Cats are moles worst enemy. Either get a cat and let it do outside alot, or because my cat is a housecat, I put the dung from the litter box near the mole holes and the moles run into another yard. It works. I was amazed. Good Luck. And don't forget to apply the grub stuff in late July again, which is coming up.

khandi, A few years ago we purchased those electronic mole spikes from Lowe's. They worked pretty well but make sure you mark where you put them in the ground or you will be digging in the grass looking for them when you notice the batteries are dead 'cuz the moles are back. We put 3 of them out a few years ago and had good luck but the batteries went dead and I can only find 1 back. I have moles chewing on the roots of my roses and would like to put the spikes closer to them (they vibrate out a radius of 30') and can only find the one. I will either have to dig through the yard when the grass dies down this winter or break down and buy some more.

The common yellow oxalis we have here has tiny "bulbules" (sp?), which lurk 12 -18 inches under the ground. You can easily pull up the plants, of course, but those tiny bulb things stay under the soil, and up it comes again. I once had a gardener who decided to eradicate it from a flower bed which is about 12 feet long and 6 feet wide. He actually dug up the top 2 feet of soil, and sifted it by hand to get all of the tiny bulbs out. That worked for the first year, but by 2-3 years after he did that, back the oxalis came. So, being lazy, what I do is just admire it in the Spring, except where it is trying to smother other plants. Then just pull it out around those plants. By late Spring here it has died down, and I pretend it is gone. Of course, it comes up again the next Spring. It is one of our first blooming plants to bloom (starts Jan/Feb), so I just regard it as such and let it be mostly. One of my cats likes to eat it (we used to eat it as children - we called it "sour grass"). Jackie

First mistake is leaving your garbage outside and unsecured. You wouldn't do that in bear country and be surprised that you've got bears hanging around the house? Having smelly food garbage out attracts all sorts of animals. If you live in an urban or suburban area, you're going to have raccoons around. That they were living in the neighbors shed is not really the problem...there will be others nearby regardless. Yes, raccoons enjoy corn. Short of building a complete enclosure around your corn, you are going to have an issue with them. They also have good memories and learn from each other. So, unless you plan to take a multi-year hiatus from growing corn, you will have issues. After a few years, you may have success unless a raccoon stumbles by chance into your yard (the cycle will then start over).