If you’re looking to have a. lush and healthy lawn, then you won’t want to have any moles living rent free in your yard. Moles diet consists of insects because they are insectivores. Along with this, moles can range anywhere from 2 inches long all the way up to 8 inches long, with large front feet used for digging and large noses.
Most of the time you won’t physically see moles because they spend the majority of their time underneath the ground, but you’ll most likely find signs of moles in your yard due to their constant digging. Your lawn or your garden will most likely be the places hit the hardest if you’re dealing with a mole infestation, and that’s all due to their diet. So what actually does moles eat on a day to day basis?
What Do Moles Eat?:
Because you often hear of all the damage moles can do to your lawn or garden, it’s an easy misconception to believe that moles actually eat dirt or soil, but this actually isn’t the case. All the damage that moles cause is because they are constantly digging both to find their food, as well as building their homes! Moles main food sources consist of:
- Earthworms
- Grubs
- Insect Larvae
- Small Beetles
- Other Small Insects
Because of all this digging, moles require quite a bit of energy from food to keep them going on a day to day basis. Moles actually can consume between 70%-100% of their total body weight every single day in insects! That’s the equivalent of the average human eating over 100 lbs of food every single day!
When moles are digging for food they generally tend to dig only a few inches under the surface. They are digging just below the roots of the grass and plants because this is where most of the insects are. During this, they often dig in a zig zagging pattern to help find more food and cover more ground. This is bad news for your lawn and plants because digging right under the roots will often kill your grass and flowers. Moles also have deeper tunnels that they use to live in as well as travel, although these are bad for your lawn, they aren’t quite as detrimental as their feeding tunnels. That being said, the best way to get rid of moles is to use mole traps!
As unfortunate as moles are for your lawn and garden, you do have to admire just how hard these little creatures work for their food on a day to day basis. They have an extremely protein filled diet of insects and bugs just to ensure they have enough energy to dig through the soil. If you are facing a mole infestation, it is recommended that you contact a pest control professional because moles can be extremely difficult to deal with on your own since they are under the ground 99% of the time.
