Organic Mole Control – Who Knew Juicy Fruit Would Kill the Varmints

Have you ever had a mole in your organic vegetable garden? How about your yard? Have you wondered how to control the mole with organic methods? Lets get rid of those pesky varmints!

First of all, lets dispel a myth…moles don’t eat plants. They eat lots of insects like grubs, beetles, and earthworms. Don’t mess with my worms Mr. Mole! While chasing their food underground (moles can dig up to fifteen feet per hour) they damage roots systems and spread disease from plant to plant. Then voles and field mice (who do eat plants) follow behind in the mole tunnels wreaking havoc and destruction in your garden. There are organic method to control the varmints.

You know you have moles when you see their tunnels. Moles are solitary and use their tunnels only once. As hard as it is to believe, all those tunnels are probably the work of just one or two varmints. Moles hunt all year and just move down below the frost with the earthworms in the winter.

So how do we organically control the moles once we are infested? Traps can be effective in controlling moles; but the great hunter must be persistent. Trapping is easiest in the early spring at the first sight of the mole ridges. Step one is to figure out which tunnels are active. To do this, you mark the tunnels with stakes and press them down with your feet. Come back in a day or two and the tunnels that are raised up again are active. Put your traps in those runs. The most effective traps are choker traps and harpoon traps. Follow the manufacturers instructions in placing and operating the traps. Remember, be persistent and drive out the little buggers.

If you like the hunt, you can try to dig out the mole. Moles are active at different times of day. It may be possible to see the ridge moving as the mole moves along through your little patch of heaven. If you see the ridging up, put your shovel in the ground behind the mole and flip the varmint out into a bucket.

Moles love Juicy Fruit. They are fatally attracted to it. The main trick is to make sure that there is none of your scent on the chewing gum (yes – Juicy Fruit chewing gum…like when you were a kid). So glove up, take the gum out of the wrapper, and roll up the gum like a cigarette. Poke a hole in a fresh mole tunnel and put the gum in the tunnel. Repeat this process four to six time placing the gum in the tunnel about six inches apart. The moles eat the gum, can’t digest it, and depart this mortal coil. Look for mole activity to cease in a couple of days.

If you believe that prevention is the best cure, you can repel moles with cat litter or windmills. Dump several scoops of cat litter in the moles burrow and the strong smell will repel the mole. Moles don’t like vibrations. You can put commercially available windmills in the mole run. When the wind blows, the windmill spins creating vibrations that repel the moles. An alternative is a child’s pinwheel stuck in the run or a glass soda bottle placed open end up. The wind blows causing vibrations…you get the idea.

If you happen to like cats, an outside cat will hunt down and kill your moles. Apparently the moles don’t taste very good and your cat won’t eat them. There is also the legend of castor oil and dish soap. It appears that the combination works for some folks and not for others. Fell free to give that a try.

There are lots of options for organic control of moles in your vegetable and plant garden. Don’t be afraid of the mole. Make sure to spend time in your garden and observe your plants. Detection always precedes removal. Get outside and get dirty!