I have been getting upset with my neighbors about all the mole poison. The whole neighbor hood is on mole patrol and using peer pressure to get other neighbors to do the same. If we don't poison all the moles we will have bad lawns....

I explained that the last couple years a pair of owls has been living in our backyards and if poison the moles, we could poison chipmunks too and then we would be poisoning the Owls.

And then the same people who poisoned the moles also told me that they killed two snakes and in about the same breath she started complaining about the chipmunk problem. I mentioned that snakes eat chipmunks. And she said no wonder we had snakes, but don't think she made the connection that I was inferring that she increased her chipmunk population by killing the snakes.

She probably doesn't make a lot of connections.

elly and joepyeweed - many thanks for your posts! sure hope you can change the thinking of some people at least and that they will pass it on.

re; making connections; everyone has learning curves. unfortunately some are slower learners.

i had an endless parade of ground squirrels digging up into my small chicken pen, eating amazing amounts of the feed, followed by rats using the tunnels to do the same. so we concreted the floor of the coop, put a layer of dirt on top and solved that problem.

i was afraid of using the regular rat poisons around this place so i got one that is called Fastrak and doesn't stay in a dead rat to poison any animal or bird that might then eat it ...BUT... it has NO antidote. i thought i was using it very 'securely' only way up high in nailed-to-the-wall gallon jugs, in the rafters of the garages and in our attic.

somehow, in spite of those precautions, one day our puppy showed up with a little half empty Fastrak package, and we spent two days AND nights giving him charcoal every 4 hours, after the vet pumped his stomach and gave him emetics. that whole thing was frightening and hard for all of us, but the vet made big bucks. (i have since found out that ingesting charcoal doesn't help.) Our pup was lucky, wasn't poisoned, but i sure learned my lesson; NO poisons at all here now! i use a little hav-a-heart trap for rats and put the whole thing in a garbage can of water to drown a rat. (keep it under the water for at least 10 minutes!)

we have no lawns at our place and the moles only plow around under the dirt and don't really bother anything at all. i have taught the dogs not to dig them up because i figure they are only doing their natural jobs. min