Moles remove many damaging insects and grubs from lawns and gardens. However, their burrowing habits disfigure lawns and parks, destroy flower beds, tear up the roots of grasses, and create havoc in small garden plots.
It is important to properly identify the kind of animal causing damage before setting out to control the damage. The ranges of moles and pocket gophers do overlap, so it is understandable that their damage be improperly identified. Since their control is different, it is critical to properly identify the cause of the property damage.
Moles leave volcano-shaped hills that are often made up of clods of soil. The mole hills are pushed up from the deep tunnels and may be 2 to 24 inches (5 to 60 cm) tall. The number of mole hills is not a measure of the number of moles in a given area. Surface tunnels or ridges are indicative of mole activity.
Pocket gopher mounds are generally kidney-shaped and made of finely sifted and cloddy soil. Generally, gophers leave larger mounds than moles do. Gopher mounds are often built in a line, indicative of a deeper tunnel system. Pocket gophers also never create surface tunnels or ridges that make the ground feel squishy.
An image key to help you distinguish between the types of mounds can be found at Mole vs. Pocket Gopher Damage
Resources: (online)
Mole Control
Mole Publication
Pocket Gophers
