Never really had mole problems before.  Now they are in the mulch/landscape beds making a big mess.  The Beagle mut/mix caught one the other day and tore it up.  How can I get rid of these bastards without using poisons that could harm my dogs?  Just had the landscaping/mulch/bushes re-done a few months ago.

Use a trap like this:


Home Depot $10


You need to find a straight run to set the trap in.  You can kinda gauge were his tunnels are by following the line of mounds. Poke into the ground with a small metal rod to find the tunnel and dig a hole there.  In the summer, it will probably only be 6 -12 inches deep.  The critical part is:  The run needs to be straight and only one way in / one way out; no three way intersections.

Clean out the tunnel openings on both sides of the hole you dug.  Set the trap inline with the path.  Make sure there are no rocks or roots to prevent the trap from closing quickly.  You need to build a small mound of loose dirt right under the trigger of the trap.  A lot of pros will set a canning jar lid on top of this mound to increase the surface area of the trap's trigger.  Push the trap's jaws into the ground until the trigger is just resting on the mound / canning lid.  The mound is like a speed bump; when the mole runs into it, it sets off the trigger when he is inside the jaws.


Cover the hole and trap with something like an upside-down flower pot.  You can use tent stakes or a heavy rock to hold the pot down.

The Home Depot near me didn't have the traps you mentioned so I bought one of those spring loaded spike trap jobs from a different store.  Any other suggestions?

i am resorting to poison

those fawkers are deep in my AO like charlie in the jungle.

Get an outdoor kitty.

I read moles in the manscaping.

I've never had luck with the traps or bait.

Basically I always crush/flatten their tunnels and they move on after a while.

My mom's old cat used to bring 2-3 every few weeks back when I was younger.

My wifes cat has a problem with finding them and trying to play with it.

Whack a mole hammer.

I've never used that type.  It looks like the tunnels need to be pretty shallow for that to work.  Can you see a continuous run at the surface or just individual mounds?  

It's the same principal, though.  Find a straight run and make a speed bump in his path that will press the trigger when he is below one set of spikes.  Make sure there isn't any rocks that will stop the spikes when they drop.

I've had some success with pumping an oxygen acetylene mix into the tunnels and then throwing road flares at them.

My first step-father once saw a mole in the act of digging out to the surface, one Nylon 66 mag dump later the mole was dead and my step-father was doing a war dance in the front yard.

In his underwear.

Now, you can do that sort of thing out on the farm , nobody will notice.

But we weren't on the farm, and city folk get a little touchy about such things.

He had some 'splainin' to do when the police rolled up.

I have been told that you need to take a stick like a broom handle and poke a hole in the tunnels

every so often. Then use crystal draino and put about a teaspoon full down each of the holes. When


they go through it it gets on their feet and burns they then lick it off. Bye bye mole.

I just shoot them with a shotgun, problem is you have to catch them working.  And if you live in town, its probably not an option.

I hate moles with a passion unmatched by my loathing for any other vermin.   I hate 'em.

They destroyed the biggest part of my yard over the last couple of years. It was completely undermined and un-mowable this spring. They burrowed around the foundation of my house, deck, and everywhere else you look.  I've tried traps, poison, poison worms, everything. Nothing I tried provided any permanent solution. Some of it helped in the short-term, but they always came back.  Before I could even attempt to mow my yard this spring, my son (who works for a local contractor) hauled their large vibratory roller out to my house and rolled my entire yard with the vibrator turned on. As he was rolling, I followed behind and broadcast some insecticide that a friend cleaned out of his corn planter and gave me. I have no idea what it was...didn't ask...didn't care.  When he was done, I helped him load the roller and move it to another job site. When I got back (I was gone about an hour total.) There was already a new tunnel 30' long in my back yard. Told ya...I hate 'em!  I walked the run flat and went in the house and retrieved a 20 gauge. I only had to wait about 2 minutes before the dirt started to move again. I blew that bastard in half with the 20 gauge! The next day, I got lucky and caught another one working. He met his end the same way his buddy did...at the hands of Mr. Wingmaster.

The mole work slowed down for a few weeks. I was feeling fairly proud of myself. I thought that I'd gotten rid of them and I had the yard looking pretty decent again. I should have known better. I caught one working  about 20 feet out from my garage on a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I had a 9mm pistol on my hip and killed him on the spot. The next day, I got home from church and walked out into the yard to see if any other varmint had dragged the previous day's kill out of the yard and made a meal out of it. I got about 8 feet away from the spot of the kill, looked down, and see the freakin' dirt moving in exactly same spot. I took out the same 9mm as used the day before and killed #4 in exactly the same hole that I had killed his buddy #3 in on Saturday.  

Once again, no new mole work shows up for a couple of weeks and I get lulled into a false sense of contentment. This past Saturday, after working all day and then hurrying home in 90 degree heat and humidity that you can wring out of the air to mow grass for the 300th time this year, I find no fewer than 4 new mole runs scattered around my property. None of them were the huge, obnoxious ones of the type found earlier in the year, but still...They're back!  I didn't have much time for mole hunting this weekend,. I flattened the runs and have made a few recon passes to see if I could catch one getting careless. No joy as of this evening. The relentless rains this year have bred a crop of mosquitoes like I've never seen in my lifetime. They're absolutely terrible and you just can't stand outside for more than a minute or two without covering yourself in insect repellent. It makes setting a mole ambush in the evening nearly impossible. I'll just have to wait and hope to get lucky again and  walk up on some this current herd while they're distracted. I feel your pain OP. I hate moles

I know...tl;dr

Summarized: I hate moles and haven't found anything to successfully get rid of them except to terminate them with EXTREME prejudice using your firearm of choice.

Take a cylender of propane, hook up a hose, stick hose in mole hole.  Open the valve, let the fucker run till its empty. Light it. Profit? Eat cooked moles for dinner?

Yup. Cats have been the answer to vermin problems since before the written word.

Go adopt your self a big mean barn cat, hole him up in your garage for a couple weeks till he feels at home and then and turn him loose.

FUNNY, I do the same thing. Grass needs to be short. Then smash down all of their runs.
They are in there somewhere. Pretty soon you'll notice the grass wiggling, as they try to reopen what you smashed.
Walk up real slow. I usually shoot about 6" ahead of where the ground is moving.
I've killed a shit load like that.

Killed one with a tile spade. But the shotgun is faster and frankly more fun.
Living out in the country has it's benefits.

Here it seems like their prime digging tine is 9:00am-1130, and then again 2:00pm -4:30.
Those poison peanuts don't do shit. Never had luck with traps.
Never tried Drano.
They are digging up the grubs in your yard. You need to kill them to get rid of the moles.
Trouble with that is it kills the worms also, and isn't good for your yard.

Haven't seen any this year. But it's rained what seems like just about every other day.

The problem is their location.  They'd been in the yard on a small scale for a while now and I just didn't care.  Now they have moved into the landscape beds right next to the house.  I'm in the country, but not safe to shoot them there (even thought i'd absolutely love to).  I'll try the traps 1st even thought it doesn't sound very promising.

Put some mothballs in the tunnel in random spots.  It will get rid of the problem.

Just buy one of Parson Jack's Mole Control starter kits! You will be mole free in no time!!

You don't have a mole problem. You have a grub problem.

Moles eat grubs. Kill the grubs and the moles will move on.

Yep, this has worked for me.

Build a watch tower and get a remington 700

A guy named explodingvarmints should have some fun with this. Targets in your own back yard!

I have tried traps and had very little success. My best results came from unrestricted chemical warfare using "giant destroyer" mole gassers. They look like a giant firecracker, light one and stuff it in the mole hole and it makes some kind of toxic gas.

Pro tip: wear a respirator and do not inhale so much as a whiff of the smoke. Be conscious that it will seep into your house.

 
Now that is true. Terrier type dogs will go after moles. I have seen two killed by dogs I have owned.

^^ This! You need to get rid of the grubs and the moles will leave. Milky Spore is something you can spread on your yard and is supposed to get rid of the grubs for a long time. Also, I dont believe it is harmful to any other animals like your pets. It is kind of expensive though.

Same here.... the fuckers are making mounds/runs in the yard that are big enough to fuck with the blades on the riding mower. Needs to be  a mole genocide around here....Fuck moles.

I checked my yard early this morning before leaving for work. I have no less than 5 new runs adjacent to my garage. They're tunneling around the landscaping, deck, etc. It's hard to tell, but it may be the work of one lone, overachieving mole, or I may have a couple of 'em making the mess. I'm gone from early in the morning until well after dark in the evening, so I'm having a hard time catching them. Plus, like I mentioned in my previous post, the damned mosquitoes are just unbearable. I don't know how the weather is where the rest of you guys live, but it's miserable here. The grass never dries out. You can mow at 3:00 in the afternoon and it still lays up heavy and wet and clogs everything up. To keep my yard looking like it should, I need to be mowing every other day. I mowed late Saturday evening and my Monday evening it looked like hell again. I've surrendered.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Let the beagle work...?

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treat your lawn with milky spore to get rid of grubs.  you get rid of the grubs and the moles move on.  

For current problem get some Red Devil lye if you can find it.  cut the top out of the tunnels where the tunnel enters a natural area(non lawn).   put lye in tunnel then plug hole with pine cone.  As moles scurry thru lye it will burn their paws then they will stick it in their mouths to rid the burning and they will DIE a miserable death.



.

Tools you'll need are;
Giant gopher Gasser from Home Depot, they come in a 3 pack.  Looks like a big fire cracker
Shop Vac.or leaf blower

Put the hose to the shop vac on blow and not suck the leaf blower is already on go.  Light the Gasser and stuff as far down the hole as you can, stick the end of the shop vac in the hole cover with dirt stamp it down for a good seal and then turn on the vac/blower.  You'll see the gas come up everywhere there is a air shaft.  Inside bushes, through the grass everywhere, it's kinda cool to see where they have been.
The only down side is you don't get a body count but guarantee problem will be solved.  It might take all three to rid a full size yard, because the tunnels might not be connected but give it a try.
The gas will dissipate after a few hours so pets are not at risk.  I can't be certain but I would bet that residual gas will remain in some pockets for future killing power.