BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Gardening Moles!

Moles ate my mom's tulips this past fall/winter/spring - There were no tulips left to grow and bloom. Do you know of a way to keep the moles aways from my mom's tulip bulbs?

Jeanne,
Here's what I used to do in California, to keep the gophers away from by tulips and hyacinths: I'd plant them in metal bulb baskets designed to foil gophers, moles, and voles, PLUS I'd always surround my tender bulbs with poisonous ones, usually daffodils and alliums. The moles will steer clear of the daffodils, and if the ring is wide enough they won't try to continue past in hopes of finding a tender morsel of a bulb! Also, since my bulb gardens are really close to my lawn, I try to either put down Diazanon or Grubex to kill off the moles' food supply. I don't like using a lot of insecticides, but if we don't out here in Indiana, we get taken over by moles

Aha! That explains why I have tons of daffodils growing everywhere, but all of my tulips have suspiciously vanished!

My mom doesn't want to use a metal basket - too much digging I suppose. She has arthritis. I did find a product called Mole-otov Cocktail at http://NotTonightDeer.com which supposedly will keep the moles away. She'll try that this year & see if it works.

Wow, that sounds great, Jeanne. Let us all know how it works. Beats digging really, really big holes to put the baskets in. It got so pathetically bad, that I resorted to the basket in California. The gophers in Califorina were much more industrious than the lazy moles we have Indiana. So far, I've been able to hang onto all my tulips by surrounding them with daffodils, but I'd love to "hedge" my bets (heh, heh, little pun there), and use this product, too, if it works.

Don't always blame the moles. Squirrels are also known to dig tulip bulbs and eat them in the winter. I just caught one little squirrel digging up my liatris bulbs and eating the newly emerging shoots.

Welcome to Garden-Planters, The moles will steer clear of the daffodils, and if the ring is wide enough they won't try to continue past in hopes of finding a tender morsel of a bulb! Also, since my bulb gardens are really close to my lawn, I try to either put down Diazanon or Grubex to kill off the moles' food supply.

milky spore is an organic method. The milky spore destroys the grubs. Moles depend on the grubs for their food. Voles use the mole tunnels to get to the plants.

We've had a migration of moles to our yard this year, and I don't want to use a pesticide that may kill off the good bugs. We have "resident" families of hawks and woodpeckers, and had a few nests of songbirds as well this spring. I'm cautious about using anything that may affect my birds.

The milky spore might be a good alternative for me. Any ideas on where I can get some?

I was recently in my local hardware store and saw cans in the gardening section. I would guess Lowes or Home Depot or a garden center would carry it as well.

Milky Spore does not harm anything except grubs.