Typical lawn care consists of mowing and watering, but some folks have to contend with challenging pests. One gardener asked for help on Reddit with how to deal with moles.
With artificial intelligence-generated results muddying many search queries, Reddit may be the most helpful place on the internet. A homeowner turned to the lawn care community on the site for advice about pest reduction. "Has anyone had success putting a plastic garden netting under their sod to prevent moles from sticking their heads up?" they asked.
Moles eat mostly insects and worms, so unlike gophers and squirrels, they won't eat the vegetables you worked hard to grow. The bad news, Gardening Know How writes, is "their mounded tunnels are often used by other burrowing pests … [and] their tunnels can become unsightly when there are enough of them."
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🔘 Mowing the lawn 🏡
🔘 Controlling weeds 🌿
🔘 Keeping pests at bay 🐿️
🔘 I don't have a yard 🤷
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
The OP wondered about a physical barrier, but many gardening pages have advice that will mean a lot less work. Treehugger has several suggestions, including removing their food source from your yard — "look into methods of natural grub control to prevent them from returning."
If grub control is not in your wheelhouse, the Farmers' Almanac suggests, "Placing an ultrasonic device or noisemaker, such as a spinning daisy, is often effective." The above-ground vibrations can annoy burrowing moles, helping to keep them from popping up all over your yard.
The folks on Reddit were skeptical that plastic mesh would do the trick.
One person reminded the OP how sod is constructed, writing: "Your sod will come with thin plastic netting embedded in it, but that's to hold the sod together. Moles will and do eat right through it. You would need a wire mesh that wouldn't rust."
Someone shared their experience, explaining that certain plastic netting has been effective for them: "I have a plastic net under my lawn to protect from moles. It works if you buy the right mole net."
"Plastic seems unlikely to stop a mole," another commenter added.
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