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