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Rats or moles?

anniefamosanniefamos Posts: 4
in Problem solving
Hi,
over the past month or so we have noticed mounds of Earth appearing along the Earth border at thee bottom of our garden. We don’t have them in the lawn at all, just in the Earth. They measure about a foot across and are up to 6 inches high. No sign of holes. Would these mounds be caused by rats? I have seen one rat some months ago and have had none of these mounds before. I’m not aware of either of our neighbours having the same problem. We have a young dog who eats anything given half the chance so using poison if it is rats scares me a bit, and obviously, if moles I don’t want to harm them. 
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Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Can you post some photos please?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    It may help, when replying to Dove, if you tell us what type of area you live in because, if you're out in the countryside, you either put up with them or shoot them if getting rid of them takes precedence.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I’ve never known rats to make hills that big, it will be moles, if you scrape off the soil you will be able to put your fingers down the hole, try and push the earth back down, poke it down with a stick. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    If it does turn out to be moles and it sounds like it is, if you can get one of the old fashioned glass milk bottles, locate a mound, dig until you see the tunnel either side, insert milk bottle the right way up so it is in the tunnel.

    It was a vicar that told me about this, when the wind blows it makes a god awful noise in the tunnels, moles move on.

    Tried and tested, we had moles here about 5 years apart, both times it worked to move them on. Not seen a mole hill for ages now.
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    Sounds more like moles to me as well.

    Think it was @pansyface who had success sticking 2 large pickled onions per mole hill down into the tunnels. No need to use W’rose shallots in aged balsamic - chip shop sized onions in malt vinegar from Aldi are the way to go. The smellier the better.

    A pest control chap confirmed that moles do have a sensitive sense of smell so odiferous deposits may send them packing.
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    Topbird said:
    Sounds more like moles to me as well.

    Think it was @pansyface who had success sticking 2 large pickled onions per mole hill down into the tunnels. No need to use W’rose shallots in aged balsamic - chip shop sized onions in malt vinegar from Aldi are the way to go. The smellier the better.

    A pest control chap confirmed that moles do have a sensitive sense of smell so odiferous deposits may send them packing.
    I wonder if eating the pickled onions and using the jar would work?  Not sure I could commit a perfectly good pickled onion to a hole in the ground.  :D
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    It is a truism that moles make hills all over the lawn, but in reality they just scurry about where they please. They do awful damage, not because they eat anything, but by breaking or exposing roots or actually uprooting plants. I haven't tried the onion method; I hadn't heard of it when we had a problem. I am a bit worried that the moles just move to a different part of the garden, or possibly to a neighbour's. I am very touched by your reluctance to harm them. You may not feel the same six months hence.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    GemmaJF said:
    Topbird said:
    Sounds more like moles to me as well.

    Think it was @pansyface who had success sticking 2 large pickled onions per mole hill down into the tunnels. No need to use W’rose shallots in aged balsamic - chip shop sized onions in malt vinegar from Aldi are the way to go. The smellier the better.

    A pest control chap confirmed that moles do have a sensitive sense of smell so odiferous deposits may send them packing.
    I wonder if eating the pickled onions and using the jar would work?  Not sure I could commit a perfectly good pickled onion to a hole in the ground.  :D
    Don’t think I could either @GemmaJF 😢 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    Just me that likes moles, then? Yes they can make a bit of a mess of a lawn so not great if you're a lawn obsessive. But every time I see a mole hill in the middle of a bed, or dig into finely turned, lovely crumbly soil to plant something, I thank the mole that did it.

    Rats on the other hand are an absolute nightmare for damage, especially when they chew through wooden fencing and electric cables, leaving Godzilla sized holes behind.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I once had a thriving strawberry bed, just coming into unusually prolific fruit. Just as they were ripening, the plants began to droop. I watered them. They withered. When I finally dug up a couple, to investigate, I found a labyrinth of tunnels. I lost 75% of the crop and 50% of the plants eventually died. I have up grow your own. The mole man caught 3 and the cats got one more.
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