Moles in your lawn are unfortunate not to say annoying particularly as they are difficult to remove without killing them. Their main diet is earthworms, but, removing these valuable garden creatures is hardly worth while. They are more likely in sandy soils, but, can appear anywhere – especially in more rural areas.
mole patrol
21.07.2023 - 23:08 / awaytogarden.com
MY FRIEND TOM emailed the other day to ask about how to fight the moles who are disrupting his lawn and garden. And Garden Guy Kenn, another reader, posted the same plea. From folk remedies like chewing gum or castor oil laced with dish soap, to hiring the nearest licensed nuisance wildlife control service, I have tried it all in years when they have similarly besieged me. I’m down to two methods of attack that I employ consistently:A cat who goes out each night (like Jack the Demon Cat, top), and a lot of mousetraps.
First order of importance: Make sure you know what you’re fighting, since seeing mounded soil or tunnel-like activity in lawns and beds doesn’t always mean moles. Know thy enemy. An interesting interview with a wildlife expert in the Seattle paper awhile back offered a test to determine whether it’s moles or voles you’ve got.
“Gardens that border wild areas probably have both moles and voles,” the piece reported. “To find out what is bugging you, (hang) a piece of apple from a stick laid across rocks to keep it above the ground. If after 24 hours, you find the apple has been fed on, you’ll know what you’ve got…Rodent teeth leave clear parallel marks. Moles would shred it; their teeth don’t make the same line.”
MOLES ARE A GOOD THING
Moles are actually a welcome part of the community: They’re insectivores, not interested in chewing on your bulbs or plant roots, but tunneling around blindly looking for protein-rich worms and grubs, sometimes disturbing plants in the process. Since they are blind they are neither nocturnal or diurnal, meaning they can be a 24/7 nuisance, with some individual or other always on the job.
Moles are relatively solitary compared to, say, mice, so if you eliminate a few in your garden
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Top Autors
Popular Topics
hgic.clemson.edu
24.07.2023 / 12:31
Goodbye Moles & Voles!
What can we do about moles and voles in the home lawn and landscape? First, we need to know how to tell the difference between the two, in other words “know thy enemy!” For more information on how to tell the difference between moles and voles, please see HGIC 2366, How to Tell the Difference between Moles & Voles.
awaytogarden.com
21.07.2023 / 23:05
Doodle by andre: border patrol
YES, MY HAIR IS A BIT STATIC-PRONE AT THE MOMENT, dear Andre Jordan, thank you very much; I asked you to please not make fun of it. More important, though: There is, and forever has been, only one Jack the Demon Cat, and my Jack (who has a drug problem) wants no part of morning walks with Mommy; he sleeps by day and hunts by night.
awaytogarden.com
21.07.2023 / 22:38
Working around wet spring soil (and self-sowns), plus mole and vole issues: q&a with ken druse
My longtime friend Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of many books, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com.Read along as you listen to the May 15, 2017 edition of the program using the player below (or at this link). The May show is a doubleheader, and includes a whole “overtime” segment (starting at about 24 minutes into the audio file), which I’ve separated into its own transcript and is at this link (and includes questions and answers on what to do next, after you pull or dig invasives like garlic m
awaytogarden.com
21.07.2023 / 22:32
Fall pest patrol: work now to foil deer, cabbage worms, viburnum beetle, squash bugs, voles
THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBSET of the fall garden cleanup chores: pest control. Fortunately all our needed cutbacks and raking of leaves–those sanitation efforts we’re all heading out to do, anyhow—help to reduce places for many garden pests to overwinter.
blog.theenduringgardener.com
16.06.2023 / 03:05
Citrus Pest Patrol
One of my three citrus trees has spent the winter in the comfort of the kitchen, while the other two have overwintered in the cooler conditions of ‘the orangery’ – in other words on a bench in front of the garage window where they seem perfectly happy. Meanwhile, I’ve discovered that the kitchen softie has been playing host to the nasty mealie bug. In the past red s
growlikegrandad.co.uk
12.06.2023 / 10:02
Indoor seed sowing – peat-free compost, worm casts and mole hills
As well as making my own compost, I buy all kinds of different peat-free composts throughout the growing season for use with planting out in the garden or allotment. For indoor seed sowing I find some extra steps are needed to improve germination and plant health. My objective is to achieve a fine granular nutrient-rich compost, free of sizeable lumps which might block the path of a small seedling or its hungry roots.