Mole Repellent

Nothing like things that don't work to work to get the blood flowing!  The moles finally discovered my raised garden beds and the voles followed the tunnels.

I had a bag of castor oil pellets same to use around veggies, so I spread them around there.  I also had several bottles of liquid sprayable castor oil but with something in it that shouldn't be around veggies and it went downhill from there!

There were 2 ways they suggested applying the liquid.  The first was a hose-end sprayer.  That is basically a small container where you put in a certain amount of the undiluted liquid and add some water and the water from the hose pulls up a small amount as you spray water from the hose.

The other is using a dedicated pump sprayer that you just add some of the liquid repellent and a lot of water and pump the sprayer full of air to force it out the end of a wand.

Both drive me NUTS!  As far as I can tell, unless either are pure water, they clog. 

Using the hose-end sprayer, the mole repellent turned to foam and would get sucked up with the hose water.  I mean, nothing like spraying water all over the yard and discovering that the hose-end container is as full of the application liquid as when you started.  Great!  I just watered a lawn that was already soaked with weeks of rain!

I took the thing apart, made sure everything was working, tried it again, and got the same result.  You can't get this liquid to suck in with the hose water. 

So I tried a pump sprayer.  I even have 3 of them.  One is dedicated to herbicides for wild English ivy, another persistent vine, and poison ivy death.  I can't use that one for any other purpose.  The other 2 are ones that are hard to use.  I have taken them both apart a few times and gotten them working perfectly.  They don't stay working long.  Apparently, the least bit of solid matter stops them completely.  I'm not sure whether to try and clean them out again or give the the "Sledgehammer Of Death" before sending them to the trash can.  There is a certain satisfaction in that.  I need to find a better pump sprayer...

If you have one, please tell me...

You know what finally worked?  A simple watering can.  I mixed the mole repellent in a 5 gallon bucket, filled the 2.5 gallon watering can and put tape inside to output nozzle to make it dribble the mole repellent out slowly to spread it evenly.  And did that 25 times!  Sometimes, you just have to accept doing things slowly if you want a good result.  But it was a long afternoon!

One nice thing was that I could especially pour the castor oil mix on the tunnels AND into the vole holes.

And I timed it well.  The idea is to get the castor oil liquid onto the soil and then have it soaked in with rain or hose water.  It started raining again just when predicted.

So I went inside, washed off any residual mole repellent spray, gave The Mews special treats, played toys with them, and we all had a good dinner an hour later.

The Mews hated being inside all day, but I didn't want them walking around on the stuff and then licking their paws.  And even better, it rained another1/2" as I was typing this.  It is safe now.  They can go out in the afternoon.

My hope is that the moles will decide neighbors' yards are better territory.  My understanding of castor oil is that it makes the worms and grubs taste bad.  And possibly makes them smell "wrong" to their mates and makes them not happy staying together as Mr and Mrs Mole.

And it isn't the moles I am after all that much (though I regret the earthworms they eat).  It is the damn voles that use they tunnels to get at plant roots.  No moles, fewer voles...