Well, Dave, I hate to throw cold water on the statement that moles are only carnivorous, but research has proven otherwise, right here in Oregon. An excellent book on the subject of moles is: _Of Moles and Men: The Battle for the Turf_ by Patrick H. Thompson. I quote from his book: "Moore (1933) reported that 57% or 24 of 42 Townsend's Moles contained plant materials. Further studies of stomach contents from 200 specimens of this species taken throughout the year in western Oregon showed that 81% of those animals consumed no less than 200 to 1800 mgs of vegetation, a quantity which could hardly be considered incidental. The average mole in that sample consumed 7% earthworms and 28% vegetable matter...." and later: "Oregon moles also eat varying amounts of vegetable matter including grass roots, root vegetables, and small grains. - Wick and Landforce." and again: "The Townsend's Mole eats tulips, tigridias, bulbous irises,. . . and these often form substantial portions of its fare. Of 45 stomachs of this mole analyzed in the laboratory of the Section of Food Habits, Fish and Wildlife Service, 25 contained vegetable matter varying from a trace to 100 percent. - Silver and Moore." and under the heading "Do Moles Really Eat Bulbs?": "What of the most ossified bone of contention concerning the diet of moles? Why, the palatability of bulbs, of course. Under field conditions, Moore documented the avidity of moles for tigridias. . . . In a study of commercial tigridia planting near Smith River CA, Moore found that 600 bulbs were consumed during a 10-day period. After two [!!! my comment] Townsend's Moles were trapped in the plots, no further damage to the remaining bulbs occurred. The two trapped animals contained 100 and 94% bulbs in their stomachs." I rest my case. I might add that until I read the book a few years ago, I, too, believed that moles were exclusively carnivorous and that voles were using their runs to eat the bulbs. Apparently that is not always the case. By the way, at our place, we have very sandy soil and the vibrating devices do not work at all for us; we tried several in different locations and acually had mole hills within 3' of a device. We do not have gophers because of wet ground and I do know the characteristics of a mole hole. Ernie O'Byrne Northwest Garden Nursery 86813 Central Road Eugene, ORegon 97402 USA USDA Z. 7B -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of DaveKarn@aol.com Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 9:48 AM To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [pbs] REPLY: Moles and other Geophyte predators In a message dated 12/30/2005 12:12:56 AM Pacific Standard Time, cameron@haznet.co.za writes: We had a serious mole problem in our nursery beds which we have almost solved with an innovation that was not mentioned in any of the correspondence. We came across two varieties of battery powered commercial mole deterrents which work by making sporadic sound impulses which moles find intolerable. <SNIP> I wonder if we're talking about the same thing? Here in the USA, moles (Talpidae sp.) are carnivores and consume only insect larvae/adults, annelids and similar. They don't eat plant material. Pocket gophers (Geomyidae sp.), on the other hand, are notoriously gluttonous diners at the geophyte smorgasbord and can readily decimate most geophytes, especially those with cormous/tuberous/rhizomatous storage organs. Moles don't eat geophytes but their tunneling provides easy access to the larder for those animals that do, in particular, mice. <SNIP> Best, Dave Karnstedt Cascade Daffodils Silverton, Oregon 97381 Cool, wet Winters and hot, dry Summers