Getting rid of those yard varmints

Tuesday, April 4th 2006, 9:53 am

By: News On 6

You plant your flowers and grass, fertilize and water them and wait for them to grow only to find mysterious tunnels and dirt mounds in their place. If this scenario sounds familiar, you have big problems.

As News on 6 anchor Tami Marler explains, you are not alone.

Featured on the big screen as a cute, cuddly nuisance gophers and moles are the bane of manicured lawns and gardens. Fred Chrisman knows how hard it is to eliminate gophers and moles. He scans The Greens of Coweta, looking for telltale signs. "A mole is where you can see the runs in the yard. So if you see the runs, that's more than likely gonna be a mole. If you see piles of dirt, pockets of dirt, that's gonna be a gopher."

Brian Jervis says it's the number-one caller-complaint at the OSU Extension Office. "Gophers are gonna eat your plant roots, things like that. A mole's gonna eat insects. Earth worms, grub worms, things like that."

While they cause equal damage, gophers and moles are not equal when it comes to their tastes, so use their trails to figure out what you're hunting before you pick your poison. Jervis says, leave the trapping to the experts and forget home remedies. "Chewing gum, but only Wrigley's spearmint. Only Juicy Fruit. Also, they've got exhaust manifolds. You can run 'em in the hole. Lord, we don't recommend any of those home remedies."

"Oh yeah, I've killed 15 or 20 with this." Fred Chrisman says he's spent hours poking along mole runs, hoping to snag the vermin. He might save time by poking small holes in the run, marking them, and checking later to see if they're plugged with dirt. That's how you know where to put the bait.

"They actually run this through their mouth until they feel the smooth part." Brian Jervis says moles go after these poison-infused worms, for gophers, he recommends poison grains. And for the hunter, patience.

He says before you set your bait, it's most important to know what you're dealing with, and where the critters are active. He says you can use castor oil on moles and gophers.