Greetings Sward-Masters and Wannabees,

Many of you want to blame the moles on grubs, but that’s not necessarily true.  Moles are voracious insectivores.  Just consider them to be nothing less than an underground “Tyrannosaurus rex!”  Seriously, these critters eat their weight in earthworms, grubs, beetles, centipedes, you name it.  They’re not very active in December and January, but as long as the soil is not frozen, they go out and hunt for food.

We’re shocked to learn how many of you have hired professional mole hunters!  Egads, that’s a lot of jack!  The most cost effective method of mole control is to learn how to use the harpoon trap (which we sell).  Come by and we’ll show all the tricks to killing moles.  Momma Mole has at least 2 litters per season.  You can kill a mole in a particular run, only to have another mole squat in that same network of tunnels.  Jeff has killed as 5 moles in one particular run, over the past 2 seasons!  There are some useful products based upon castor oil, that serve as repellents.  Our research indicates that the castor oil products actually do work, in that they repel moles, and even voles.  Plan on making a monthly application, though.

The baited artificial worms and artificial grubs are excellent products.  Those of you that have difficulty setting the harpoon trap generally have better luck with the baited products.  Regardless of what option you choose, you’ve got to be persistent! You need to stomp down the raised tunnels on a regular basis, to avoid them damaging your lawn, and to identify their active runways.  The active runways are where you set your harpoon trap or place the baited worms/grubs.

Well, the turf is starting to slow down, a natural thing, as it shifts into its reproductive stage of growth.  It has been growing like hell since April, but finally taking a break from busting ass.  This is a welcome stage for most of us, because we’re tired of mowing every 4th to 6th day.  Especially tired of fighting all the rain to get the grass cut! 

 

As we shift into the late spring/early summer, the summer heat will soon kick in.  Here in St. Louis, where we’ve had quite a bit of rain, I fear that the turf roots have not developed any character.  Let’s hope Mother Nature doesn’t turn the spigot off, and the furnace up, all at the same time!  If so, a lot of lawns are in for a rough summer.  I’m going to make a prediction that this will be a bad year for turf disease, starting with dollar spot, which is typically the first significant disease of the season.  Dollar spot creates a ton of small patches, 2” to 3” across (silver dollar sized).  They can eventually coalesce to make some ugly turf.  It usually kicks in after a week or so of nighttime temps in the 60’s.  Particularly vulnerable are the swards that have been fertilized with high nitrogen products, or simply “over fertilized.”  If you’ve followed THE Turf Plan properly, you’ve avoided high nitrogen formulations.  However, you’ll still get disease in a bad year, but it shouldn’t be as bad as the neighbors on those other plans. 

 

Over the last few months we’ve been able to get to meet quite a few of you, during product pick-up.  Of course, we appreciate your business, but a large number of you REALLY don’t know how much actual turf you have!  How can that be?  All those years of nagging you with the old newsletters?  Say it ain’t so…faithful followers of THE Turf Plan, unawares of their actual turf area…  While we like your money, we want you to understand that you’re setting your sward up for some serious turf disease problems.  Even if you’re using our low nitrogen stuff, when you over estimate how much turf you have, you’re actually applying too much nitrogen.  So before you come crying to us about all your disease problems, you’d better know your sward size!  Read on.

 

If you’re in a situation where you don’t want to put up with turf diseases, you can start a “preventative” fungicide program, using a host of different products.  For example, the 11.25 lb bag of the dry Bayer® product will treat 7.5M (7,500 sq ft).  Alternate monthly with our hose-end product for best results.  This will effectively reduce the severity of dollar spot, and brown patch, in your sward.  Brown patch is really the “big nasty” of all the turf diseases here in St. Louis.  It likes hotter temperatures, especially a week or so above 70 F at night.  

 

The damn moles must be taking fertility drugs.  We blame it on the 24/7 coverage of the infamous Octomom!  Jeff’s neighbor has a mole run where three moles have been successfully killed this season (starting in March).  Yet another mole has moved into the abadonded tunnel.  In case you didn’t know,  abandoned mole tunnels will have a fair share of squatter moles.  

 

As we’ve reported many times before, the presence of a mole is not highly correlated to having a grub problem.  Moles eat insects and other critters, and they’re in a family of insectivores, thus earthworms make up the vast majority of a mole’s diet.  So, if a mole happens to take up residence in your sward, the best thing to do is to kill it.  Then kill the next one that makes the mistake of trespassing.  And the next…and the next.  You simply can’t let your guard down! 

 

If you didn’t know it, the “professional mole hunters” charge a lot of money, as much as $150 for their first confirmed kill.  Wow, that’s some serious money, especially when it’s so danged easy to kill them!  Jeff has great luck with the classic Victor® harpoon trap.  However, there are two criteria for success.  First, you MUST locate an active tunnel (picture at right).

 

These are essentially the “highways” in which Mr. Mole travels 2 to 3 times per day, from his den, to his feeding ground.  Once you ID an active tunnel, it’s ‘dead mole crawlin’!  Step the tunnels down when you discover a mole in your yard.  It’s something you can do with your wife, because we know she’s been complaining about how much time you’re spending in the garden without her (we had coffee this morning).  By stepping all the tunnels down, you’ll be sure to return to find a few of them raised again.  Voila!  You’ve found an active tunnel. 

 

Next, take your harpoon trap and grasp each leg.  Push the legs firmly into the soil, straddling the tunnel, until the trip plate (the firing mechanism, aka the “trigger”) is at a slight 20 degree angle to the ground (see the picture on the left). Position one hand on each “shoulder” of the trap, and push firmly.  Note that the “trip plate” or “firing mechanism” is at a slight angle (10-15 degrees).

Here’s the second secret to killing moles.  It’s not really a secret, because the damned instructions are on the side of the box…you’ve got to push the harpoons into the soil, then pull on the spring to raise the harpoons.  Then, pop the spring so that the harpoons penetrate the soil 3 or 4 times (center picture).  When Mr. Mole travels along the tunnel, he’ll raise the tunnel, which trips the trigger, and results in his rapid and instanteous death.  This is the most common mistake that people make…they just put the trap in the ground and set the trigger, without “clearing a path” for the harpoons. 

 

People often ask what to do when they do kill a mole.  Well, we recommend that you take a shovel and carefully cut back the sod to reveal your dead mole (an to make sure you actually caught it!).  You can leave it in the tunnel to decompose, but if you have pets, or foraging raccoons, they might dig it up and eat it.  So, we don’t prefer the “let it rot” option.

 

If you’re too squeamish for this kind of action, the next best trick is to use the TomCat® mole killer…poison grubs.  With this product you still have to find an active tunnel.  Once you’ve done that, use a stick to poke a hole in the top of the tunnel.  Carefully unwrap the grub and drop it into the hole, being careful not to touch the poison grub, to prevent getting a human scent on the grub.  With the stick, push the grubs to one side of the hole (so that the grubs aren’t directly under the hole).  The manufacturer recommends that you use your fingers to seal the hole back up, but we recommend that you just step on the tunnel.  Both of these products are available in our Garden Shop.