Moles

Moles live in the soil and feed on insects, earthworms, and other soil dwelling food sources. Their active tunneling under the soil surface can cause lawn damage as moles forage for food. The tunnels create ridges of soil throughout the lawn. The uplifted grass growing in these ridges often dies. Lawn mowers may scalp grass growing on the raised tunnels. Moles can tunnel at the rate of one foot per minute. These foraging tunnels may radiate randomly throughout the lawn. Moles live in deep tunnels, 5 to 15 inches below the surface, where nesting and sleeping areas are formed. Moles are nocturnal. It is rare to see any tunneling activity during the day. New tunnels are made at night while moles are feeding.

Controlling Moles

The only effective control for moles is trapping. Although trapping moles is the only realistic control, it is difficult to predict where to set the traps. Traps are activated by movement of the mole in the tunnel where traps are placed over active tunnels. Moles usually do not use the same surface feeding tunnels, and their deeper tunnels are difficult to locate.