Moles and Mole Control - Part 8 of 11 - Mole Damage Prevention

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Because the mole is such a wide-ranging animal due to its food requirements, it is sometimes fairly difficult to prevent some of the damage the mole creates. Preventative measures should always be taken to protect new plants that are placed into a mole habitat. Yes, its true that most types of mole will not tend to create extensive damage to trees, shrubs, or other small plants, as the gopher would, but they can still cause quite a mess in a vegetable garden or a lawn. Preventative measures for a lawn are just not very plausible unless one was willing to remove their lawn, lay down wire mesh, and then re-install their lawn every couple years. Control methods rather than preventative measures will need to be used in this situation. However, protecting your garden, trees, shrubs and small plants can be accomplished.

Many of these techniques are the same preventative measures you would use for other burrowing critters such as gophers, voles, chipmunks, squirrels, woodchucks, shrews, prairie dogs or any other type of burrowing animal - The idea is the same – keep them out! I do just that by creating wire baskets that I set into the ground before planting my new plant; these baskets surround the roots of my small trees and shrubs with a protective barrier that allow the plants to establish themselves and grow large enough that they cannot be threatened by these menacing creatures. Another tactic I employ for the vegetable garden is to staple wire mesh to the bottom of raised redwood boxes, creating an impenetrable barrier to protect my vegetables.

Instructions for Wire Baskets

Instructions for Raised Planter Box Liners

Acknowledgment:

• Henderson, F. Robert., 1994. Moles: Prevention and control of wildlife damage. Extension Specialist — Animal Damage Control. Kansas State University
  
  
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology - Animal Diversity Web
  

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