Mole hills in lawn

[Jeffjefftyjeff]

We’ve got mole hills in our lawn. I’m tempted to just let them get on with it - DP loves moles and likes this plan. Is this foolish though? Will they take over? Do they eventually move on? In case relevant, our garden is relatively big; long and thin - 50m x 10m maybe? Mostly grass and trees with some veg beds at the end. We love it but aren’t fussy about lawn looking amazing or anything

Don’t do this, they will create a lot of underground tunnels which will attract rodents who will use them , neighbouring plants etc will get damaged and your lawn will become unusable as more and more holes appear

We got home from holiday one year and discovered what a mess just one mole can make in a short time. (We know it was only one, because NDN's cat rather unbelievably managed to catch and kill it, and I found its corpse on our back doorstep). The tunnels go everywhere just under the surface, and the ground tends to collapse into them after a while, making your lawn look horrid and uneven to walk on. I'd try and deter them if you can.

Leave them to it. We have them, along with lots of voles and shrews, and I guess they all benefit from the mole tunnels but other than that they don't cause any problems in the garden, and the mole hills disappear in the summer. As a result of all the tiny furry things we also get birds of prey which is very nice.

Molehills are great as potting soil and if you scoop it up it won't damage your garden in anyway, plus it's cool watching the hills grow if you catch them in the act!

If you like a manicured garden I could see why it would be annoying though.

Moles dig their tunnels as traps for invertebrates, once they've got the network established they patrol them for unlucky worms and the like that they'll either eat right away or incapacitate for later consumption. They're meant to be very territorial and will keep away other moles and will drive off their young when they're old enough to fend for themselves. The molehills are spoil from the tunnels and their home (called a fortress) hole. It may be having established their tunnel system there will be little new tunnelling (and no new molehills). But, this will depend on population density, food availability, soil type and if existing tunnels need maintenance due to collapses, flooding and the like.

Although rodents may use the tunnels, they won't conjure mice and rats up from thin air. It would be existing populations taking advantage. The tunnels will also be used by small predators (stoats and weasels) which can kill rodents and moles.

Perhaps, in the short term, clean up the molehills, reseed any bald bits and see what happens. Then decide how to proceed. It's likely the moles colonised your garden from nearby so removing your current tenants will just leave a vacant territory which may be recolonised.

You could use the mole hills as places to sow bee friendly annuals and biennials - it'll make the clumps look more natural than the way a human would plant them - and the drainage will be superb.