Moles

Most years we plant enough Castor Beans around our property to keep the moles away. They can smell the roots of the plants and move on to the neighbors' property. Last summer's drought kept the Castor Beans from maturing and oh, my, do we have tunnels. When walking from the house to the back of the property to the burn pile, it's like walking on a big sponge, with feet sinking a few inches every step of the way.

Moles make tunnels underground where they live in order to seek and eat insects, including earthworms and grubs. They have long noses, webbed front feet, no ears, and are are gray to brown and 6-inches long.

You can tell you have moles because you'll have mini mountain ranges and soil volcanoes in the yard.

You can kill them with traps or baits. To use traps, tamp down the tunnel and watch to see where they return and put the traps in those spots.  Or, you can use Havahart cage/traps and relocate the moles to your neighbor's yard.

Castor oil or Mole-Med can be used to repel them. To make your own mix see http://www.greenviewfertilizer.com/articles/voles-moles/

My usual method is to keep a supply of Castor Bean seeds from last summer's crop and wherever I see a tunnel, I drop in a seed.
As a result we have 2-inch tall Castor Bean plants coming up in odd places but they are easy to mow down and the moles are long gone, having relocated to some other yard.

This year I'm going to try the Deadset Mole Trap because the problem is bigger than ever and the company sent me one to see how it works. Here's a link to the video showing how to set it. 

Even though this summer is predicted to be as awful as last year with drought and record high temperatures, I bought more Castor Bean seeds to plant. Gardeners are eternally optimistic, aren't you?

I'll let you know how the Sweeney's Deadset trap works.