Author Topic: not for the faint to look at.. not so pretty creature killing my garden..... (Read 2406 times)

tinkster · « **on:** February 25, 2008, 09:33:27 AM »

anybody have any tips! I went all summer pushing down and filling in these holes and reburying uprooted plants thinking it was snakes.. now I see this ugly thingy.. any body have any tips for getting rid of these mice.. I have my doxies running lose in the yard and they hunt these things so I think chemicals might be out

They are ruining things as quick as I can plant

tinkster

mcp · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2008, 09:39:02 AM »

Nasty little creatures. My yard is a mess also. I would love to hear any ones response in trying to get rid of these.

Thanks for sharing.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2008, 10:17:32 AM »

That looked like a mole. I understand they are a pain in the @#$ to get rid of in your garden!

frloplady · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2008, 11:45:18 AM »

I was gonna say that ain't no mouse... mole or vole. We gas them but we have access to stuff normal people don't...which of course defines me as a

Kittyzee · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2008, 01:02:44 PM »

That's not a mole, but a shrew. I didn't realize they were hard on a garden. They've never hurt mine, but then I've got lots of cats and the LOVE the little creatures. They chase them down in the tall pasture grass and bring them to me as their trophies. They will give a nasty bite that has some venom. Don't quote me on that,,,I'll need to check that out first. May be that that's an old wives' tale...

tranquility · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2008, 01:19:55 PM »

I've always heard growing castor beans will help with Mole problems...but, castor beans are supposed to be poison...so I don't know...of course alot of the plants are poisonous--and none of my dogs have ever tried to eat my outside plants...but, if you have small children around that would diffidently be a bad idea.....
Lawanna

Bonnie · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2008, 01:51:40 PM »

Looks like a mole to me?
Maybe what I always thought was a mole was a shrew?

Tink why do you think chemicals, because you found one dead?

I know they have mole traps that you can set, also have heard of drowning them by using a garden hose where they tunnel.

We had moles really bad last year and Smokey(dog) would find them, so would Phoebe (cat) when I'd let her outside.

I know that if you have alot of grubs the moles will eat them.....

Now gonna have to look for the difference mole vs. shrew!

tootsie · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2008, 02:10:07 PM »

E-gads but I those lil fat varments last summer, BAD!! Neighbor said he would just sit in a chair with a BASEBALL BAT, AND WHAM, all gone! I decided that was yuckie, so I put out a few traps, the kind that IF there was a VARMENT in it, well a skewer thru the#$#@ 8)Yep, that one worked GOOD! Had to go get said neighbor to take varment out

Heck, I was out in the back 40 and watched the hummers as they flocked to their syrup feeder, I looked down and right before my very eyes up came the dirt!!! Dang thing was making a tunnel right next to my foot

So for me it's" THE TRAP WITHOUT A HEART" LOLOL

Bonnie · « **Reply #8 on:** February 25, 2008, 02:15:49 PM »

Guess moles have paddle like feet and your pest doesn't appear to have them.

Here's alittle info about a shrew, tells how to catch them:
http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/Shrews.asp

tranquility · « **Reply #9 on:** February 25, 2008, 02:41:46 PM »

What a very interesting article Bonnie....the cats brought a dead one up on the porch a few weeks ago...at first I thought it was a mouse untill I saw its long nose....I too called it a mole...Hey you learn something new every day....Tink guess you need to get a few pet owls

Lawanna

Julles · « **Reply #10 on:** February 25, 2008, 03:28:10 PM »

Wowser! What weirdness! I've heard about them, but never cnsidered them a problem in my urban home. Where do you guys all live? Looks like mostly northern states... Are moles and shrews a northern problem? A rural problem? I never heard of anyone here having problems. (Houston)

Oh, and please do NOT EVER use caster beans. They are beautiful trees, and I once snitched a few seedlings from a neighbor's place. They grew quite tall (for small, not-really trees), and were a lovely purple color. But... they drop those large white seeds everywhere. I have turtles in the yard, and one was within the drop-range of the castor beans. He was a valuable and rare tortoise, friendly and with quite a personality and vitality. He ate a seed, apparently, and died a slow and miserable death. With turtles / tortoises, their metablolsms are so slow that you don't really know something is wrong until it's really wrong, and the poison had entirely immersed itself in his system, beyond help. All I noticed was that he was slowing down in his activity, eating less, lethargic, and generally miserable. But, that can just mean warm weather has him sleepy. I was wrong. He died a slow and horrible death, from slow poisoning. KEEP AWAY!

tinkster · « **Reply #11 on:** February 25, 2008, 05:33:27 PM »

had no clue it could be so many different things. NOw I wonder if he is the one doing the damage.. but from the looks of the claws on the mole I think the shrew might be the better of two evils.. those claws on the mole look like they could dig up about anything they wanted. I guess next mission is to look for tunnels. kind of hard to figure it out as they have holes all over both sides of the pond and they couldnd tunnel from one side to the other and no way around so they got to be coming above ground and over to the other side. this could be like a maze

thanks all for the input!

tinkster

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #12 on:** February 25, 2008, 06:10:42 PM »

Thanks Bonnie for that really ugly picture!!

Gives me the willies, ugh! At least I know the difference... moles have big feet. Grateful moles and shrews aren't around my garden.

Indiana Karen · « **Reply #13 on:** February 25, 2008, 07:13:06 PM »

Yep, that's a shrew, but the damage to your yard looks like moles.

I have spent a lot of time hunting down moles. In the summer of 2004 (also the year for the 17 year cicadas, plenty of food for moles) I declared war on the moles! They had destroyed our yard. I killed 27 moles that summer. The summer of 2005, I killed 12, only 5 or 6 in 2006, and 0 last summer!

I shoot them with a shotgun. I have a couple traps, and got a few with them, but most of them, I shot. I would stomp down all of the places that they work up, then wait 30 minutes or so and go out looking for new activity. I actually got so good at it that I could listen and hear them snapping off the roots of the grass! I became obsessed. I made maps of their activities. I was out every morning before my coffee, in my jammies, with my shotgun, and I got them all!

You can do it too Tink.

If you live in town and can't shoot them, you can set the traps, but it takes time figuring out where their runs are. Or, you can watch for movement and get them with a hoe. My Mom lives in town and last summer I got five in her yard with traps and a hoe.

Good luck,
Karen

Kittyzee · « **Reply #14 on:** February 25, 2008, 07:38:20 PM »

The pic you have is of a shrew and since they eat mainly insects, I guess they could be rooting around in your garden for them. I always thought shrews as beneficial. Now moles can ruin a yard and fast, so if they get into your garden they will certainly wreak havoc. However, they eat larvae ( of the japanese beetle variety) underground before they get a chance to come above ground and eat everything in sight. I like moles, just not in the yard or garden. I've done what Karen has done by watching their runs and I put a shovel under the movement and just pop them out of the ground. I move them into the cornfield where they don't hurt anything. DH says they just come back and we have used the killing traps, but I won't empty them. Make sure you have a firm grip on their little back feet 'cause those babies CAN DIG FAST!! Other than being a little strange looking, they have beautiful fur. DH threatened to make me a moleskin hat...

tinkster · « **Reply #15 on:** February 26, 2008, 07:30:13 AM »

rofl!!!! The violence in this thread by all us woman!

I can just picture karen out in her gown with a shotgun at the break of day or kityee pulling ones back legs.... not gonna happen here

THanks all... least I got a good idea now what needs to be done.

tinkster

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #16 on:** February 26, 2008, 08:58:22 AM »

Tinkster I think you address the one who rules as Indiana Karen Jones.

Would have loved to have been there to see Ms. Jones in action!

Indiana Karen · « **Reply #17 on:** February 26, 2008, 05:17:00 PM »

My son actually snuck out and took a picture of me in my robe with my gun.

They used it as "ammunition" for my birthday party that year. I guarantee, you will never see that picture.

My Mom even wrote a poem about me and my mole escapades. We live way off the road, so I always had plenty of time to run for the house if I heard a car coming up the drive.

Indiana "Jones" Karen
That was my boys favorite movies, I have seen them dozens of times!

happyoutsidegirl · « **Reply #18 on:** February 27, 2008, 04:44:47 AM »

Karen you crack me up! I would loved to have seen you

But that's how I am with the snakes! I fear them terriably! Now back to the ugley critters. they all will dig up your roots and destroy any life. They also nibble on the roots. KILL the little buggers any way you can! I put the car exsaust dow the wholes and smoked them out every othere day for about a month. They all left in a hurry.

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #19 on:** February 27, 2008, 01:48:44 PM »

O.K. this will sound wierd, but my Mom did it and it worked.

Burrowing creatures do not like vibrations underground. Get a bunch of those whirligig thingys with the metal spike. You know the ones that look sunflowers or whatever and they spin in the wind. Place them all over the yard, a few meters apart.

You can also try tossing some exlax chocolate squares in the tunnels. It is supposed to work on groundhogs!

Holldoll · « **Reply #20 on:** February 27, 2008, 05:09:57 PM »

I use the juice of habenero peppers. cut up the peppers and stick them down the hole. They don't like the smell and will leave your yard. If that doesn't work, we trap them.

Jonna · « **Reply #21 on:** February 27, 2008, 08:36:52 PM »

In my old house, before I retired, there was a park behind it and I had horrible problems with gophers. I finally bought those high pitched sound stakes and put them around the yard and they actually worked. The gophers moved back to the park or my neighbors or somewhere but they stayed out of my yard. The instructions said they worked on moles as well. They kind of vibrated as well but the sound was above what humans hear so it didn't bother me. I could tell when the battery was dead if I got right next to it. I could also tell because the gophers would start tunneling back in that area. Before that I went through tons of traps and my cats caught a bunch but there was just an endless supply from the park. I had heard the ex-lax thing too but I was afraid the dogs would find it. Can you imagine? Argh!

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #22 on:** March 02, 2008, 10:53:40 AM »

The first pic is indeed a shrew.

Moles and shrews are both carnivores. They do not eat plants. They eat bugs and grubs and worms.

While mole hills can be unsightly, they do not usually damage anything other than the pride of a person with a perfect lawn.

Gophers, on the other hand, eat plants, bulbs and roots and can destroy crops and ornamentals.