Job Posting: Mole Tunnel Stomper

Q: There is something in my yard making tunnels. The ground is soft and squishy. Could it be chipmunks, voles or moles? Whatever it is, it is also killing all my grass. Can you help?

A: If the soil is squishy, it must be moles. Of your three suspects, moles are the only ones that tunnel underground. Sometimes a tunneler pushes soil up as it digs, so the grass growing there tends to be affected by drought and is more likely to die above the mole tunnel.

These methods don’t work:

• Chewing gum (not repellent)
• Broken glass (feet too tough)
• Ultrasonic vibrators (not repellent)
• Noisy windmills (not repellent)
• Moth balls (poisonous to humans)
• Poison peanuts (moles don’t eat peanuts)
• Insecticide treatments to the lawn (hungrier moles = more digging)
• Trapping (effective, but it’s a lot of work)
• Poison gummy worms (moles do not possess the teeth needed to gnaw on them)

Personally, I think the easiest way to control moles is to mash down the active tunnels completely and force the mole to move to more hospitable yards. This could be a good source of income for an impecunious 16-year-old with size 12 shoes.