Moles - Mole trapping and removal from lawns, yards, gardens and property in Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia

Virginia Professional Wildlife Removal Services traps and removes nuisance moles in Central
and Eastern Virginia - including Albemarle, Goochland, Louisa, Fluvanna, Orange, Powhatan,
Henrico and Hanover Counties, as well as the Cities of Charlottesville and Richmond, and the towns
of Mineral, Gordonsville, Earlysville, and Keswick. If you have nuisance moles in your yard, on your
property, or damaging your golf course, call Virginia Professional Wildlife Removal Services
and find out how we can help control moles.

Moles live underground and inhabit lawns, golf courses, cemeteries, and parks. Soil type, moisture
content, and food availability all effect mole activity. In general moles prefer loose sandy-loam soils
where digging is easy, and tend to avoid heavy clay and gravelly soils where digging is more
difficult. The Star-nosed mole prefers a wetter environment than both the Eastern and Hairy-tailed
moles.

Moles are usually 4-8 inches long, have brownish-gray fur, and short powerful front feet that they
use for digging. The moles diet is made up of earthworms, grubs, snails, slugs, and insects. Moles
cause very little damage to plants while feeding, but may dislodge plants and bulbs while tunneling
in search of food. Moles can consume an amount of food equal to 60-100% of their body weight
daily, and one mole can dig up to 150 feet of new tunnels every day.

Virginia Professional Wildlife Removal Services offers an annual mole control package to help
control mole problems. It is important to understand that moles are attracted to the habitat found in
your yard, and as long as the habitat is not modified other moles will be attracted to it as well.

Damage and Damage Identification

Moles remove many damaging insects and grubs from lawns and gardens. However, their
burrowing habits disfigure lawns and parks, destroy flower beds, tear up the roots of grasses, and
create havoc in small garden plots.

It is important to properly identify the kind of animal causing damage before setting out to control
the damage. Moles and pocket gophers are often found in the same location and their damage is
often confused. Control methods differ for the two species.

Moles leave volcano-shaped hills that are often made up of clods of soil. The mole hills are pushed
up from the deep tunnels and may be 2 to 24 inches (5 to 60 cm) tall. The number of mole hills is
not a measure of the number of moles in a given area. Surface tunnels or ridges are indicative
of mole activity.

Pocket gopher mounds are generally kidney-shaped and made of finely sifted and cloddy soil.
Generally, gophers leave larger mounds than moles do. Gopher mounds are often built in a line,
indicative of a deeper tunnel system. (Source: Prevention and Control of Wildlife Damage � 1994)