Ways to combat moles at their summer cottage: folk remedies and traps

The mole, like all animals, occupies its niche in nature, as well as in the summer cottage. It is interesting that if a mole settles in your country house, then you will not see it, but, of course, you will notice its presence on the site along the scattered piles of land in your beds. Unfortunately, summer residents have a tendency to write off all problems with vegetables on this outwardly cute creature with a pink patch, which, in addition to minor harm, can also bring significant benefits.

We will talk further about the pros and cons of living this underground inhabitant on your site, about how to protect your garden from its negative effects.

Why is a mole an unwanted guest at a summer cottage?

Firstly, who will like to observe the earthen hills (molehills) among their beds, inside greenhouses and flower beds, besides, the lawn through which the mole has prowled will hardly look aesthetically pleasing.

Secondly, constantly loosening the soil, these half-blind animals thereby expose and leave the root system of cultivated plants without nutrition (because of the voids, moisture evaporates faster). In addition, moles feed on worms that fertilize our land, which, naturally, negatively affects the possible fertile properties of the soil.

Interesting! Moles are exclusively carnivores, they are 100% predators, so they are not interested in root crops, which, of course, is very pleasing.

It's not for nothing that moles are considered useful creatures, because they destroy bear, insect larvae and other garden pests.

By the way! Black little moles are more useful than big gray mole rats because they are some of the best bear fighters! In addition, they do not spoil the beds, because they make their piles only in early spring, when there are no beds yet, and then they no longer clump together and do not interfere with gardening.

Ways to combat moles at their summer cottage

Conventionally, all methods of dealing with a blind animal in the country can be divided into 3 directions or groups of actions:

• protection of the garden and vegetable garden in order to prevent it from entering the site with the help of various deterrents, as well as the use of various methods of "smoking" it;
• using all sorts of traps to catch him;
• the most inhumane way is the physical destruction and use of various chemicals.

How to protect a summer cottage from moles: drive away or scare away

The mole is a rather intelligent and cunning animal, so it is usually very difficult to catch it. It is much easier and faster to drive him out of the site with the help of various scarers and similar devices.

Physical barrier

You can protect your site from moles by creating underground fence.

Bury old sheets of slate or roofing material around the perimeter of your land borders at a depth of about 0.5-0.7 meters, or even better, take a metal or plastic mesh with fine meshes.

Thus, the animal simply will not be able to get into your dacha if you create such a protective barrier.

However, you can do it easier by making a special protective bed from moles, namely: putting a metal mesh on the bottom and installing high wooden sides.

Video: how to make a mole-resistant garden

Fish

To make the mole leave your site forever, you can try to bury a stinking fish head from a herring in a mole hole or put a skin from a smoked fish, just try to push the “rotten stinker” deeper inside, additionally helping yourself with a stick. Then close the entrance, blocking it with a stone, and then sprinkle it with earth and stamp it with your feet.

Creolin, ammonia, tar

Similar to rotten fish, you can bury a rag soaked in tar, ammonia or creolin solution in a wormhole.

Alarm clock

You can protect your site from the attack of mole rats using an alarm clock, or rather two, and it is best to purchase compact and, of course, battery-powered.

Set the alarm for one clock, for example, at 12 noon, the second at 6 pm. Then put each alarm clock in a 0.5 liter jar and close the lid tightly so that no water can get inside. Bury in different sides of your summer cottage. Thus, the alarm clock of every watch will ring and thereby scare off moles from the site 4 times a day.

Video: how to drive moles from the site using an alarm clock

Ratchet made of a metal rod and a plastic bottle

One of the easiest ways to get rid of moles from a summer residence is the following method:

1. It is necessary to drive an iron rod (pin) of 20-30 centimeters into the ground or even wood rods.
2. On top, put on a regular plastic bottle or aluminum beer can.

This design will, as it were, "crackle" in the wind, thereby creating noise and vibrations, which should scare away moles.

Advice! It is desirable to install such ratchets around the entire perimeter of the site.

In the next video, the author combined a ratchet and a spinner (windmill) into one device.

Video: do-it-yourself mole scarer from aluminum and plastic bottles

Turntables

More popular counterparts to the previous method of dealing with moles are special turntables, which you can buy at a garden store or do it yourself from the same plastic bottles.

Making a spinner or windmill from moles with your own hands is not so easy, although watching the next video will definitely help you in making it.

In general, you should get the following device:

Video: windmill (spinner) from moles from a plastic bottle

Advice! If lumbering beer bottles are installed throughout your dacha, then it may look very ambiguous, therefore, if you are determined to try to install such scarers, then make them at least original and more or less interesting.

Ultrasonic scarers

Recently, ultrasonic repellents of moles and other garden pests have become quite popular. As a rule, such devices run on solar batteries (but there are also batteries), like garden lamps, which are very similar in appearance to them. Depending on the price, they differ in power and range.

However, the opinions of gardeners about the effectiveness of their use were divided: someone really likes it, and someone regrets the money spent on the next marketing thing. But very often gardeners do not read the instructions carefully and do not insert the repeller deep enough into the ground.

By the way! Such devices will also help you get rid of mice andsnakes at their summer cottage.

Video: how to get rid of moles with ultrasonic repellents

Plants-repellents

Often among the people you can hear that planting legumes can help scare off a mole from the site, next to which they definitely will not dare to dig their passages and make holes, namely:

• beans;
• peas;
• lupine;
• lentils.

There is also an opinion that they are bypassing bulbous flowers due to their unpleasant smell, for example, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and especially they don't like imperial hazel grouse.

Fragrant marigolds that do not tolerate even aphids and ants, alsoin theory can rid your beds of moles.

Advice! Of course, you can try, but, according to reviews of gardens that are actively fighting moles, these repellent plants will not bring you much success.

The following 2 methods involve quite active actions on the part of a person.

Filling holes with water

This method with a high degree of probability will allow you to drive the mole out of its old place, but provided that you pour a very, very large amount of water into the mole hole.

Petard

You can drive a mole out of the garden using heavy artillery, namely firecrackers. Dig the wormhole so that you can cover the hole with a bucket or an old metal basin and let the gases go into the wormhole. A similar method is setting fire to smoke bombs in burrows.

Note! At first glance, the method may seem quite cruel, but this is by no means so, because you do not blow up the animal, but simply smoke it with smoke that will follow its moves.

Video: an effective way to deal with moles using firecrackers

How to catch a mole in the garden and where to let go

If you can't get the moles out of the garden with the help of various scarers, then you can try to catch them. But at the same time, it is not at all recommended to destroy the caught animals!

Three Liter Jar Trap

To create a trap for catching a mole at a summer cottage, you will need a 3-liter jar or an ordinary bucket (as an option, a cut-off five-liter bottle will do).

Next, you will need to find a fresh wormhole (there should be a loose pile of earth), where you will need to install a trap jar.

Now dig a hole for the can so that the neck of the can is below the stroke (as in the diagram).

Then cover the top of the trap with a board or slate.

When the mole once again crawls through its underground possessions, it will fall into a trap, from which it simply cannot get out on its own.

If it seems to you that several blind pests are wielding at your dacha at once, then set up a couple of such traps to catch them.

Important! Remember to check your traps periodically to ensure that the animals do not die in them due to lack of food.

Video: the easiest way to catch a mole using a trap bank

What to do next with the caught animal? Here's what: just take him away from the holiday village, for example, into the forest, or let him go somewhere in the field.

Of course, you can plant the animal on your hated neighbors. But it's not a fact that he will not return to you on his own moves.

Trap is not a way for humanists

A rather cruel analogue of a trap is the use of a trap to catch a mole.

Important! Using a trap against such a cute and generally useful animal is a real killing, so think 100 times before buying such a deadly trap.

Yes, perhaps, hitting it, the mole will not die immediately, but it will certainly inflict severe enough injuries on it.

How to completely get rid of moles in garden plots

Some gardeners are annoyed by moles to such an extent that they decide to take extreme measures to physically destroy them.

Important! You still won't be able to get rid of moles once and for all in this way, it is much better to take preventive measures to prevent a blind animal from entering your garden or vegetable garden, or to catch it and further release it.

They begin to use poisonous chemicals, which, together with their immediate goal, destroy beneficial earthworms.

Someone (most likely, fishermen-flayers) even throws their tackle into holes ...

Note! The editors of this site in no way recommend that you resort to such actions, therefore, there will be no specific information on this method of getting rid of moles from a summer cottage in this article.

Natural enemies

In the fight against moles, your own pets can help you, for example, cats and dogs (especially dachshunds and fox terriers) are considered quite dexterous and skillful hunters of these underground pests. Therefore, more often take your pets to the dacha, let them get their own food in the wild.

Important! Of course, the method is not very humane, but nature is generally cruel, although most of the blind animals will definitely leave dangerous places, fearing for their lives.

Video: dachshund fighting moles (at least trying)

How to protect your lawn from moles with a mesh

Especially frustrating when you've worked so hard on creating a lawn on your site, and then suddenly you see this:

This can be avoided by laying a special mesh on the area under the lawn, which will protect the lawn from moles and other underground pests.

It is especially convenient to operate in this way when laying a rolling lawn.

To be honest, there are both quite harmless and humane and very savage methods of dealing with a blind animal in a summer cottage. But if you nevertheless decide to drive the mole out of its possessions, use a constructive approach to this animal, and nature will still thank you for this.

Video: various ways to fight and protect the garden from moles

Important! If you still want to get rid of moles in the country in inhumane ways, then watch this video: