Ground Mole Species and Info

Ground Moles

Moles are ground-dwelling carnivores that prefer to eat insects instead of your garden plants. However, their underground tunnels can ruin your garden and lawn and make easy access to your plants for other rodents. If you have a significant invasion of moles, it may be a sign of trouble. Moles are usually found where the soil is rich in organic matter. Their presence in unusually large numbers might be due to a high population of soil pests. It, therefore, serves as a warning that all is not well with soil life.

Breeding

The breeding season for a mole depends on species but is generally February through May. Males search for females by letting out high-pitched squeals and tunneling through foreign areas.

The gestation period of the Eastern (North America) mole (Scalopus aquaticus) is approximately 42 days. Three to five young are born, mainly in March and early April.

Townsend moles mate in February and March, and the 2–4 young are born in March and April after a gestation period of about one month. The Townsend mole is endangered in the United States and Canada.

Coast moles produce a litter of 2–5 pups between March and April.

Pups leave the nest 30–45 days after birth to find their territories.

*Did you know? Moles can tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide and will reuse oxygen inhaled above ground to aid in longer survival underground.

Mole Damage and Activity

Moles are surprisingly small mammals for the amount of damage they can cause. In motion, they swim underground, using wide front flippers to part the soil as they go. They prefer moist, loamy soil and are most active

in the early morning or evening in the spring or fall.

Moles have the distinguishing characteristic of a hairless, pointed snout. Their small eyes and ear canals are concealed by fur, and they do not have external ears. They have very large and broad forefeet with webbed toes. Their hind feet or more narrow and have slender claws. They are usually about 7 inches in length and weigh about 4 ounces.

*Did you know?

Moles can

dig up to 18 feet an hour!

Mole Diet

A mole's diet primarily consists of earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil. The mole runs are, in reality, "worm traps," the mole sensing when a worm falls into the tunnel and quickly runs along to kill and eat it. Because their saliva contains a toxin that can paralyze earthworms, moles can store their still-living prey for later consumption. They construct special underground "larders" for just this purpose; researchers have discovered such larders with over a thousand earthworms in them. Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut.

The star-nosed mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow.