Mole limiting

Termites are nasty little buggers. Fortunately – generally speaking – they’re not really much of a problem in this particular corner of the continent, but apparently, that’s all changing:

Not great news.

It’s the moisture associated with humans –  stuff like air-cons and leaking gutters – that is attracting them into our houses and although they’re not big fans of eating wood, “they do destroy it if they find it to be an obstacle”.

Like I said: nasty like buggers.

So what’s the best way of staying safe from these scary, destructive insects, apparently often referred to as “nasty” or “little buggers”?

Here comes Johan’s three point bullet list:

Well, since they’re here for the moisture, fixing leaking pipes seems like a no brainer. And birds and other animals will happily pick them off in the open, so removing vegetation and wood from next to your wall limits their easy access to your house. Sensible.

But then there’s the mole thing. We’ve had issues with moles here at Chez 6000…, and they really are annoying little buggers. (c.f. description of termites.)

And I can’t actually work out what anyone would be using moles for in their garden anyway.

I mean, it’s not like dead grass and numerous small heaps of soil are this season’s goto looks for your lawn, is it. Oh Emm Gee – that SOOOOOO 2017!

So what exactly are people using them for? Tunneling for telecommunications cabling? A really small underground transport system for mice? Sacrificial detection of landmines?

We just don’t know. 

I limited the use of moles in my garden by using a combination of phosphene tablets and a sharp spade, and I have had no issues with Harvester (or any other sort of) termites, so it looks like it might be the answer.

From the limited evidence available then, it seems like limiting the use of moles in your garden has myriad benefits, and is therefore something that I would heartily advise.