Mole Prevention Tips: How To Keep Moles Away

Mole Prevention Tips: How To Keep Moles Away

Moles are an animal that can be quite attractive if you ever get to see them up close, but as they are subterranean creatures that rarely make their way to the surface, the most common thing for gardeners is to actually see the damage that they cause. It isn't just gardens where moles can be a problem, as if they find their way under a yard or garden they can undermine the soil and mean that the surface becomes uneven and can make it a tripping hazard. There are several different approaches that you can take when it comes to keeping moles away from your property, and here are a few of the different techniques available.


Protecting Lawns And Plant Beds From Moles

For many gardeners, it isn't just the molehills that are the problem but also it is the undermining of plant roots and the trough that a collapsed mole tunnel can cause in a lawn, so when it comes to protecting lawns and plant beds, there are specific steps that you can take here. Moles will naturally move around by tunneling, so will not generally walk or move above ground when they are looking for a new territory. In order to protect these lawns, flower beds and plant beds, it is worth burying a layer of wire mesh around six inches under the surface of the soil, and then turning up the edges to provide an underground barrier to prevent moles from getting to the soil under these lawns and beds.


Installing Anti-Mole Fences

Another way of keeping moles away involves protecting your entire yard or garden, rather than just specific parts of your property, and this job can be a little bigger to carry out. The first step is to ensure there are no signs of mole activity before installing such a fence around the perimeter of your yard or garden, as this can just lead to penning the mole inside your property, which is the opposite of what you will be looking to achieve. Any fencing should be a wire mesh, and be at least 18 inches deep, although the deeper it is embedded the more successful it will be, although most moles tunnels are up to a foot beneath the surface.


Will Mole Repellents Get Rid Of Your Moles?

One of the products that you will often see or be offered if you speak to your local hardware store or garden center will be a mole repellent, and these will either be chemical based or audio repellents, with both making big claims about how effectively they will get rid of your moles. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest that chemicals can get rid of your moles, so it is best to avoid these. With the audio repellents, they claim to emit a high pitched sound that is unbearable to moles that will drive them away, but when you consider that moles themselves emit such sounds during mating season, these repellents are also usually ineffective at achieving the desired aim.


Trapping Moles

If you already have moles in your garden, then fencing won't keep the moles away at this stage, so the most efficient and cost effective way of dealing with moles is by using traps to kill the animals. There are several types of mole traps available, but in each case they require you to either push the trap into a mole tunnel, or dig and place it in the tunnel. Each trap will wait until the mole then crawls through the tunnel, and then either snaps shut around the animal or tightens a loop that will kill the mole. Once trapped, that is when it is worth carrying out any other steps to keep the moles away.



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