We have one or a family of moles making already muddy garden even muddier!
By the size of the mountains it builds it is some kind of super mole :-) :-)

Is there a natural way of trying to get him/her to move out of our garden?
4 dogs prancing about clearly do not scare the mole...
We have a large garden and it's working it's way all the way through, now being in the middle of the garden...
I also worry of the holes under the grass now and dogs stepping on them and hurting themselves falling on full speed.

We've tried lots of things, but the only thing that seems to work is the good, old-fashioned mole-trap :( There is something like a garlic clove that you bury at points around the lawn - we haven't tried this yet as we have a very large garden.

I recommend a Labrador.............. unfortunately she may make more mess digging them out than the mole does!!

She loves carrying them home, I think she thinks they are her special fluffy toy!

Tried and tested remedy is a man with a shotgun.

If you find an answer please let me know! We had our top field of an acre ploughed and re-seeded last summer, it was looking good until the moles moved in, what a mess! Trying to get someone out to lay traps for them has proved hopeless, the companies we've tried will only do gardens! We tried traps ourselves (well, husband did). They are a bl***y nuisance.

Good luck.

If you find an answer please let me know! We had our top field of an acre ploughed and re-seeded last summer, it was looking good until the moles moved in, what a mess! Trying to get someone out to lay traps for them has proved hopeless, the companies we've tried will only do gardens! We tried traps ourselves (well, husband did). They are a bl***y nuisance.

My man with a shotgun does fields too, and only charges his costs, does it as a public service, but he doesn't really go more than about ten miles out of the village, which is away beyond the mountains of north west Wales. So not much use to you unless that's where you happen to live?

Hens.
I used to have moles until I got hens, then I discovered the hens eating the mole, no more moley.

If however, I don't manage to catch the Mink that's currently scoffing my birds, I'll soon have no hens !.

On the plus side, I did catch an Otter this morning in one of the many baited live traps round the garden, let go immediatly of course, but what a privalage to have gotten so close to one.

omg..laff..there is a Jasper Carrott scene that covers the exact same question. When I first heard the question, I hadnt thought of the small furry things. You tube it, it is funny(if you havnt already heard it).

We had one in our garden once. I could see it moving along its tunnel, so one day I got 2 spades & a fork. Without going into details, it had an instant buriel.

Thanks Beagle Baggie, sadly we're Aberdeenshire!!

Haha Lexy !. I thought of it to and just watched again - here it is !.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePU5CIHpas

I remember him doing this live on tv many many years ago !

The moles are after grubs to eat.  Here in Canada we get skunks ravaging our lawns for the same thing, grubs to eat.  Hah, you think the moles make a mess, you should wake up in the morning to sees piles of what from a distance looks like dung that might have been left by an elephant.

Control the grubs and thwart the moles, there will be nothing for them to eat.  We have pretty strict pesticide laws in Ontario now so Nematodes are about the only thing we can legally use to kill off the grubs.  The nematodes eat the grubs.  A natural way to control them. 

I seem to remember something about sinking bottles into the ground, leaving the tops above ground level.   The sound of the wind passing over the bottles upsets moles and they leave.  

Other than the shot gun, or staking out the area armed with a shovel, I can only suggest getting a Jackie involved?

Many counties have a Mole Man..ask around.

Plant childrens windmills at various points. The vibrations apparently are what scare them off.
This did work for my parents years ago.

Good luck Karen

Put small 'No Tresspasing' notices up stuck on lollipop sticks
.

Put small 'No Tresspasing' notices up stuck on lollipop sticks
.

I got one of those ultra sonic things with a post that goes into the ground, never thought it would work, but they went almost straight away!!!

Thank you everybody...
I read online garlic is a natural deterrent, was not really expecting much but as I had garlic in the house
went and put 10 grushed gloves in the area they had last digged around. That was 2 days ago and we have not had a
single hill since then. By now it should be at least 4 mountains.
I also had my 4 elephants(also known as playing leos) out all day yesterday in hope they make the ground shake...
Its at least positive start of saving my grass....

None of these remedies work. the only way to get rid of them is to set the traps and be patient. I have set traps for years and had a molecatcher round to set them as well. If at first you don't succeed move the traps around and keep checking. My Buhund LOVES mole hunting and digs to Australia along the burrows. When he is older he might become more cunning and lie in wait.
Louise

"None of these remedies work. the only way to get rid of them is to set the traps and be patient."

The shotgun certainly works (and doesn't require any patience).

None of these remedies work.

Nematodes certainly work.  They may require patience though as can only be applied in certain weather.

Moles' main diet is earthworms, which are beneficial for the soil and you certainly don't want to kill them off.

Jeangenie, you replied to me but beneficial nematodes do not target earthworms and are considered safe to use.

http://www.buglogical.com/beneficial-nematodes/

Whether there is such a thing as non beneficial nematodes I don't know.  So good point, check to make sure you are purchasing the correct nematodes, if there is such a thing as ones that might be wrong.

But the moles will still eat the earthworms, so you won't get rid of the moles.

LOL, Does this site have Smack Hand on Head emoticons?  Of course you are right, didn't think of that.  :)

But, we do use nematodes and using them has cut down on mole tunnels in our yard.

oh dear everytime I see moles hills I think of jasper carrot and the mole sketch of him on a stool in the garden with his shot gun lol

Doesn't anyone just think that the poor moles, part6 of our wildlife,  are entitled to do their thing and just put up with the hills???

> Doesn't anyone just think that the poor moles, part6 of our wildlife,  are entitled to do their thing and just put up with the hills??? .

Have you ever had a lawn full of mole hills ? :) :) Firstly it makes the grass very difficult to cut without spending a lot of time removing all the soil and debris (it is amazing what gets brought up by moles - pieces of china, glass and other bits of rubbish). Secondly the runs made can be quite dangerous as they collapse as you walk over them. Thirdly your nice level lawn starts to sink and become like a roller-coaster :) :) :) Fourthly - by the time you have a huge number of mole hills covering your lawn, it looks absolutely awful :) :)

I have found some old fashioned moth balls which have done the job.  They are not marketed as mothballs as apparently they are no longer sellable under EU law.  My local "old fashioned" hardware store stocks them  as "Insect Repellent Balls".  I can't give any more information than that as there is no information on the packaging.

> Doesn't anyone just think that the poor moles, part of our wildlife, are entitled to do their thing and just put up with the hills???

Me.      Our garden is surrounded by farmland and moles are fairly regular visitors.  I simply kick the molehills, or rake them over to distribute the earth, and tread the surrounding area quite thoroughly.  After about a week I find the moles just move on.  In multiple gardens this technique has never failed me :)

>I simply kick the molehills, or rake them over to distribute the earth, and tread the surrounding area quite thoroughly.

That is all I have ever done flattened the hills.

I got one of those ultra sonic things with a post that goes into the ground, never thought it would work, but they went almost straight away!!!

Yep, I got two of these and within a couple of days the moles had all moved to my neighbours, never to be seen again in my garden.

I stayed very quiet when my neighbour moaned about moles suddenly appearing in his garden !!!

>  In multiple gardens this technique has never failed me :-)

Please come and tell our moles that :) Yes - we do get lulls, but when they move in they come with a vengeance :) Do you not find that your lawn collapses with the tunnels ?? I'm not at all a lawn fanatic as ours has been dug up several times running various pipes/drains through and resembled a battlefield for long periods - it still looks a bit like the surface of the moon :) However, twisting my ankle in a mole tunnel can be a fairly frequent occurrence :(

Yes, it's not the molehills themselves that are a problem (they're a fantastic source of well-sifted, weed-free topsoil to add to potting  compost) but the collapsing tunnels are definitely ankle-twisters. :-(

> Do you not find that your lawn collapses with the tunnels

No - I'm careful to 'tread' the area pretty thoroughly which reduces this risk.  Our old mole man would split the surrounding turf with a spade and rake the mole hills over with a little sand and compost mix to replace the disturbed soil.

I've just remembered that I was 18 before I realised that our old Mr Mole had another name!! 

> I'm careful to 'tread' the area pretty thoroughly which reduces this risk

How does this fill the tunnels ?? :) :) We've had around 20 mole hills at a time (within 2/3 days) on our lawn (even more in our field) so the extent of the tunnels is quite extensive :) If I tried 'treading' the area half the lawn would collapse :) :) :) Sorry to be obtuse but I really am curious as we've been trying to get our lawn just even (it slopes from back to front and side to side anyway) for some years and the moles hills have had me in tears sometimes :( Currently we have none ......... :)

> How does this fill the tunnels ??

From what I remember - the thinking is that in the area around the molehill the mole is operating closer to the surface.  Treading the area will go some way to reducing the size of these feeding tunnels (and in some areas) flatten it completely.  Raking the molehill out over the surface is like a top dressing for your grass, won't inhibit grass growth, and helps to reduce the overall lowering effect.  Cutting the tunnel and raking in also has a similar effect.

However, that said it really only works when you do it as soon as the mole moves in and before the soil hardens too much.

When you have large areas that have had years of mole activity then my understanding is that you need to use a harrow and a roller.  In some grassy areas one of the bigger problems are the tunnels and runways caused by voles. 

Keeping chickens is apparently quite a good method to control both of the above - they eat the worms and will I believe eat voles too if they can!

> Keeping chickens is apparently quite a good method to control both of the above

LOL - I can just imagine having chickens on our lawn ! We had enough fun and games when next door's chickens used to wander over into our garden - Tara is a herding breed .......... :) :) :)

Still no new hills :-)
I did not want to kill them really, just make them move elsewhere.
My lawn is far from pretty but the fear of dogs breaking their legs on the tunnels is why I don't want them in my garden (never mind us humans :-) )
Also, it really adds to the amount of mud dogs carry in when they walk through the hills and patches left by the hills.