Moles

General Introduction to moles:

The common mole, or if you want its full scientific classification the Talpa europaea is a small but mighty creature, which there are 35-40 million estimated to be living in the UK. These creatures are dark grey/black in colour with velvet-like fur, and sized between 11-16 cm. Moles also possess 44 teeth, which is an extraordinary number considering humans only have around 32 and are a much larger species!

Despite popular belief, moles are not blind. However, they are colourblind and mainly detect light and darkness, which results in poor vision and makes humorous cartooned mole representations in glasses rather accurate.

Moles are extremely receptive to touch which compensates for their poor eyesight, and their vibrational sensitivity drives a directional pathway toward a food source. Moles also possess toxic saliva which induces paralysis into their prey to further enhance the ease of mealtimes.

The sheer size of a mole’s front feet act as another enhanced attribute which aids their soil digging speed in the creation of their maze-like underground tunnels. Moles can dig tunnels up to a speed of 15 feet per hour.

Consequences:

Despite a mole’s rather sweet-looking appearance, they’re quite the menace; not only of their lawn-destroying capabilities but their voracious appetite for insects. For example, to survive they must eat 70-100% of their body weight daily. From an ecological perspective, such insect eradication particularly of worms is not ideal, as explained below:

Worms help keep soil healthy and nutrient-rich through their diet of fungi and dead animals/plants. Upon digestion, these materials are recycled into useful organic compounds like nitrates or phosphorus within the soil which promote plant growth through their fertilisation properties.
Worms also help the structure of the soil. Their basic wriggling movements aerate the soil to deliver more oxygen to the roots. Furthermore, such wriggles also increase the soils’ porousness to minimise flooding through a greater water storage threshold alongside increasing the plants' hydration.
Finally, another important use of worms from an environmental viewpoint is their involvement with ‘bioremediation’. This is where microorganisms convert toxic pollutants into non-toxic ones. A worm's movement helps distribute such microorganisms within the soil greater to improve the process’s effectiveness and thereby minimise land contamination.

Thus, the eradication of worms from our soil has negative ecological consequences, alongside the more visible annoyance of lawn destruction from holes and soil mounds.

Burrowing habits:

Moles are solitary animals and will rarely come together, except for mating. They spend most of their time underground alone in a labyrinth of complex tunnels made by themselves, which is why it is unusual to see one above ground. As a result of their giant paws, moles can dig a vast area of around 2.7 acres underground alone, which is why it’s rare to find 2 or more moles in a single area.

Moles prefer to burrow in moist soil and detest hard or dry soil, so they do not enjoy long, hot summers! Due to moles’ high vibrational sensitivity, it is natural that they are most active during an area’s quiet periods. Therefore, much like TV shows having operational hours, e.g. the Bake Off; so too does the mole, with theirs generally being very early in the morning or late at night when human activity is at its lowest.

Moles have 2 types of burrows: surface and deep. Surface tunnels are where moles have been hunting for food like worms and are indicated by lines of raised ground. The deeper tunnels are for nesting and often result in the classic molehill you see, which is formed from excavated soil from the deep digging.

You can see all of our Mole Solutions in this link or below this line: