A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Dangerous lawn!

Its worse every year--the holes and heaps of dug-up soil on my lawn. At the moment, the mole, and perhaps also chipmunk problem is so far out of control on my front lawn that I'm afraid to walk on it! Its like walking on a soggy sponge with some areas where you can really get a foot caught. I understand its the grubs they're after, but I've tried numerous "cures" that haven't worked from milky spore to camphor to fertilizing to make the lawn very healthy. I suspect the chipmunks are also taking up residence because of the size of the heaps of dirt and some of the holes. If I lived out west, I'd swear I had prairie dogs! I have a well, so I'm trying my hardest to avoid a chemical solution. Any new ideas?

have you tried any of those sonic repellers? You can usually find them in the back of your garden catalogs.

To be honest, I haven't. At this point, anything's worth a try, before someone breaks a leg. While going thru some of the other questions, I also saw the info on nemotodes, which I am ordering today. On another site, I think I may have come up with a good explanation for the really large dirt mounds and holes. I didn't know that raccoons and skunks dug that kind of hole to get at the grubs. So, I'm declaring critter war! Funny thing is, I've never been a grass freak--could care less if its perfect and green. But dangerous is another matter. Thanks for your reply!

Hey ,those holes sound dangerous.

I'm with you on the non-lawn.It's my goal one day to have my space landscaped with zero grass.

Come on over to the Organic forum.I've got some good information for ya.

your welcome. I hope something works for you. It is terrible when you can't walk out in the lawn without twisting an ankle. My lawn up in Port Orchard Washington was like that. We used a chemical but all that did was move the little critters up to my neighbors yard and then he would treat and back down it would come.

Ya know, I have considered letting my weedy grass just go all weeds.* My grass sucks pretty much. But what bothers me most.. is the clumps. I don't know how or why my back yard is so clumpy. The grass even grows in these big tufts or clumps that stick way up, and ya can't avoid them! Makes me want to get a tiller, or a digger of some sort, and level the whole dang yard & start over! Hubby won't let me!! He says I wouldn't be able to do it myself, and he don't want to do it. *sigh*

I have pretty weeds.. they get little blue & purple flowers all over them.

Meg

Duckie: I'll check the organic forum out today. Thanks for the heads-up on it!

TK: Did you ever get your lawn in Washington cleared up? I'm thinking that once I do get these pesky things out of it I'll have to use a heavy roller to flatten things out again to make the ground more firm underfoot, or maybe even add an additional top layer of soil. I sure can't leave it as is.

Meg: I think those clumps are actually weeds, but hey, they're green anyhow. Your little flowers sound pretty. I remember seeing some yards with very tiny blue flowers that gave a cloud-like effect to the lawn. Pretty.

sorry about that.I made a post on the organic forum.Then I got moofed.


Trying again.

The key to getting rid of moles is by getting rid of their favorite food supply, the grub.

Milky spor does not work in most soils as it needs almost perfect conditions for the spor to spread.
A heathly lawn actually attracts the beetles which lay eggs and hatch into grubs.

The best way to do this is by using a product called Grub-ex. It is pretty safe to humans and mammals. This must be watered in within a couple of days after application or it will be useless and have no effect what so ever.

One application will last the entire season, which is good because the grubs are only present during the mid spring and late summer. You can put down the application once the grass is activly growing, but it will not have an effect until the grubs begin to show up. Since the grubs in your lawn will die, the moles will go off in search of them elsewhere. Until then you will just have to live with them.


Hope this helps

Mike

Getting rid of the clumps...

Most of the clumps were crab grass and I put down that weed & seed stuff following the directions on the bag. But I also tore up alot of the lawn around the edges for additional flower beds. And yes it did smooth out quite a bit. The really big clumps of long grass I dug out. I get stubborn that way sometimes.