Mole exclusion

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I posted on here. But what's everyone's opinion on a fence exclusion? How deep? I've got a couple of customers who year after year get moles tearing up their nice rock patios and they are wanting to know if they can exclude them from getting under the patio.

First, you need to rent a backhoe and then you need to lay up your forms and then pour the walls to a depth of about ten feet.

Seriously, I've seen a mole run at the depth of the deep end of a swimming pool.

I dont see mole exclusion as being 100 % effective. Moles do dig out and run across the surface of the ground for some distances at times to relocate and reestablish into new areas, so I dont see a barrier being a viable prevention measure for very long.

That's what I told the customer yesterday. But I figured I'd run the ideas past you guys. I told her that they dig real deep and she asked how deep? Her main goal was to be able to stop them from just getting under the patio.

I don't have moles but have seen pockets gophers go under an 8ft wall in abq, the walls are summer flood installations and very deep.

Sounds like the patio is hard scape though so if you blocked sides deep would it matter if they came across on top of the ground?

Has anyone tried exclusion on these that have been successful?

I have clients that exclude raised beds with mesh and though they do miss spots sometimes they don't have the problems others have.

I like the idea of it but understand the potential for utter failure.

This is what the patio looks like

Short answer: not even close to practical. Moles are fairly slow reproducers; removal is the best way.

Do they mostly move at night?

I'd be willing to bet it's always night underground.

I don't think I've ever seen them move above ground. I'm not saying the don't, but I've never seen it.

Moles can and do move above ground when they feel it is what they need to do. For example they come to a barrier like a highway or side walk, drive way etc. at times they will surface and clumsily crawl until they reach soil again to get to where they feel they need to go. Just to get to the other side. I have seem them do that at times and have pulled many out of window wells and swimming pools over the years. The only explanation is they get into a barrier situation and come up and are on their way again.

Many times they will just continue along a barrier and continue on their way as well.

The European mole is well researched. The two common varieties that we trap here in the States (Scalopus aquaticus and Parascalops breweri) are similar enough to the European that we probably can draw similar conclusions on the behaviors mentioned in this thread. With that, a couple of points:

1. In Britain, there is documentation that moles will tunnel under roadways. I’ve seen plenty of mounds on opposite sides of a sidewalk (indicating a linking tunnel under the sidewalk), but never on opposite sides of a road. I highly doubt that a mole can sideways displace the dirt under a road, so they would have to pull it back out and create mounds on either side of a road. In the absence of ever seeing these mounds, my conclusion is that a mole crosses a road above ground rather than under. There’s gotta be a joke there, “Why did the mole cross the road?”

This raises the question of why the European mole does tunnel under the their roads. I don’t have any grand answers, but it may be a combination of things such as the width of their roads, displacement characteristics of their soil, etc.

2. Excavation research on mole tunnels suggests a normal maximum depth of around 150-cm, or roughly 5-feet deep. This does not quite match up with the suggestion that a mole was digging as deep as the deep end of a swimming pool. I’m curious, warrior, how did you determine the depth of the tunneling you saw?

3. EatenByLimestone, I took your comment about “its always night underground” as tongue-in-cheek. It did remind me that many species of moles have distinct timeframes of activity each day (when they are active). The first run is before sun up and into the early sunrise, a second is before/after high noon, and a later period that is after dark. All three appear to be triggered at some level by solar cues.

In any case, the points within this thread raise some interesting thoughts about mole behaviors and capabilities.

I seem to have my best success during the night time (or maybe early morning before I get up).

I'm not sure which specie of mole we have here. They've sure been thick this year. Maybe because it's been such a wet year.

I have caught moles standing there filling the paper work out with the customer, And seen the digging when I am setting the job, doesn't happen a lot but has happened. In my are the star nose will come out go a shot distance and go back in along the real wet areas