Not Vinegar, Not Dish Soap: The Household Item That Keeps Moles Out Of The Garden

Have you identified signs of moles taking up residence in your yard? Their hallmark mounds of tunneled-out soil hint at their underground activity, and when they get to work moles can damage your lawn quickly. Home remedies such as a vinegar and water mixture or dish soap may deter moles, but these are only temporary solutions. However, just because some do-it-yourself approaches aren't effective doesn't mean you have to turn to pricier professional solutions. If you're searching for a better answer that will actually work to keep moles and their tunnels out of your garden, skip the vinegar and dish soap in favor of a solution that's more effective and may even be hiding in your medicine cabinet: castor oil.

Castor oil is a vegetable oil that comes from the seeds of the castor oil plant. It also has a number of uses around the house and garden — it can help deter outdoor visitors like skunks and coyotes, and you can apply it to sticky shears and scissors or noisy hinges as a lubricant, for example. And if you're hoping to get rid of moles that won't stop digging up your yard with their persistent tunneling (and creating their infamous landscape-wrecking molehills), using castor oil can be an effective way to deter these pesky lawn pests. Castor oil has been found to irritate moles' digestive systems, and store-bought treatments containing it have been shown to reduce mole activity for more than 30 days.

If you're looking to solve mole woes with easy-to-find household items, castor oil may do the trick. To create your own deterrent, mix three parts castor oil with one part dish soap. Then dilute that mixture by adding 4 tablespoons of it to 1 gallon of water. You'll want to soak mole tunnels with this liquid repellent, and you can do this by spraying it onto existing molehills and into their openings with a spray bottle or using a hose-mounted sprinkler. Over time, you'll have to reapply this mixture in the same manner to keep moles at bay. It's also a good idea to reapply your DIY castor oil solution after you've watered your lawn or when rainstorms have passed through your area, as both of these occurrences can wash away existing repellent applications.

If you're not opposed to store-bought mole solutions, you can find products using castor oil or castor beans that also deter moles. These repellents typically come in two forms — granules or liquids — and can easily be applied to your yard's soil and any molehills dotting your lawn's surface. Just note that some research has suggested that the granules may not be as effective as the liquid options, so you may get more bang for your buck if you go with a liquid (or DIY your own solution using the recipe above). Regardless of which form you choose, both kinds of castor-based repellents also require regular reapplication, just like DIY solutions.