Moles in the garden.

jowitt.europe · February 1

A friend asked me, what he could do against moles. Anything nature friendly. No poison. I checked my notes and found two solutions: put elder twigs in all the molehills; put garlic cloves into molehills. Has anyone tired any of these? Any other ideas?

Merin Porter · February 6

We have pocket gophers here, so I'm not sure if this will work the same, but the only thing I have ever found to actually deter pocket gophers is Buckeye chickens. When they were younger, the chickens would hunt the gophers to the point that the gophers moved outside our fence. (Tons of gopher hills right outside the fence, but none inside it where the chickens were!)

jowitt.europe · February 7

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/919745#Comment_919745

how interesting! It would have never occurred to me that chickens could scare off pocket gophers. Really interesting to know!

Sheila · February 7

Our cats help keep the vole and mole population down around the farm. They have pretty much cleaned them out of the area along with the rats so makes me happy!

marjstratton · February 8

Definitely a couple of suggestions to try. Not sure I grow enough garlic that I want to give it up, and I'll just be putting in my blue Elder in a few weeks. We have red Elderberry bushes in our field, but I really don't want any more of them growing in my garden. I watched one of our feral neighborhood cats proudly prance out of my garden the other day with its trophy vole.

jowitt.europe · February 9

@Sheila @marjstratton I am sure that the best fighters against mole and vole are the cats. Ours have our garden under control. I will suggest my friends to obtain a cat as the most efficient measure 😊

gardneto76 · February 9

I would try planting an bunch of smelly stuff around that area, garlic, onion, rosemary, sage, peppermint, thyme, oregano, ect. and add some crushed cinnamon sticks or powder. Most of the commercial natural products that are designed to repel rodents out of garden areas contain these along with urea of some kind.

Michelle D · February 10

My chickens definitely keep the moles at bay. It is obvious that they keep there paths outside the perimeter of the areas that the chickens roam.

jowitt.europe · February 11

@gardneto76 that is a good idea. Herbal garden instead of molehills.

marjstratton · February 14

Planting an herb garden around the area that you want to keep the rodents out of sounds like a fabulous idea.

LaurieLovesLearning · February 14

@jowitt.europe You can also buy black mole traps that are dug into their tunnels. We have never used them, but they are available.

VermontCathy · February 14

If you decide to go the cat route, make sure you get barn cats. These are not pets, and are used to living outside and hunting. You still need to provide them a protected place to sleep, and will need to feed them. Don't assume they will be self-sufficient huntes.

If you ask around any rural area, you will likely be offered barn kittens for free. You want them to come from a family of barn cats, not from a pet rescue place.

One downside of having barn cats around is that they will kill birds. When we had two during my childhood, it wasn't unusual to find that they had killed birds and left them in the yard. You cannot control what they choose to hunt.

jowitt.europe · February 16

I am still waiting for a message from my friend whether the elder twigs help. He promised to tell and I provided him with a lot of twigs.

My two cats accompanied by many neighbouring cats seem to manage to keep our garden mole free. May be the moles also sense the smell of the cats and do not risk.

Moles in the garden.

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