciate your comments. The question for me is/ was whether to walk away from a garden that took me 8 years (and a lot of money) to develop or to do something about what apparently are pocket gophers (and not moles).

Last week, I started replacing the plant labels with 12" long metal pins. It is absolutely disgusting how many of those pins "fall right through", i.e. hit one of the multitude of tunnels running every which way underneath the garden.

2005 has been an exceptionally wet gardening season which may explain why not too many of the plants died because of their roots hanging in the air/ tunnels. I am currently pondering whether I should dig up everything in the the spring and re-plant after eliminating the tunnel network.

I mentioned in my second post that I have a fair success rate with the "Black Box" traps from a company called Victor. Currently, these traps are sold out wherever I ask; guess I have to wait for spring to increase my inventory of traps.

It has become clear to me that the best I can hope for is to control the numbers of these critters along the perimeter of my garden; so that only the odd intruder actually will enter the garden proper.

Wow, you must have a lot of gophers there. I can't imagine how bad it must be if the stakes you put in "fall right through". I would sure be tempted to dig up all the plants in the whole garden next spring and place all your plants in pots and literally sell your place (if possible) and move you and your family and garden of pots somewhere else where there is no gopher problem. (easier to say than to do, isn't it).

If you were to dig up a large section, place all plants in pots, could you till deep enough to collapse the tunnels? Or, could you drive on the area and would the weight of the vehicle collapse the tunnels so you could try to start again in that area? Gopher tunnels are soooo deep I don't know what you could do. We have gophers here too and those tunnels....I do not enjoy walking across the lawn and stepping into a gopher hole.

How many acres do you have...you must be in the country as your name implies. We have 10 acres and find that the area around the house has no gophers but the area further away from the house has the tunnels and the gophers. Is that the same at your place?

Greenstar,

"kill it, when you have no idea what you are trying to kill". Where did that come from? We use guns here on our property to, yes, kill animals. But, we use the guns safely (all who use them have their hunter's safety course) and we DO know what we are killing. Pocket gophers can be a nuisance as prairie_gardener can attest to and using a gun to control a few in the yard does work effectively. I remember my dad talking about...years ago there used to be a bounty...the gov't I believe would give $ for gopher tails and magpie feet. Both are a nuisance and this was an effective control measure. Thank you, northspruce for your comments. Someone the other day somewhere else in the internet told me to use a butterfly net in my home to catch flies and then release them outside instead of using my flyswatter. (All my friends and family would think that I "fell off my horse" if they saw me doing so). What is this world coming to?

I stand by my message. You don't go out and start killing animals on your property when you don't even have a clue what the problem is.
I don't have a problem with control of moles, voles, pocket gophers, Richardson ground quirrels, etc. but the ignorance of a solution 'not working' and 'what can I do next' is disturbing when the 'enemy' isn't even properly identified.

Most solutions aren't benign and impact other creatures. Education helps. I'm astounded that someone could live on a farm and not even know that there are no moles on the prairies and, therefore, make repeated efforts to get rid of moles. As for the numbers of 'moles' described and their damage..it's a gross exaggeration. Our property is prime Richardson ground squirrel, vole, mouse, etc. territory yet we have a great garden, no collapsing earth. Yes, we kill some rodents but do it with intelligent targeting of the problem so not to destroy other animals. Our garden isn't a living room and we tolerate non-perfection.

Greenstar, I don't wish to be mean but your remarks are inflammatory and do not contribute to the conversation.

"You don't go out and start killing animals on your property when you don't even have a clue what the problem is"

If a taxonomic classification is required to shoot a nuisance animal that is standing next to the hole it made, they should teach biology instead of hunters' safety. I don't think what VRG is shooting is endangered. I don't think PG is having his or her garden damaged by whooping cranes. The fact that rural folks choose to call pocket gophers "moles" is slightly confusing but does not make the problem imaginary.

"I don't have a problem with control of moles, voles, pocket gophers, Richardson ground quirrels, etc. but the ignorance of a solution 'not working' and 'what can I do next' is disturbing when the 'enemy' isn't even properly identified".

The smoke cartridges and castor oil granules are marketed for control of all burrowing pests. So are the traps. If they aren't effective, of course the poster is going to look for another solution. That's why we have a forum.

"As for the numbers of 'moles' described and their damage..it's a gross exaggeration."

Speak for yourself.

"Our property is prime Richardson ground squirrel, vole, mouse, etc. territory yet we have a great garden, no collapsing earth"

Lucky you.

'You don't go out and start killing animals on your property when you don't even have a clue what the problem is. '

I completely agree with your assessment. Moles eat grubs, earthworms and other insects. It's naive to shoot an animal standing beside any hole without an idea whether or not the animal is a problem. In Montana a hole can be made or used by any number of animals most of which aren't pests of any type. Critters include completely harmless animals as diverse as burrowing owls and golden mantle squirrels. Unfortunately trigger-happy gardeners, poison-wielding farmers and others have this need to control an ecology of which, judging from the first postings, they are woefully unaware of.

Silly me. I took the hippy bait. I'm not interested in perpetuating this.

I agree with you, northspruce, I am just shaking my head at plantcompost and greenstar. On to another subject.

prairie_gardener,

Phone Early's in Saskatoon, they might have some Victor Black Box traps left for sale, thats where we bought ours last year. They mail delivery too. 306-931-1982

If they're sold out, this will work too, he's no gardener, but he's definitely happy-trigger!

Sharon

I know this is definately thread drift, but does anyone know other than fences to keep coyotes away? I'm not allowed by city by-laws to fence my front yard due to snow removel. Hence living in the town DH can't get trigger happy either. Although trust me he would like to be sometimes. They howl in my front yard at night, leave scat behind and are brave enough to be out there at noon on a Sunday. I don't know if they would try something at the dogs who are behind the fence but you never know. Plus having cats whenever company shows up I worry about the cats. All of our company seems to have a hard time understanding you don't let the cats out. They would just become coyote food.

Syreeta

The city you live in should be able to provide a live trap (or a leg trap) either for you to use or if there is an animal control officer they should be able to come over and help you out. Here, during hunting season, yes, they are fair game and they have to be because of the diseases they carry and the damage to livestock they cause.

Coyotes, howling, doesn't it send shivers down your back? We also have them around our acreage and they get fairly close to the house. Any small animals are definitely coyote food. I am not worried about our cat since it is a housecat. With our dogs I have made sure that they have their rabies shots up to date. But coyotes and foxes carry rabies and mange. Mange is transferable to dogs and is not something you can give a shot for to prevent it, but so far,...touch wood. Definitely, talk to the city pound, who knows, they may give you permission as a special case and then your DH can be "trigger happy"...

Sorry to hear about all your problems I may be able to help some of you that live around Calgary.
I am 49 years old and have been shooting all of my life, I am a safe and serious shooter. I would love to come and shoot some gophers IF you would like. I can provide references if you need them. Just ping me an e-mail if you would like more details.

This is a serious offer.

Be sure you are dealing with moles, not voles. Moles are generally insectivores and don't damage plants.

I buy fuel grade castor (degummed) from Fox Mfg. corp. for $20 a gallon, shipping extra. I use it to mix model airplane fuel. http://www.foxmanufacturing.com/