MOLES, THE SCOURGE OF MY GARDEN

           

Moles…I hate moles; not the kind on your body although if I had a lot of them, I’d probably hate those too. I’m talking about the ones that love to make a mess of my garden. I believe that for the moment, they are dormant; at least none of the decorations planted in the garden have been knocked over recently due to the tunnels beneath.

          The woman next door calls some mole removal service; and while I haven’t checked into that, I believe it wouldn’t fit into my budget. Years ago, I went to a seminar about gardening and the man giving the talk said that having a man pee (women don’t have the right smell/hormones) on the mounds will chase the moles away.

          You laugh, but I told the man who lived across the street and when he had to get up in the middle of the night, he’d go out and pee on the mounds. The moles left and have not returned to that yard and that was years ago. John wasn’t able to get out there to do that to my mole hills back then, so I had him pee in a bottle. Apparently, the pee has to be fresh, or John’s pee was wrong because it didn’t work.

          I receive a gardening catalog from some company, the name of which escapes me right this second. They advertised a method of eliminating the moles. I ordered it, two bags actually. It’s kind of like slug bait in composition. You sprinkle it all about your garden and the moles leave. Well, it worked the first time, but the moles must become habituated to it because this past year it did not work. I’m currently trying to decide if I should order a bunch more and spread it every single place in both the front and back yards.

          One year I tried ordering nematodes. Supposedly, they would take care of the “bugs” in the soil that the moles love to eat. This was expensive and very messy. The nematodes arrived dry and I had to put them into a spray container with water. Then I sprayed them all over the place. Again, I’m not sure they worked.

          Supposedly, the only mole deterrent that really works is catching them. I’m sorry, but I’m old and the idea of digging down to the tunnel, setting a trap and then going back to remove the, hopefully, dead mole seems just a bit beyond my abilities.

          The fact I have a greenbelt on the other side of my fence doesn’t help matters either. I’m sure the moles run rampant back there and eventually decide a trip into my garden for a potentially better menu is the way to go. Well, I’d really like them to just GO!!!

Meanwhile I guess I’ll check with the neighbor and get her mole catching firm’s name. It really sucks to work hard in my garden only to get up the next morning and find new mounds and tunnels…I hate that.