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Hello, again!
When lawns or gardens start showing strange tunnels, mounds, or plant damage, many homeowners blame ‘moles.’ In reality, three different animals - moles, gophers, and voles - can cause problems in the landscape. Each has a different diet, pattern of damage, and control strategy. Knowing which pest you have is the first step to solving the problem. I’ll notice the damage caused by tunneling pests in different areas of my yard. This year I’ve seen tunnels at the surface in my turf and tunnels in my flower bed where I’ll be planting my spring flowering bulbs. I’ve seen mounds of fresh soil in the neighborhood as well. Let’s look at the causes and controls.
Moles are insect-eating mammals, not rodents. They tunnel underground with their large, paddle-shaped front feet in search of earthworms, grubs, and insects. While they don’t feed on plants, their tunneling can disturb roots and dry out soil, indirectly harming lawns and landscape plants. Control options include reducing their food source - grubs - with Bio Advanced 24 Hour Grub Killer Plus Granules. This highly effective formula kills grubs and many other lawn pests within 24 hours. Reducing the grub population helps, but because earthworms are another favorite food, eliminating moles completely can be difficult. You can also use ferti-lome MoleGo Granules or MoleGo Ready-to-Spray with a hose end applicator. MoleGo sends moles and other small rodents packing away from your lawn, garden, or flower beds. Jeremy likes to ‘push’ them out by starting with an application near the house, and then a second application farther out in the yard.
Pocket gophers are plant-eating rodents that cause more direct plant damage. They feed on roots, bulbs, and stems, often pulling small plants into their burrows. Their activity is marked by crescent- or fan-shaped soil mounds, with a plugged entrance hole on one side. Because they attack the root zone, plants may suddenly wilt or die. Control methods include repellents used for moles (such as MoleGo) or installing underground barriers of hardware cloth around valuable plantings.
Voles, sometimes called field mice, are small rodents with short tails. They live under dense grass or mulch, creating narrow surface runways that are often confused with mole tunnels. Unlike moles, voles feed on vegetation, which is what I believe I’m seeing in my bulb beds. They eat grasses, bulbs, and roots, and can girdle the bark of young trees and shrubs during winter. This year at bulb planting time I’m incorporating MoleGo granules into the planting bed and watering in with the MoleGo Ready-to-Spray.
While you're tackling those yard pests, don't forget that fall is a great time to plant! Stop by for fall color - mums, pansies, novelty pumpkins and gourds, ornamental kale, trees, shrubs, grasses, asters and more - or join us for a weekend fall workshop.
Your friend in the garden,
Marty Johnson
Owner - Johnson's Garden Centers
