Moles! Help!

Hi guys
I have a very serious mole infestation all over the property. I think it’s responsible for the stunting and disease of almost all my plants. They cut through the root zone of my plants many times, repeating, often popping up right next to the trunk.
I’ve filled in all the tunnels when I find them, and often they reopen the next day. More often new tunnels are dug and I discover them by the ground collapsing under my feet slightly.
The store sold us a silly large shaking windmill that supposed to vibrate the ground, doesn’t seem to work. I have lit smoke bombs in fresh holes when I find them, don’t see any difference. The store sells steel tube traps That have a one-way door on them. Are moles clumsy enough to actually walk into one of these? Or is it a waste of money and time?
A member here recommended peanut butter on mouse traps. This will get smothered by ants and other bugs within seconds, and I’ll need to put some kind of covering over it so a cat doesn’t get their paw stuck in it. Would it still work in these conditions?
The store didn’t recommend buying the poison tablets, as it’s an orchard and they said it will leach into our plants.
I realize now they’ve been at this for a couple of years, and probably responsible for extremely poor performance in a lot of plants. Getting desperate for answers now.
Any other options?

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You can find a fresh tunnel and put poison rubber worms or gas them. I also use a spear trap over fresh tunnels. Apply some grub granules. No grubs then no moles.

Tony

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My mother used vibrating devices in the ground. The thing is, they do not work right away. They make moles to seek other grounds, but it takes time. Hers started to work after a months or so. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07439YJHL?psc=1, but her devices were battery operated.

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I often accidentally trap moles when I’m seeking to kill voles in snap traps. Buy a couple dozen of the easy to bait plastic kind and place over active areas, covering several traps with large trays, such as the heavy black plastic ones used to mix small batches of concrete. Not sure peanuts are the best for voles, but mine like them. I’m sure a quick search would reveal the preferred bait.

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I to had terrible mole problems. Last spring I got 2 rat terrier puppies. By fall they were already trying to get the moles, they actually got several. This year the moles don’t stand a chance. So if you like dogs a rat terrior can fix your mole problems and frankly anything else that comes around, squirrels, opossums, coons, basically anything, and make fine pets to boot

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I use the Black Hole mole trap it works well for me.

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I think the space-time distortion would be problematic in my area. Maybe overkill as well. .
I wasn’t impressed with the trap selection at the stores I went to. Especially the live trap steel tube ones. Do moles actually enter into steel tubes like that? I’ll go in with some help to one of the larger stores.
I have a dog, but he’s getting pretty old. Also, I can’t let him run free at the current location. I guess I could take him around on a leash. I’m a bit skeptical he could dig them out.
Wouldn’t poisons strong have to kill mammals be bad in your soil for your edible fruit and vegetables?
Alan, is the black cover to simulate darkness?

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we had a problem with moles, still do off and on. I gave up, squirrels were a bigger problem…From what I’ve read they’re fairly territorial and only a few of them can do a lot of damage to your yard. Tried everything from poison peanuts to the gas and then the spike traps. The one that I’ve had the most success with is the victor out of site. They’re pretty inexpensive. It does take a while to get the hang of how to set it to maximize your mole catching. Also, finding the right stretch of mole highway is key, you want one that is frequently used. There are lots of you tube videos out there that demonstrate the most effective way to set the trap. good luck.

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I have some mole activity but they don’t seem to cause many/any problems. They do seek out places that are watered because that’s where they find the worms, etc., so they’ll tunnel up next to young trees/bushes…I don’t like that. The vegetarians: voles and gophers are the ones that cause extensive underground plant damage. I trapped many gophers and I guess I got them all. They would kill rows of tomatoes and trees of all sizes and just about anything. Voles are awful sometimes in a similar way to gophers, plus they do above-ground damage as well. When I got into ‘orcharding’ I planted everything with a vole cage around it…a foot above ground and a foot below ground. So far (two years), so good.

http://old.post-gazette.com/sports/outdoors/20020324shal0324p6.asp

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The problem with my dog, is the hole she creates to get the mole is just as damaging. With the Black Hole trap there is a little opening in the end that light goes thru. Moles like total darkness so they go up into the trap trying to plug the hole.

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I have killed more than 2 dozen moles over the last couple years using a scissors trap I got from Lowe’s. There probably aren’t as many moles as you think there are, it’s amazing how much damage one of those guys can do. I bet if you can kill 2-3 of them you would see a MAJOR reduction in mole activity, at least until new ones move in from surrounding areas.

There is a trick to catching them. Ignore the tunnels that wind around with lots of turns, those are “feeding” tunnels, and are only used once while the mole looks for grubs. Look around the areas where there is a lot of damage and you should eventually find a very long, straight tunnel leading away from the others. This is the “highway” between the moles house deep underground and the feeding grounds.

That’s it, put your trap on the longest, straightest tunnel you can find. If you don’t catch one in 2 days then the mole has moved on to a new feeding ground. It shouldn’t take much effort to find the new feeding area and the straight tunnel servicing it. It has never taken me more than a week to catch a mole with this technique.

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Peanut butter on mouse traps works if the trap is kept under a black 5 gallon bucket. Put a brick on top to keep it from blowing over. The black bucket keeps things dark. My brother in law killed 35 moles over a 2 week period with 4 buckets. I’ve killed several that way as well but my brother in law has a real knack for it. The key is to find the main tunnel and excavate the top of the tunnel about 6-8 inches long. Place the mousetrap in the moles path.

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Thanks guys! I was able to track down a scissor trap today at one of the shops. I just got back from installing it. I saw a few professionals on YouTube that seem to favor that type of trap. I didn’t bait it with anything, but set it to be very sensitive. They don’t sell peanut butter here either.
I think I know the general area that is their HQ. It’s one of the only areas on the property with deep rich soil. I have three grapevines and a peach tree planted there, and they are continually putting tunnels no matter how many times I fill them in.
Crazy idea: there are several species of snakes here, one of them venomous. Mabey I could catch some and force them into a mole hole. Pointless?

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Not sure if this is a “viable” answer in today’s world… my mother grew castor beans and would put castor beans in the mole tunnels…

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What, no peanut butter in Japan? Don’t you folks have an interest in other Asian cuisines?

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Yah, castor oil is disliked by moles, and so is fertilizer, as I recall.

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I think I have a good sense, as my first try was in the right spot. However, he went right under the trigger and somehow tipped the trap over a bit on its side while redigging the hole, all without setting it off.
I remounted it, and purchased an additional trap for a different location.
I feel a bit bad, as they seem to be otherwise a positive in the landscape.
But it must be done if we want to have any kind of garden at all there it seems.

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Holey Moley! These moles and their holes! I just found the largest network of surface holes yet. Several piles of dirt next to each other, under some grass clippings the neighbor left near my plants. One of the holes go straight down and appears to go underneath the asphalt parking lot. I wonder if they live under that?
All in the same day they’ve redug my traps which are about 100 feet away, and redug some other holes another hundred feet away. There’s either a whole bunch of them, or they can really move fast to do that in one day.
Need to work on the technique a bit, as the next day they moved the trap again without setting it off.

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Gophers will definitely burrow under foundations, roads, etc., partly to get to new territory and partly to live in a protected place. They also can dig amazingly far in a day. They also will push up dirt under objects that hide the pile. I have a friend that found an overturned canoe covering a large amount of dirt…it had become a repository for a fairly large area. They can aim their tunnels with great accuracy, coming up right on target. I don’t know how much of this behavior is copied by moles…most likely some of it is.

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I’ve been setting the traps up every day, and are getting tripped but not catching anything. At least I’m in the right spot

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