Tips to Take Care of Moles in the Home Vegetable Garden

Members of the Talpidae family, moles, the ones we are talking about here, burrow into the ground, are covered in a grayish to brown fur and have tiny eyes that allow them to differentiate between night and day. Regardless of what you many have heard moles aren’t in your home vegetable garden because you grow great tomatoes.

Moles primary source of food are earthworms. Unfortunately for the mole, earthworms rank higher on the importance scale for the home vegetable gardener. Therefore if you have a mole issue, it needs to be addressed, because a garden’s soil without earthworms is like your car and no fuel.

Shot Gun
Not our method of choice, but when we posted this question on our Facebook fan page, we received dozens of responses of using a shot gun. If this is something you feel comfortable with and your local laws allow it, then by all means go ahead.

Rat Traps
Yep, they just aren’t for rats anymore. You can lay a few of these traps out with the bait of choice, in this case earthworms, and they do an excellent job of getting the moles. Don’t be surprised however if you do get some moles in the trap and they get cut in half. Rat traps are very powerful, so be careful.

Ground Vibration
Although Christopher`s suggestion of napalm was intriguing, we decided to go with something a little more humane, less destructive and safer and that is causing ground vibrations. There are a couple of ways to do this. One of our Facebook members took 20 ounce soda bottles, drilled holes in the bottom for drainage, and buried them about halfway down and three feet apart from one another. As the wind blew the plastic bottles they created vibration which kept the moles out of his garden. You could also purchase vibration rods to put in the ground which has the same affect.

Anyone of these ideas will do the trick, but you could always go with Stan’s suggestion and sit out by your garden in a lawn chair with your pitchfork in one hand a favorite beverage in the other, wait for the mole to pop up, and well, you get the idea.

Moles can do damage to your home vegetable garden in ways that might not seems obvious, but rest assure the damage they will do, can wreak havoc on the underlying ecosystem and create problems for your plants. Follow some of these suggestions above and you will be well on your way to a mole free home vegetable garden.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book ”Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person” and the administrator for the largest vegetable gardening group on Facebook. Mike can be reached via his website AveragePersonGardening.com.