In praise of mole hills

Our garden in Monmouthshire is the first one I have tended with moles in residence. They are everywhere; in the garden, the meadow, under paths, and sometimes in the borders. Worst of all, I think their tunnels may be contributing to the leaks in the bank that holds the water in the pond.

If having a perfect lawn was important to me, I would be frantic at the mess they make and anyone who feels like that has my sympathy.

However, I have started to observe the effects and patterns of their digging, and even done a little reading. As a result, I am seeing this potential pest in a new light. Other than the regular mole-hills and squishy areas of lawn that almost turn my ankle, they are not doing much damage. I have not found any precious plants dug up or undermined and the mole-hills get squashed down and the grass regrows quickly enough.

More importantly, the presence of moles means that the soil must be full of life for them to eat. In turn the moles are aerating the soil and improving it’s structure, which will help even more invertebrates thrive as well as improving drainage.

Now the important bit for all you bee-fans: the patches of exposed soil provide nesting sites for many solitary bees that would otherwise be unable to get through the tough grass layers. I spotted several different bee species using flattened mole-hills last summer (evidenced below).

In the meadow, I am using the mole-hills as seedbeds in my attempts to increase floral diversity (much easier than trying to dig into densely thatched grass).

I have no idea how many moles we have. They are highly territorial and each has its own area so it is difficult to work out numbers but there are several distinct areas of activity. Strangely there is one mole that seems to follow our bird feeders as we move them from tree to tree as part of our avian disease prevention measures. I can’t find any research on this phenomenon but if any of you have any information, please get in touch.

The moles are very welcome here, along with all the other wildlife and I would encourage you to tolerate them if you have them.