Mole Extermination FAQ

Mole activity is typically evident by molehills or ground veining and frequently includes both signs. 

• Molehills can appear in lawns, flower beds, gardens, along fence lines, driveways or sidewalks.  The hills are roughly circular mounds that are 6 to 24 inches in diameter and 2 to 8 inches high. The opening to the tunnel system or burrow is near the center of the mound and typically isn’t visible.  Moles almost always plug openings in their tunnel system if they are in use.  (See photo to right)

• Like molehills, ground veins or surface runways can appear in lawns, flower beds, and gardens.  They are located one to four inches below the surface and appear as three-inch-wide ridges in the soil.  These ground veins connect with deeper runways that are three to 12 inches below the surface but can be as deep as 3 feet.  (See photo to right)

The truth is we really don’t know. The amount of mole activity is not a good indicator of the number of moles.  Add on variables like: the time of the year, size and location of your property, whether your property is bordered by woods and/or wetlands, does your landscaping design incorporate automated sprinkler systems and large areas of flower beds; the possibilities become endless. However, moles are  generally solitary by nature and will aggressively defend their burrow systems.  Many sources suggest one acre will only support five or six moles. So your lawn may look like a war zone, but you probably have only a couple of moles. In fact, almost 60% of our customers have just one or two moles.

Our goal is to minimize the damage to your property as quickly as possible and for more than 75% of our customers that’s less than 4 weeks. However, once again, we really don’t know because there are too many variables.  We have customers where we catch their moles in two weeks and we have customers where it has taken us more than 8-9 weeks to catch their moles.  Check out our testimonials to see what customers are saying.  

Moles can cause a tremendous amount of damage to your landscaping resulting in hundreds if not thousands of dollars  in damage.  Based upon your area, property value can decrease as much as 10% due to mole problems.

• Customers have woken up in the morning and found a front yard full of dirt mounds and uprooted grass.  Some of the mounds more than 18 inches high and 24 inch in diameter.  Moles must eat more than 60% of their body weight per day.  That means they are in a continual feeding frenzy, digging and tunneling everywhere to find food. 
• The root systems of new and young plants are of particular risk to exposure and damage due to this digging action of moles.  Moles can dig more than 15 feet/hour. 
• Mole activity can result in uprooting of sprinkler heads and warping of underground water lines.  For some reason, moles prefer to dig along these underground water lines.
• Moles can also undermine and damage walkways, pavers, stone or brick walls, driveways and other man-made barriers.  This damage may go un-detected initially until rain and weather changes result in uneven settling. 

No.  Our technicians just need to gain access to the areas to be serviced.  Any special information and instructions such as gate codes, dogs in yard, use of invisible fencing can be provided to us at the time you request service.

We bury the moles where we catch them and denote the spot with a marker flag. This marker flag is intended as a visual cue for those homeowners who may want to verify that we caught all the moles we say we caught. Keep in mind, these marker flags occasionally go missing due to pets, other wildlife, landscapers, and foot traffic.  If you are going to verify the captures, do so quickly.  Moles have elevated red blood cell levels and will decompose completely in four to twelve weeks, depending on weather and soil conditions.  Also, you’ll need to dig a hole up to one foot deep with a twelve-inch radius around the flag and you may also need to sift the dirt through some sort of a screen to find the mole.  Again, the marker flag is left only as a visual cue for you.  Actual captures are recorded on your service order with each service visit.  If a capture quantity conflict occurs between flags and service order paperwork, the paperwork quantity takes precedence because of the uncontrolled nature of the flags.

The moles we catch will be dead so they certainly won’t return. But any moles living nearby will sense that the territory is available and may move in.  It’s far easier to use and maintain an existing tunnel system than dig a new one. Because of this potential, our mole extermination service comes with a 3-month limited warranty where our setup fee is waived for a full 3 months from the date of invoice.  And yes, a lot of our business is repeat business so there’s a good chance that you will see us again.

Keeping moles out of your yard would be only slightly easier than keeping squirrels or birds out of your yard. The home remedies of which we've heard are in most part ineffective and some of them will cause even more damage to your lawn than the moles. The commercial treatments have never been proven to work and/or they are more expensive than our service. However, you may be able to temporarily deter new moles by locating and destroying the old tunnel(s) where they entered your yard. This is easier if you have a fence because moles like to tunnel under fence lines and, amazingly, the fence doesn’t even have to touch the ground. The easiest way to destroy these tunnels is to wear a pair of heavy boots and, using the outside edge of the sole of the boot, step down really hard all along the tunnels. Be sure to destroy the tunnels along sidewalks and driveways, also.

Yes!   We take special precautions to make sure our equipment is environmentally friendly and safe. We pride ourselves on the fact that we DO NOT use poisons or pesticides of any type.  That’s NONE with a capital ‘N’.  This means no harmful exposure to pets and children, no leaching into ground water and contamination of water ways. Okay, what do you do?  We place our equipment in the ground and protect it with hard plastic covers which are then staked down using 6” spikes.  Most dogs just sniff the covers, then ignore them. Cats are pretty much indifferent to them.  Children should be instructed to avoid the equipment – ‘it’s not a new play-thing’. If you have children under 6 years old that will be playing in the yard unattended or you have a pet that likes to dig, let us know and we will take extra precautions.

Usually ‘by-the-mole’ is your best option. We are the best in the business so we usually catch all of your moles in just a couple of trips.  In fact, for more than 75% of our customers we remove all their moles in less than 4 weeks.  The other companies may average five to six weeks or longer to catch your moles.  In general, we believe Mole Patrol’s ‘by-the-mole’ will be less expensive for residential customers with lots less than 10,000 square feet.

There are at least 3 reason why we may not catch a mole:

1. Sometimes a mole will set off the device and escape. The mole is often mortally injured when this happens and it crawls off and dies. Unfortunately for us – lucky for you – we got rid of your mole but we can’t charge you the “per mole” fee if we can’t find the carcass. However, we don’t just assume that the mole crawled off and died. We continue servicing your property until no further mole activity is present.
2. A predator – such as a raccoon, a coyote, an owl, your dog or your neighbor’s cat – might catch the mole. We have even had raccoons steal our equipment with the dead mole in it. When that happens, we lose our equipment, the mole, and our “per mole” fee.
3. The mole might just leave your property on his own. This break usually gets an initial sigh of relief followed by ‘What happens if they return?’. We understand this uncertainty and that’s where our 3-month limited warranty comes in.  If your moles return within 3 months of the original invoice date, we return to get them and the setup fee is waived.

Our goal is to catch your moles as quickly as possible in an attempt to minimize any additional damage to your landscaping and accessories.  The setup fee is associated with that initial property assessment, installation of equipment, weekly activity assessments and equipment adjustments plus the ‘waived’ or  ‘zero-cost’ setup fees for 3 months warranty.  Note that the weekly property assessments for mole activity  and equipment adjustments continue until we’re sure there is no evidence of new mole activity indicating the mole is gone. Any lack of initial success is typically coupled with increased use of more complex and time consuming techniques in order to get rid of your moles. Add the fact that this fee is assessed, not upfront, but only after all services have been rendered.   So . . . all this and it will only cost you our setup fee . . . what a bargain.

Moles don’t respect property lines. If you have moles . . . you can be sure that at least some of your neighbors also have moles. At the minimum, they share your moles. If you show our techs five of your neighbors that you don’t think have moles, they can find tunnels on most of their properties and catch moles on at least two of them.