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Tunneler ID please: Mole, gopher, mole cricket, shrew, or vole (p

17 years ago

I just want to identify the source of these mounds in my yard. I'm in South Florida. Before I can try some of the creative methods (i.e., chewing gum) of ridding my yard of these pests, I need to know what they are.

I've read other posts and have learned it's probably one of the folloing: voles, moles, mole crickets, gophers, shrews. Thanks!!!

From yard mounds

From yard mounds

From yard mounds

From yard mounds

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Comments (16)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
17 years ago
voles and shrews are smaller than white mice up here .... they make holes about the size of a quarter or so.. and do not push up the excess soil ...

those are classic mole tunnels.. in MI ... god knows what you might have down there.. lol ...

spear type traps are the only thing that works... not gum.. not water.. not gas ... you have to kill them ...

tramp down the tunnels.. until you find an active one.. then set the snare or spear gizmo ...

some think that treating the lawn to remove the things its eating is another way to reduce populations ...

good luck

ken
maineman
17 years ago
ladybugfalcon,

I'm not familiar with Florida's or Michigan's wildlife. Here in south central Maine, our voles can be considerably bigger than a mouse, as big as a half-grown rat. I shot a large vole recently with my 22-caliber air rifle. It had invaded the area where I am excavating for the foundation of a new greenhouse. Actually, it was the biggest vole I have seen, but we have caught several on sticky traps that were as big as the very biggest mouse. We have dozens, perhaps hundreds of voles here on this property. Voles are vegetarians, while moles are carnivores.

Don't count on Juicy Fruit chewing gum controlling any of your pests. I suspect that is some kind of suburban/urban myth. The stuff has sugar in it, so if they chew it, it may cause cavities for them, but I don't think that is an effective pest management strategy. (grin)

MM
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Sounds like a really cool title for a children's book. I'd say you have VOLES, my dear. When you water or it rains, they will tunnel through the soft earth, munching on your plant's roots. Moles and gophers and shrews (and snakes of all kinds), use their nifty tunnels to get around your yard subteranean - like a handy-dandy animal subways. Crickets use them, earthworms, and slugs, too, and lots of other critters. Some good for your garden and some that don't seem to be so good. I've lost tuberose salvias and my favorite tea roses; tulips and petunias, even cactus roots. If its edible, they will eat it! I've tried various things, like tarpaper collars around my roses and concrete or rock barriers, even strips of sheet metal buried around them. The tarpaper worked pretty good until it disentigrated, but eventually, mice burrowed through it and then it rotted to dirt. Flooding does no good, as those tunnels are hundreds of feet long. Those holes will never fill completely up. I've tried it. :) If you have a serious vole (or other rodent) problem, like I do, your yard may be completely undermined with tunnels that links with your neighbor's, and their neighbor's, and so on...hence you may find a flower in your yard (or weed) that you didn't plant or never saw before. Birds can bring carry them in or deposit them in your garden, via their poop, that's true, but so can rodents. Rodents carry seeds back and forth through those tunnels to and from your place. Keeping things in balance with Nature is what works best for me. If we can stop fighting all the elements of nature and work with it, we will get better results and enjoy gardening even more. I sink bottomless buckets in the ground for barriers for my big lilies, around berry bushes and roses, and even some of my garden plants, like my tomatoes, and that works really great. For shallow rooted plants that send out roots horizontally, these don't work so well. Planting daffodils, irises, liriope (Monkey grass), garlic, zinnias and stinky marigolds around the borders of my flower beds and/or around blueberry bushes, roses and strawberry beds, even apple trees, is about the only things I've done that works relatively well for an indefinite period of time, without killing the beneficial micro-organisms in the soil and harming animals like shrews and earthworms and preditory insects and snakes. Garlic really does a great job warding off rodents from my roses and they both mutually benefit from one another. Daffodils, irises, and liriope are poisonous so rodents just don't dig 'em. I think we gardeners and farmers will always have our challenges, but isn't that what makes our successes so awesome! ~ SweetAnnie4u
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Helen, I am glad your dog survived that health crisis. We have a lot of dogs and cats and that's why we don't use the poison pellets here. Elaine, It is the seeds of the castor bean plant that are incredibly toxic since they contain ricin. The plants themselves, or the oil, are not an issue. In fact, castor oil USP is an ingredient in soap (even some hobby or artistic/crafty soapmakers use castor oil in their soaps) and is used as a substitute for cocoa butter in some chocolate. You'll likely never see castor oil on a label though, as they use a chemical name for the formulation of oil they use in chocolate. I grow several varieties of castor bean plants as ornamental plants and have done so ever since we moved here, though I don't necessarily grow them every year. I've never had a dog or cat even chew on a leaf as far as I know, and none of our animals have mysteriously dropped dead. Sometimes deer eat the leaves of the castor bean plants as well as the leaves of the datura (I feel like they have to be desperately hungry to eat either of these two plants), and I haven't ever found a dead deer lying in the yard either. The level of ricin found in the foliage is very low compared to the level in the seeds. The processed castor oil we purchase in the USA is from oil extracted from the seeds, which resemble beans although they are not true beans. The oil from the seeds is soluble in oil but not in water. Would I let my animals be around the seeds of this plant? No. I start the plants from seed in paper cups with bird netting placed over it so that a dog or cat cannot chew up the cup of soil-less mix and accidentally eat the seed. They've never done such a thing with any plants, but the cats love to nip off young bean plants and eat them (well, humans eat bean sprouts so why not cats, I guess), so I keep the seedlings well-protected so the pets cannot accidentally ingest the seed. Some people who grow castor bean as an ornamental just remove the flower heads and dispose of them in the trash after the plants have bloomed. That ensures pets or children won't get their hands on the seeds. In order to gather seed to use the following year, I sometimes do let the plants set seed late in the season, but I watch the plants carefully and when the capsules are starting to split open, I cut off the flower stalk off the plant and put it someplace out of reach of the pets so the seeds can dry. I haven't saved any seed in several years, so this year I purchased seeds to plant. I also don't plant the castor bean plants near the fenced dog yard, which is where are dogs spend almost all their time when they're outside. The only time they are out of the dog yard, we are with them and we take them out in the back pasture to run and play....and I don't grow castor beans there. In general I garden organically, though I've used Roundup a few times and it certainly is not organic. I don't even use some organic pesticides due to their toxicity. Just because a pesticide is organic in nature instead of being synthetic does not make it safe. However, I use mole and gopher repellent products that contain castor oil with no fear whatsoever. Keep in mind that the castor oil only repels the moles and gophers---it does not kill them. The use of these repellents is considering a humane method of controlling the targeted pests....more humane, for example, than killing them. Dawn
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I just measured mine and they are 1/2 " squared. I bought some originally that is 1/4 " and that is too small for roses. I cut it 12" deep and 4 feet around. I put it in the ground so that about an inch is above the ground. I do not put anything on the bottom. This means that when a rose is planted inside a section that the length is 4 feet before making it a circle, there are only a few inches between the rose and the hardware cloth. The roots will go through, but there is too little area for a gopher to come up over the cloth and squeeze down between the rose and the cloth. The word hardware cloth is really misleading. It is 10 times stronger than chicken wire (well, maybe not 10 times), and needs to be cut with a wire cutter. I think there are people around who have workshops or who know their way around hardware places. But me, I cut it by hand and find it difficult to do. Sammy
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
17 years ago
google voles.... google moles.. then google vole tunnels and lastly mole tunnel ... after the sites load at google... hit the IMAGES button near the top to hone in on links with pix that interest you ....

at the link below... just past half way down... classic picture of moles tunnels.... and one ugly mole .... lol

you will probably be amazed.. how few there might be .... one critter can do a lot of damage ....

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: just past half way down
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Almost every mole control you have ever heard about is not effective in any way. The baits now being sold that kind of almost look similar to earthworms are effective, provided the mole decides to use the tunnel you put the bait in again. If you bear in mind that one mole needs about 1/4 acre of territory, and that in spite of appearances, the damage done to your lawn you most likely only have one mole. all you need do is with the traps is have it in place where the mole will travel next. Of course, once you kill that mole there is a vacany and another mole will move in.
The single most effective (and expensive) method to keep moles out is with a castor oil spray, 1 pint of castor oil applied to 2,500 square feet. Many of the commercial sprays I have seen have less than 1 pint of castor oil in them and they are supposed to cover 10,000 square feet and they will not be effective.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
ABSOLUTELY moles. Mole cricket holes and tunnels are much, much smaller. I have a good castor oil recipe, but I'll have to dig it up from somewhere. You can't simply apply plain castor oil (as the above post seemingly suggests), but need to create an emulsion.
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Common sense tells you that you do not apply 1 pint of castor oil plain over 2,500 square feet. Common sense should suggest that there is a mixture, which I did not list because this is an expensive treatment, at $4.89 per 1/4 pint the last time I looked at the pharmacy.
Research at Michigan State University Turf Grass school found that applying 1 pint of castor oil mixed with water in a 1 quart hose end sprayer and applied over 2,500 square feet would keep moles away for 6 to 8 weeks.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
Don't get your knickers in a twist, kimmsr! lol...you just left out part of the helpful information. Actually, plain water and castor oil won't make an emulsion either, but a bit of soap would help the process.

By the way, ladybugfalcon, the castor oil treatments really can help...unlike some of the other 'home remedies' you've heard of. I really like the chewing gum fable. I've heard that it MUST be Juicy Fruit, though different sources dictate that either needs to be chewed up a bit OR that it must never touch human hands. What a riot.

Most people, however, find that mole traps are very effective, once you get the hang of them. They aren't for everybody, though.

Unless you fear that you have a severe problem, you could simply keep the tunnels stamped down and hope that they lose interest in your yard. A few mole visits don't necessarily mean that you have to take action.
roxy_girl
17 years ago
I've tried the castor oil spray, the look alike worms and I still have the mole! *grrrrr* Does anyone know if the sonic pulse mole chasers work? They are supposed to work on a area up to 10,1000 sq. feet. HELP I'm desperate!
ladybugfalcon
Original Author
17 years ago
Hi guys. Thanks to all who've replied. Since my original post, here's where I am now:
1) They are moles (not mole crickets, voles, etc.)
2) Sweeny's Poison Peanuts dont' work that great.
3) They apparently love the little nuts that fall from the Palm trees.
4) I'm headed to Lowes again today to find another remedy. The sonic thing is about $40, so I'll save that till last.
Here's the latest pictures.
From yard mounds

From yard mounds

From yard mounds
roxy_girl
17 years ago
Ladybug I'm going to keep checking in to see if the sonic pulser devices work for you, I broke down and ordered 2 from Jung seed Co. for $22.95 each. As soon as they arrive I'm having my son install them...wish me luck!

RG
Dena
ladybugfalcon
Original Author
17 years ago
--UPDATE--
The moles are worse now. Sweeny's Poison Peanuts did not work at all. Here's my latest attempt: Dr. T's Mole Out Repelling Granules
I first poked holes into the tunnels with a sharpee. I did this every 5 inches all along the tunnels.

Then, I filled the holes up with the granules. I first put the granules into an empty water bottle to make it easier.

I will let you know how things turn out. I am bound and determined rid my lawn of thes pests. Next on my list is the neighor's cat, but that will require a different set of tactics.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
Just so you know, ladybugfalcon...moles could care less about anything remotely connected with your palm tree. They are carnivores. Maybe that's why those poison peanuts didn't work. ;-)
khurdjj12
16 years ago
I agree with the reply to the chewing gum post, I don't think it will work, these things are really hard to get rid of. I have a gopher problem myself. I have a friend who successfully trapped some of his, and thought he had gotten rid of all of them, but then they returned. I used a "Every liquid in my garage" method, and successfully got rid of them for most of the summer, but now he/they are back. I tried it again last night, and so far he hasn't covered up the hole again, so I'll post again to tell of my findings.
khurdjj12
16 years ago
Well everyone, I think I may have my gopher. The everything on the garage method didn't work this time, and the hardware store was out of traps, so I bought the smoke bombs. I was able to see that he was active between three holes, so I stuck 4 bombs in them. Haven't seen him or it fix the holes yet, although it may be fearful due to those smoke things still in them, will just have to wait and see. It snowed last night, so am in a wait and see mode, will post again. Thanks.
Kimmsr
16 years ago
Moles are carnivores, meat eaters, and their most favorite food is earthworms, although they will eat grubs, too. Spreading grain products in the hope the moles will eat them is a large waste of time, energy, and money since the moles will not eat that stuff. One thing to keep in mind is that as soon as you eliminate one mole that creates a vacancy that another mole will move into, so you will always be fighting these wee buggers unless you poison your soil so nothing will live in it.
If you have not yet talked with your local University of Florida USDA Cooperative Extension Service people, now would be a good time to do that since they may have some updated information about mole control.

Here is a link that might be useful: UF CES
Belgianpup
16 years ago
I don't get all that excited about moles. They are very useful. Moles are important predators of insect larvae, centipedes, millipedes, snails, slugs, grubs, ants, sowbugs, termites, beetles, and crickets and other invertebrates, as well as earthworms. They can have a lot of affect on the communities of their prey.

They also act to aerate and turn soil where they live through their extensive tunneling activities, and their tunnels take in rain so the soil can absorb it.

They usually have two sets of tunnels. The deep ones are the home tunnels, where they rear their young. The more obvious shallow ones tend to be used only once, as they're 'mining' the soil for worms and insects.

The only way I've actually known people to chase them away is by putting cat poop down the tunnels.

Sue

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