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Moles in the Lawn | The Old Farmer's Almanac

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Holy Moley! Moles and Lawn Damage

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The Editors
May 23, 2022
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Moles have the potential to ruin your lush-green, meticulously manicured lawn. Chances are, you don’t have anything nice to say about them, but beyond their digging, they provide some benefits. Read on to learn more.

Molehills

  • Mole damage shows up as long ridges of soil running through the lawn and as volcano-shape mounds of earth called molehills, formed as moles tunnel beneath the soil surface in search of food.
  • You may also notice soil outside tunnel entrances, pushed there while moles construct deep permanent tunnels for nesting and overwintering.

A Mole’s Life

  • Moles are often mistaken for rodents, but they are not related to mice, rats, and other rodents. Their diet includes insect larvae, spiders, earthworms, and lawn pests such as slugs and grubs. They do not intentionally eat plant material.
  • To meet their high energy requirements, moles eat just about 24/7. They often consume the equivalent of 60–90% of their body weight in a single day and may tunnel 100 feet in the process.
  • Moles are well adapted to the darkness of subterranean living. Nearly blind, they compensate with their keen senses of smell, hearing, and touch.
  • As they dig through the earth with their large, shovel-like forepaws, their tiny eyes are protected from dirt by thin membranes. Their nostrils face to the sides of their pointed snouts to avoid being clogged, and they lack external ears.

Benefits of Moles in your Lawn

  • A mole’s tunneling aerates and loosens the soil, which helps plant growth.
  • They eat garden pests and are themselves a food source for foxes and other predators. Moles are often blamed for eating bulbs and the fleshy roots of ornamentals, but chipmunks, mice, and voles are actually the culprits.

Moles are most active in early spring; the damage usually subsides when the soil dries out later in the season. In the meantime, if you rake out the mounds and ridges, the lawn should recover on its own, and you won’t be making a mountain out of a molehill.

See our complete guide on how to control moles in your garden!

Read Next

Gardening Essay
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Comments

Doug Bryce (not verified)

1 year ago

I've been using a product called "GopherOut" (gopherout.com) that causes the varmints to leave the area and lasts for 6 months or so. I use it for gophers but it claims to repel voles, moles, squirrels, etc. and is safe for pets, kiddos and adults.

Debby Mccullough (not verified)

4 years 11 months ago

How do l get rid of Voles? They have ruined my garden.

Leroy (not verified)

5 years 9 months ago

moles keep plugging the trap, over and over

PirateLogic61 (not verified)

6 years 2 months ago

Great idea that I will try right away for the the short term. I want to know the best way to KILL them. In the Pacific NW, we have thousands destroying land everywhere.

Kiki (not verified)

7 years 1 month ago

My aunt had moles one entire summer in PA. She tried several things and nothing worked. Finally someone told her to plant garlic as they don't like the smell. She did one better. She got her extra large pasta pot (she had 9 kids, it was huge) and filled it with water. She got 4 (or more) entire heads of garlic and smashed the cloves, and put it on to boil. Then she went around to each mole hole with her label and poured some boiling hot water down the hole and made sure several cloves of garlic went down as well. A day later, no moles. About 2 weeks later a neighbor complained of moles in his yard. She asked if he'd checked their breath? When he said No, why? (puzzled), and she said, well if they have garlic breath, they are from my yard. She swore by this remedy. Not fun for the moles, but better than killing them.

Adriaan (not verified)

7 years 7 months ago

Please help. Blind moles are taking over in my yard. Please. Need to get rid of them.

Clark Dublin (not verified)

9 years ago

That is true about the moles eating pests. I had a struggle with moles a while back. Come to find out I had an infestation of grubs, which caused an infestation of moles. They were exterminating grubs... but they were doing more damage than helping. I read around and found a review of a few methods and stuff you can put on your lawn at this blog: howtogetridofmolesfrommylawn.tumblr[dot]com/ you might check it out if you're having problems getting rid of your moles.