If you are a property owner in the Triangle area of North Carolina, there is a good chance that moles may at some point do some unauthorized digging in your yard. Sometimes, this will be no problem, as moles can keep insects at bay and often tunnel deep enough to go unnoticed. But they are also known to push up mounds of dirt, known as molehills, and to sometimes make tunnels shallow enough to be visible along the surface. 

Tunnels along the surface are more likely to be voles, not moles, though. Voles come in colonies, are rodents and eat the roots of plants; whereas, moles are generally loners, are insectivores (not rodents) and eat grubs and worms. 

How to rid your yard of moles

You may decide that you really just can’t coexist with the moles, though, and that you need to eliminate them. In this case, there are a number of great tools at your disposal to get the job done. 

One tactic, called exclusion, is just to make your property unwelcoming to them. Moles need loose dirt to tunnel through and grubs to eat, so the common methods of exclusion are to pack the dirt tighter and to use insecticides to kill their food sources. These strategies do come with downsides though. Packed soil isn’t as good for growing plants, and insecticides may kill a lot of bugs that you want in your lawn. 

Probably the most successful method is to trap the moles. There are a variety of traps you can find that are specifically designed to target moles. Since they are loners, the good news is, you may only need to trap a couple culprits. The downside of there only being a couple is they may be harder to find. If they get wise to your traps, they may avoid that area but remain in your yard. 

What to do when your best efforts fail

It isn’t always a simple task to get rid of moles. They do their best to stay away from other creatures, including humans, and may move away for a short time, then come back when they think it’s safe again. This makes it a long-term problem in some cases unless the specific moles are located. 

Those in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Wake Forest, Hillsborough, Apex, Cary and the surrounding areas of Wake, Durham, Orange and Chatham counties can call Critter Control of the Triangle at 919-382-0651 when they’ve hit their wits end. We are experts at exclusion, trapping and other strategies that are proven to eliminate mole problems.