When Moles Attack

Time to Get Serious

April 18th, 2008

We have lived in our house for five years now! This may not seem like a long time to most people but for me it is an eternity. Lets see, since birth, I’ve lived in Rochester, NY – Azuza, CA – Tulsa, OK – Lincoln, NE – Lake Wales, FL – Crystal River, FL – Orlando, FL – Great Lakes, IL – Vallejo, CA – Mayport, FL – Philadelphia, PA – Camden, NJ – Oaklyn, NJ – Latina, Italy – Keflavik, Iceland – Panama City Beach, FL – Jackson, MS – Warner Robins, GA – Albuquerque, NM – Chandler, AZ – Stow, MA – Maynard, MA – Dublin, CA – Bartlett, TN. Twenty four locations and in some of the towns actually moved households – anyway, lived in a ton of places in my 45 years on the planet.
One thing I am experiencing now that I did not experience in ANY of those other locations was an attack on my property. These attacks appear to be well planned out and executed – the ring leader has some great skills whoever he or she is. My yard looks like a war zone! The aggressors? MOLES! My front yard is infested – every spring they execute their plan and I have felt powerless to stop them… until now.
A couple of days ago I decided enough was enough – time for the “Shock and Awe”, rodent style. First, went to Home Depot and bought Spectracide® Mole Stop® Mole Repellent2 Spray Concentrate.
Mind you, over the years I have tried other remedies without any effect on my mole problem. I have a garage museum of “hoped it would work” mole equalizers such as poisons and my favorite this gruesome Dark Ages looking trap with spikes that are supposed to impale the mole, I should have known it wouldn’t work when I came home with it and heard the moles snickering…
Anyway, the mole repellent seems to be having a positive effect! I can see the tunnel activity is decreasing and yesterday for the first time I actually had a one on one confrontation with one of the enemy!
I saw a dirt pile starting to form, usually I don’t see them until its a big unsightly mound. I ran to the garage and grabbed the first weapon I could lay my hands on – my Craftsman rake, not a leaf rake but a hearty rake with the thick spikes. I ran to the mound and watched yet another piece of dirt make its way from the underground. Spikes first I started unmercifully pounding the area where the mole had to be until the rake snapped in two. Not satisfied I took the handle portion and started to drive the jagged end into the ground while yelling, “Die you bastard, DIE!!” – a couple of neighbors watched my tirade and as I looked over at them you could tell they understood and smiled at me with the “We hope you got’em look”, the look only another mole victim could muster.
I don’t think I killed the mole – I wanted to, make no mistake – I dug around and found no mangled body parts but I must have wounded him pretty good. He musta ran back to his fellow moles and told them the horror because for the first time in a long time, no mole hills on my front yard! Score one for the home team :)

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  • Ewww! Moles!

    One interesting problem we had in Texas was Armadillos. Yes. Armadillos. Apparently, they can smell worms and grubs that are underground. Then they proceed to dig them up and scarf ‘em down.

    I once ran one off of our property. I had gotten an airsoft pistol the previous day, much to my mother’s dismay. But as soon as she saw the armadillo digging into our foundation, she was happy to oblige that purchase.

    I took aim with the pistol and fired. All I heard was a ‘ping!’ as the BB hit it’s shell. I figured that wouldn’t work to well. I barely got it’s attention. The next shot was a little better placed. I hit the critter somewhere in the face, which caused him to whimper and scurry off.

    Man, if you’ve never seen an armadillo run, it’s really hard to describe. Imagine a pig with extremely short legs…

    Comment by PatrickH — June 12, 2008 @ 4:56 am

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