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Mole and Gopher Problems
Mole and Gopher Trapping, Removal and Prevention
If you want to rapidly feel inferior to wildlife, The Skunk Whisperer®, Inc.
recommends attempting to eliminate moles, gophers and voles on your own.
Pulling out your hair and putting it in the mole tunnels along with moth balls
and fox urine as a repellent is a huge waste of time.
Killing grubs doesn't won't work because moles mostly eat worms.
Methods such as putting chewing gum, gasoline, hair, ashes, and broken glass in
their holes, planting vibrating contraptions and special "mole-ridding plants" don't work either.
The bottom line is that these and most other popular mole and gopher removal and prevention methods do not work,
if they did we would be happy to use them. Sometimes these methods
appear to work when in fact they
have not, this is because mole and gopher activity is intermittent, they may be gone now, but will be back.
Unfortunately at this time, there is no cost effective way to remove gophers or moles from your lawn without killing them.
Trapping and relocation are possible, however, it is usually not
cost effective, "humane" live traps
can harm them and the mortality
rate following relocation is uncertain as well.
It is highly unusual for us to suggest that killing animals or wildlife is an acceptable form of
wildlife control, but in the case of
gophers and moles we believe that there are not any other alternatives at this time.
When a cost effective method for humane mole and gopher remedies is invented, we will immediately utilize it.
Interesting Facts About Moles
All things considered, moles are fascinating animals and always a challenging wildlife problem to solve.
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Moles have very poor eye sight and feed mainly on worms and insect larvae.
A single mole will typically consume 45-50 lbs
of worms and insects every year.
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Moles find their food by senses of touch and smell.
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Moles travel through existing tunnels at about 80 feet per minute.
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Moles can dig surface tunnels at approximately 18 feet/hour.
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Male moles are called boars; females are called sows.
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A group of moles is called a labor.
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The gestation period of moles is approximately 42 days.
Around March and early April three to five young are born.
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Moles are very territorial. Many or all of the tunnels seen in any given yard can be from just one mole.
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Mole Identification
Moles are easily identified by their unique large paddle-like front feet and short limbs.
These paddles are utilized for digging elaborate tunnel systems. Moles have cylindrical
bodies with slim, flexible and pointy noses, and short tails which may or may not have hair.
They have poorly developed eyes and their ears are not visible. Their fur is very short and thick.
There are six species of moles in North America. The most common are the Eastern mole and the Star-nosed mole.
The Eastern Mole (scalopus aquaticus)
The Eastern Mole is approximately 4.5 to 6 inches long and has a short tail with scant hair
that is approximately 1 to 1.5 inches long. The mole’s fur is very soft and velvety. The fur
somewhat points up versus laying totally flat and going toward the tail. This allows the mole
to move forward or backward inside their tunnels without their fur causing resistance. Similar
to a duck, their fur keeps out dirt and water. Mole fur is gray in color. Bellies sometimes
are a little lighter in color and may have earth tone spots on their bellies.
The Eastern Mole breeds approximately January to February timeframe. After their 4-6 week gestation period, they generously produce 2-5 more troublemakers.
The Star-nosed Mole (condylura scristata)
The Star-nosed mole feels at home in moist soils. They enjoy soil around water sources
such as streams and marshes. Their existence is more common in these geographic areas located
in different parts of the country.
The star-nose mole looks different than all other mole species and the most obvious
physical difference is, on the tip of their noses, they have 22 nasty looking
finger-like flesh-tone flanges similar to something like you would see in a
grade B horror movie involving aliens. Just looking at them is enough to make
anybody cringe, even if they didn't know that it was a creature destroying their precious front lawn.
The Star-nosed mole is active all day and night searching through water, your
front lawn and leaves for critters that include frogs, salamanders, minnows,
crayfish, small children, and of course, insects. They consume their food so
fast that the human eye has a difficult time seeing it happen.
The Pocket Gopher
Gophers are often mistaken for moles. Gophers do not have the huge spade-like feet like moles do,
but they can certainly do as much, if not more lawn damage.
To the right you can see a photo of some
pocket gopher dirt hills and the resulting lawn damage which looks
very much like mole damage. As a matter of fact, mole
and gopher hills are very similar.
Moles and gophers may even be living in
the same lawn at the same time, and may actually share the same tunnels in places.
Voles
Voles, otherwise known as meadow mice are often mistaken for moles and gophers because they
sometimes utilize and live in the same tunnel system as moles. Vole tunnels / paths will
continue on top of the ground and can be very easily seen after snow melts. Meadow mice
eat roots and above ground plant foliage. Moles are often times
blamed for vole activity. It takes a true mole expert to tell the difference.
