Moles. Grrrr. Other than blasting the ground with a semiautomatic weapon...

[greengenes]

Garden number one has the bunny barricade surrounding it and a trench circling the entire garden...Garden number two has just the bunny barricade (Groundcloth stapled down and then bent up at 90 degree angle) We did vapam the entire thing, so anyone in the garden when it went under plastic should be fertilizer...SHOULD be. (I know it's not organic, don't judge me. When you have to deal with nematodes, then I'll listen.)
They are still there.

What works?
hey, maybe they are not moles. It is a hole about 4-5 inches down about as round as a quarter, not as big as a half dollar. What else could it be?
The gophers will eat my plants like a bugs bunny cartoon, but these tunnels just disturb my roots to the best of my knowledge.

 

[baymule]

I have a vivid image of you blasting the ground with a semi automatic weapon screaming "DEATH TO MOLES!! BWAHAHAHAHA"

Sounds like a lot of fun! Can I bring my shotgun???

 

[NwMtGardener]

Heh, I might be as (un)helpful as baymule is by just laughing at you ( )...BUT I am reminded that Marshall is digging out all of his raised beds, removing all the soil, and putting down hardware cloth for some type of little rodent, was it moles or gophers? That sounds like an amazing amount of work, depending on the size of garden you have...

 

[so lucky]

I have always assumed that those holes/tunnels are made by voles. We have them here, too. They might eat mole poison pellets, but if you have chickens free ranging, be careful of them. They might eat rat poison, same caution.
I feel your pain.

 

[greengenes]

Hmmm, maybe when I am ready to plant the things that need a larger hole.
wow, you have just opened a whole new world of gardening to me.
I have some trees to plant. What caliber do you suggest?

 

[greengenes]

yea... chickens and bait won't work because they love to eat furry small animals. and scaled ones too. well, actually, they eat anything.
The 'clever' hen figured out how to clear the bunny barricade, so now we have chicken barricade extensions to make.
Varmints! Every where I turn something wants to eat my garden!
sigh. It's begun.

 

[Lavender2]

I trap them with a Tomcat mole trap. Safer than a shotgun, for me anyway.
Find an active tunnel and you get em every time. Good to get them early in Spring before they bring the family.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sounds like voles to me too. They raise tunnels somewhat like moles but maybe not quite so bad and tunnel under things, killing them just by tunneling. They chew on my sweet potatoes too. I have not come up with a good solution. To me, they are more of an aggravation that a bad pest.

Moles have not been a problem in my yard since Lockjaw (the Ripper's companion) learned to catch them. Of course I have to bring in a wheelbarrow of dirt every month or so to fill holes in the yard to avoid injury when I walk out there. Those are my dogs, affectionately names after their favorite destruction techniques. When Lockjaw gets one she gets to keep it to play with until it gets to stinking pretty bad to encourage her to get them. They are fenced out of my garden so those voles are safe.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Why not have the best of both worlds and use a semi-automatic shotgun like this?

We have both Swamp Voles and moles around here (mostly Starnose) but they don't bother the garden for some reason. From your description, though, another vote for voles!

 

[greengenes]

I wonder if they make that guy in small size. Then he can just
GI Joe/ commando the vole caves for me. I'll take a dozen, they come with the gun, right?
Hey, They can bunk in the fairy houses.
Problem solved!