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FAQ #1417

Poisoned peanuts, windmills, etc. are sold to kill or repel moles. Do these products work?

Related resource areas: Urban Integrated Pest Management, Gardens, Lawns & Landscapes, Pesticide Environmental Stewardship, Wildlife Damage Management


Killing moles with poisoned peanuts or repelling them with windmills or certain chemical products are among the least effective means of controlling moles. Moles don't eat vegetable matter, so there is nothing in a grain-based toxicant that would attract them to eat it in the first place. Thumpers, windmills, and other sonic devices have not been shown to work.

The best means of controlling moles is to use traps or the newer toxicants such as Talpirid or Kaput.

Here is an alternative that is admittedly highly experimental. Moles are causing the greatest damage to your yard because of foraging (the shallow tunnels). You might try developing a "mole garden," an area in the yard where composted leaves are kept to enhance worm production. The idea is to see whether a mole can be "trained" to forage there exclusively. Worms are one of their favorite foods. One test of this method did seem to decrease the significant damage, although this may have been due to the "placebo" effect—or merely to a reduction in the irritation level at what the mole was doing.

Online Resources:
Mole Control

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