Moles and More
Swap’n hoss's is alright as long as the other fella has the best hoss Moles Moles Moles Moles When I took my new girl to meet my grandmother she expected a cultured farm widow. Instead there was a picturesque vintage 1940s farm woman sitting on the front step with a shawl covering her head and pounding something with a stick. As we approached her she flipped a handsome mole into the cat dish and exclaimed. There’s a tasty treat for you; four felines quartered the lifeless varmint. Moles are critters who feast on earth worms. The moles make runs on top of the ground, but burrow deep and make side pockets where they raise their young. Getting them to eat a poison peanut can be done but they prefer a nice cut of earthworm and sometimes some tasty grubs. We are experiencing some good results with the TomCat artificial baited worm. Use them like you would a poison peanut. Traps work, but you need more than one and must be willing to reset and move them daily. Poison peanuts have some effect. Handle the peanuts with a plastic spoon to keep from getting your scent on the peanut. Mole gassers work well but repeat applications are necessary and the mole has to be present in that part of the run to work. For artificial worms, traps, peanuts or gassers to work effectively, walk over all the runs first and check later on in the day to see which ones are active. This is where you want to deploy your mole weapons. There are no insecticides approved for earthworms and I have not heard of any crossover control with any approved insecticides for lawns. Getting rid of grubs does not result in a decreased mole population. The best deterrent to moles is castor oil. Way back when; before new fangled remedies you gave a constipated kid a teaspoon of castor oil. The same principle applies to the application of castor oil to a lawn. You basically make the mole OD on eating castor oil laced worms and he moves into less difficult foraging terrain. Liquid castor oil products for lawns are ok if applied uniformly. We sell a granular clay product laced with castor oil. It is easy to apply to a lawn and after adequate watering seems to get enough oil into the ground to keep the moles out. The product is Mole No More. We have sold the product for years and have tons of repeat customers. Watering the product into the ground is crucial Rabbits, deer, and squirrels are all vegetarians. The number one way to keep them out of your plants is with a combination of protein type products sprayed on the plant to make them smell like a dead carcass. Most all of the repellants include either putrefied egg solids (sounds delicious) and or dried blood. The trick is in the carrier. The more expensive products can last 4 weeks longer. This last fall we mixed up a batch in a pail and had a lad wipe all 5,000 trees in our Underwood Nursery. We had very little deer marking and virtually no rabbit damage this winter. If you have a lot of trees to protect stop in the store and I will show you how to make an applicator for a dollars worth of parts. For vegetable gardens use dried blood around plants for fertilizer and spray the plants with a vegetable approved deterrent. We also have Hot Pepper Wax which seems to work well on pesky squirrels. We have a specialty product that you put in a small bag and place in a tree that will keep a buck from marking that particular tree. Buck deer mark trees in October with their antlers. A gland on their head also leaves a scent on the trees to let the females know where papa will be waiting for them. A dog that chases critters is your best defense against marauding deer. High fences, electrified fences and sprinkler motion detector devices are also successful. A gun works too. Make sure your wife can gut a deer and fix it tasty if you pursue this solution. Mice is nice if you are at Disney World, if not listen to sage advice from the master mouser. Traps with the yellow plastic prebaited pad are best for larger mice. Use peanut butter even though they are prebaited. They are the easiest to set. If your bait keeps disappearing you have small mice or voles. Get sticky traps for these. I prefer the larger ones. The small ones will allow a big mouse to escape. If you have outside mice problems in buildings I use paraffin coated throw baits. I also use baits as a last resort in the house or at the store, but only after all else fails and I am so frustrated that I am willing to burn candles to mask an unpleasant smell. I like the small DCon triangular shaped boxes. We sell Forces baited seed that works well for voles and mice. You won’t generally find it at hardware stores. I use this too when others do not work. Change your mousing strategy as Mickey will learn your techniques. © Copyright 2008 Sherbondys, All rights reserved.
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