Lawn problem: The attack of Moles, Voles & Gophers ...oh my!

[Melensdad]

Damn things are tearing up my lawn and making it a hazardous place to walk without tripping on their tunnels when they collapse under your foot

Anyone have any solutions on how to get rid of them?

Or have a clue as to what attracks them to my lawn?


Most of my lawn is heavy clay and most of my grass is simply mowed down field grass. But when we built the house (20 years ago) I brought in a couple truckloads of topsoil and spread it around the front lawn in hopes of getting some decent looking grass to grow. There are ZERO moles infesting any of the areas where there is clay. But in the area where I spread the topsoil I have some sort of little critters tearing up what little nice grass I have.


HELP, advice, suggestions???

 

[road squawker]

... or are they shrews?

http://www.epestsupply.com/moles.php

 

[bczoom]

I used some mole poison recently that worked well but can't remember the name of it right now.
It's about a 10" conical container that's yellow in color.

If you can spray your lawn for bugs and kill grubs in particular, you'll remove their food so they'll move on and become a problem for someone else.

Any chance of you getting another dog soon? Many like the thrill of the chase and killing them after they play with them for awhile.

 

[Kane]

Bczoom has it. Kill the food sorce, which is very likely grubs.

I fought the little buggers for twenty years in Maryland with all manner of poisons and traps ... and they always won. Starve 'em and they'll eventually move along.

 

[JimVT]

my shotgun mole trap very seldom fails.

 

[Melensdad]

... or are they shrews?

Hey, leave my mother in law out of this discussion

I used some mole poison recently that worked well but can't remember the name of it right now.
It's about a 10" conical container that's yellow in color.

If you can spray your lawn for bugs and kill grubs in particular, you'll remove their food so they'll move on and become a problem for someone else.

Any chance of you getting another dog soon? Many like the thrill of the chase and killing them after they play with them for awhile.

Went to the store and came home with Mole & Gopher Repellant.

Hooked it up to my hose and sprayed it on the affected area and the surrounding grass too. Near as I can tell it kills the grubs/insects that the moles/etc feed upon. No food and then there is nothing to keep them in the area. Off to the woods they should go ... or so I hope.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

Usually the repellant is just castor oil and it doesn't last long. I like these traps: http://cinchtraps.com/ I just shove them down the holes though, I don't do all the digging and careful placement. I could probably get a higher hit rate if I did the digging but they work with minimal digging. Usually the digging is more destructive than the moles. The traditional victor mole trap: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Victor-Out-O-Sight-Mole-Trap-0631/100336752 also works well but you have to spend the time building the trap which is tedious.