I don't know what I've got but it's driving me nuts!! I have 12 really large butterfly bushes and two of them just up & died. I was checking them for insect infestation or a fungus and found that the soil around them had been worked up and was 'fluffy'. The roots had been munched off neatly. Is that the work of a gopher or a mole? Does anyone know what to do to discourage this behavior before they kill more of the shrubs. I can't use anything toxic to chickens or ducks so what's left? If at all possible I'd rather just discourage them rather than kill them although if it's necessary I would kill them. They can have the rest of the yard as far as I'm concerned, just leave those bushes alone!!

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 20, 2002

Answers

juicy fruit gum,,,, put into the holes,, will, disscourage moles. Gophers, dont know, dont have em here, , dogs??? cats?? WHat about mole traps? work fine here

-- stan (sopal@net-pert.com), September 20, 2002.

I'll try the gum, it's cheap & easy to find. My dogs don't seem to have any interest in them- Old & dumb I guess. :) No outdoor cats, I'm a bird watcher and cats & birds don't go well together. Have you ever heard of a plant called gopher purge? It's supposed to deter them but I don't know much about it. I'll have to check into the traps, I've never seen them at the farm stores so maybe they don't have much of a gopher or mole problem down here. No wonder; they're all at my place! LOL...

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 20, 2002.

Moles eat grubs and worms in the ground, not plant material. Most likely you have gophers, but pocket gophers are the only ones I'm familiar with and one usually knows when they are about, cuz their little dirt mounds are apparent in the yard. They WILL decimate a large area in a hurry; I once had an entire row of raspberry plants disappear in one night! I have actually stood there and watched while a blueberry bush was pulled under the ground. They are mainly nocturnally active, but can do some damage during the day too.

Gopher purge is pretty good for deterrence, but they will just move to another spot. You really need to kill em. Trapping is best; it may hurt one's delicate sensibilities, but once you have seen your hard work go down under a few times, the little darlins loose their cuteness real fast.

Moles are easy to detect cuz they leave the long tops of the tunnels sticking above the ground; juicy fruit gum worked great for us.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), September 20, 2002.

I've got the raised ridges all over the yard! I didn't know what was causing it though. There are some that go totally across the backyard -200+ feet in one contiuous line. Everytime I am outside I step them back down but in a day or two they're right back. My bushes weren't pulled down or disturbed above ground, just the lowest parts of the roots were cut/chewed off. The plants just dried up & died.:( I assume they chewed off the areas where the plant drew in moisture.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 20, 2002.

Well,Kathy, sounds like you have more than one kind of critter to deal with! The ridges indicate moles, but like I said, they are carnivorous. They don't eat plants, in fact it is probably good to have a couple in the yard cuz they eat grubs and such, but too many cause a network of just under the suface tunnels that loosens the soil around the plants, and that can cause them to die.

Then there are voles, which look kinda like little bitty moles, (pointy nose) and they *do* eat roots and bulbs, but their tunnels are tiny, and they will sometimes use moles tunnels.

Gophers will eat the plants, but evidence of them is easy to identify too, cuz they leave MOUNDS of dirt, digging huge networks of tunnels deep in the earth, some spidering up to the surface where it terminates in a mound of loose dirt, but they do not tunnel just below the sod like moles do.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), September 21, 2002.

I found something interesting this afternoon. One of my chickens was running around with something small,brown & furry in her mouth. When I caught up to her she dropped it. It's got this funny little flattened nose-pinkish & with little tenacles in a round pattern, it also had the most beautiful brown fur the color of mink. What is it? We have a big problem with grubs here, everytime I dig in the soil there are these gross white grubs. They look like overgrown corn borers and a local fellow told me they're Japanese beetle larva. From your description of the different burrowing patterns sadly I have to agree that I've got a variety of little burrowers sharing my homestead. Since I don't want to use chemicals do you think digging around the shrubs out past the root line and basically circling the hole with 1/2" hardware cloth would stop them? How deep do you think they would be willing to burrow? I have 36" high hardware cloth. Any idea if it would affect the shrub - would the roots just go deeper once they hit the cloth or would it kill the plant? Sorry for all the questions but this is the first pest that I've had that I don't have any experience with.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 21, 2002.

The thing the cat found may be a shrew: they eat worms and grubs.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), September 22, 2002.

Sounds like what you found is a star-nosed mole, which I have never heard of before I looked around the net a bit (they're weird and yukky looking, no?):

star- nosed mole

Here is an informative page on voles, (which apparently DON'T have pointy noses) although its from CA: voles

Now it appears from my little investigation this morning, that I I appear to have been mis-identifying some of my own little pests here. I know we have voles too, but the small, pointy-faced critters are apparently shrews, so I can add that to the list of bothersome little rodents in my yard. The shrews are the ones that my cats will kill, but will never eat. And it seems they know what they are doing, because some varieties of shrew have a poison in their saliva!

Thanks, Kathy; because of your questions and my insatiable snoopiness, I have already learned several new things today, and its only nine o'clock! :) It's a good thing........

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), September 22, 2002.

Earthmama, That's what it was!! I had never seen anything like it before, odd looking little creature. We have some swampy areas surrounding our biggest pond so he may have came from that area due to all the rain flooding his home. Thanks for the link. All the sites I visited from my web searches didn't have any pics of this fellow.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 22, 2002.

My cats are always bringing home star-nosed moles...sometimes still alive! I think they are kinda cute (in a weird way) when they wiggle that little nose!!!

But, I just want to know...do you chew the Juicy Fruit gum first?? I don't have a problem with golphers here, but I'm just curious :-)!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 22, 2002.

Marcia dear.....you think those things are cute huh? Um.......I'm speechless.......

No, I don't chew the gum, just roll it up lengthwise and stick it in the tunnel, use a glove to avoid adding my scent.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), September 22, 2002.

E.M. Yeah, I think they're kinda cute...as long as I don't have to TOUCH them :-)!!! I do like to rescue the still alive deer mice that my cats will present me with occasionally. Those I don't mind touching!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 23, 2002.

Deer Mice are so cute!! But my favorite rodent is chipmunks, now they are really sweet & funny to watch. I thought the little star nosed mole was cute too but in an alien sort of way.LOL I have to say he had the most beautiful fur;plush & prettier than most rodents. I have a deer mouse in the trunk of my car, I saw him just sitting there when I opened the trunk. He probably got in to get away from all the rain we had last Fri & Sat.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), September 23, 2002.

Mouse traps. But that's not why I'm here, We have a gopher problem. And it's driving us nuts, and our neighbors. There every where. But we want to know what they eat, like juicy friut gum? We set some traps but not working. plese tell us what to do!! and fast. we are losing flowers and gardens!

-- Brandon Kato (supernaturalfocus@yahoo.com), May 17, 2003.

if your looseing flowers and gardens,, you now know what they buggers are eating. I do a muiltiple task,, set traps,, tie dogs in the area,, sit on the porch with a .22 or 12 gauge

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 17, 2003.

ok now ive heard a few times about this juicy fruit gum thing, what i want to know is, wont that attract ants??

-- suzy homemaker (tattooz@2die4.com), May 22, 2003.

No. :)

-- Earthmama (earthmama@yahoo.com), May 22, 2003.

I NEED PICTURES OF GOPHERS! does any one know where i could find some.... email me.

-- milo dirge (milo_dirge@yahoo.com), June 21, 2003.

Hey everyone my dad is willing to give me 20 bucks (canadian) for every dead mole i bring him. I tried the traps but they only got 1 and i've been trying for like a week. I've heard that you can sit by the hole and club or shoot them. I think i'll try shooting them with my .22 CAL pellet gun. The problem is have no idea what time of day the come out at. Mourning? Noon? Evening? Dark? Anyone know?

-- Dylan Macintosh (Canada BC) (dilliboy63@hotmail.com), August 05, 2004.

Dy! IN the morning and evening. I doubt if the pellet gun will do the job but a 12 ga shotgun sure will. old hoot. Matt.24:44

-- oldhoot (oldhoot@shawneelink.net), August 06, 2004.

Point #1- The pests are possibly three fold. Moles, Voles and Gophers There are numerous sources for information the web. Generally- no mounds of dirt- voles, Volcano like mounds-moles, Cresent or half moon looking mounds- gophers.

Like many people have told you mole eat meat ( worms and grubs) but occasional, we find them eating bulbs of flowers. The voles are very small and will eat what ever. The gophers will only eat vegatation / roots.

Extermination / Control Trap um. or if it is not close to a building disrupt the tunnels. This may require a professional to do. There is numerous reference for trapping. My favorite for moles and voles is the Victor scissor trap. The gopher trap of choice is the cinch trap. If you need more info.... e-mail me

-- Joe Costigan (undergroundpestcontrol@yahoo.com), December 03, 2004.