Worms and moles

[bobm]

A few yers ago when we moved to Washington, we bought a bank owned house and yard that was in horrible condition. I covered the yard with grass clippings from 5- 6 neighbors to use to smother weeds, green mulch / manure, and to grow worms. Worked GREAT ! That is .... after about 6 months when we were invaded my the mole hordes, that made the yard look like land mines whent off, destroying many new plantings with nightly gorrila warfare and gorging on the juicy worms. For 2 years , I set up traps, hoses down the tunnels, smoke bombs, hired a mole eradicator... all to no avail as not a single mole was trapped or dead body found.. So, last winter, I opted for the scorched earth policy. I got rid of all of the leftover rotted / dry grass clippings, removed all of the plants that were dead and/ or dying from the mole tunneling or from the freeze , and dug up the yard with a shovel. This last spring the moles started to dig up the yard again, but since the worms had very little to eat their numbers droped like a rock and a large flock of Robbins showed up to feast on any worm that they could capture over a month now. Worm pickins became a scarce morcel indeed and for the last month the moles have gone for greener pastures. I hope that they honor the NO VACANCY singn and no longer take up squating in this landscape garden.

 

[so lucky]

We have been having lots of mole issues lately, and our lawn isn't covered in grass clippings, just grass. But DH has discovered he can monitor the fresh runs and get the mole with a carefully aimed hatched whack. He has gotten 4 that way, and we got another three by both of us using shovels and cutting down behind and in front of the working mole.
I hope we get the whole family before it turns hot and dry, and they go down deep in the ground.

 

[curly_kate]

The moles are horrible around here. They made a mess this spring but now that it's been crazy dry, there's not one to be found.

 

[baymule]

With all the crazy rain we've had, moles are making sink holes and underground river tunnels. Why don't the stinkers drown?

 

[CrazyFeathers]

Wow bobm it sounds like you had to do a lot of work to get rid of the moles. I'm glad to hear everything is under control now and you can replant and enjoy your lawn again.

 

[bobm]

Thank you for your post... fingers crossed and I hope that a couple years of frustration and lard labor finally worked. I haven't had a lawn in over 40 years, so I am not going down that lawn road again. I purchased 32 tons of boulders and made raised hills out of the dirt that I dug out for a very meandering dry stream bed from the far corner of our pieshaped lot to the farthest corner of the front end of the lot, which I then covered with 17 tons of river rock. I landscaped with Japanese maple, crabaple, red Osier dogwood , river birch, dwarf pine, black lace elderberries , and mugho pine. 15 blueberry bushes and 3 beds of strawberries on the formed " boulder mountains" . The rest of the yard I planted steppable red blooming thyme groundcover.

 

[so lucky]

Wasn't it your landscaping that won some awards a couple of years ago? I remember being very impressed.

 

[CrazyFeathers]

Wow Bob can I see a picture please?

 

[bobm]

to see some photos :You can go to my previous post heading "Garden tour" ... www.theeasygarden.com/thread/garden-tour.13490/page6 ... photos start on page 6 , 7 . The brown areas are dried lawn grass that I got from 5 neighbors for months ... not any more after the worms had a HUGE sex orgy followed by the mole police canibals with their bulldozers for a blood bath bash of a mission to eat every live worm on this piece of earth. Ooops !