How to Get Rid of Ground Moles With Dawn Soap

You may not realize you have a mole problem until you step in a molehill and sprain your ankle while walking in your yard. Ground moles are burrowing rodents that spend most of their lives underground, popping up occasionally and leaving unsightly piles of dirt behind. For each visible brown molehill in your yard, the moles may have dug hundreds of feet of underground tunnels while looking for food (grubs and earthworms, mostly). Not only do these brown dirt piles make your yard look like a mess, but they also damage the grass and soil. To get rid of moles humanely, use a simple lawn treatment that does not harm the moles (or you and your family, including pets), but will convince these meddlesome diggers that your yard is not the place for them.

Pour 4 ounces of castor oil and 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid, like Dawn, into the bottle of your garden sprayer. Add water to fill the sprayer to the top and shake very well. If you don't have a garden sprayer, you can use a powerful spray bottle (though it might take more work on your part to spray your entire yard).

Coat your lawn with the mixture. Be sure to give it a thorough coating and get the mixture in every nook and cranny to make sure the moles don't find a missed spot to hide in. For large lawns, a sectional approach may be necessary to adequately coat the lawn and break up the job into more manageable chunks. If you run out of solution, simply mix another bottle and go back to spraying until the entire yard is covered with a coat of the solution.

Fill in the visible mole holes with dirt, soaking the dirt fill with the dish detergent mixture. This will ward off the moles while eliminating those annoying molehills littering your otherwise well-groomed yard.

Repeat Steps 1 to 3 after about a week, filling in any new holes. Most of your moles should be gone, but a second soaking will ensure that any remaining moles hightail it out of your yard and don't return.

Repeat the application as needed if mole activity reappears and you notice new molehills cropping up in your yard. Spray the lawn at least once with the mixture early each spring to deter moles and prevent them from moving into your yard.