Moles, with their distinctive paddle-like feet, vex homeowners with their unsightly tunneling and ability to dig through your yard in no time. But these solitary creatures are often misunderstood.

I spoke with Roger Dickens, wildlife technical services manager with Ehrlich Pest Control, to get the intel on what you can do to get rid of moles on your property.

How Do I Know I Have Moles?

Easy: When you see their tunnels running through your yard. Moles spend 99% of their time underground, so Dickens says it’s unlikely you’ll see one unless they dig a tunnel that’s too shallow.

“Another sign of mole activity is the appearance of mole hills,” Dickens says. Mole hills are mounds of loose, cloddy soil created by all that digging. These aren’t entrance or exit points; it’s just dirt pushed out of the way when moles dig through the ground.

Other animals, like pocket gophers, also dig tunnels, but their mounds include plugs where the gopher closed the opening. Mole hills don’t have these. Dickens says you can also distinguish moles from voles (aka meadow mice) because voles don’t tunnel through the soil, but rather through the grass itself.

What Damage Do Moles Cause?

Mole tunnels leave soft, raised areas in the yard a few inches taller than the surrounding surface, Dickens says. Their hills can rise up to a foot above the lawn. Dickens says the raised tunnels and mole hills can be unsightly, but any damage to your yard is inadvertent.

Moles are insectivores, looking for bugs and worms to eat. Sometimes moles get blamed for eating plants that other animals, like ground squirrels and mice, snack on. However, soil disturbance can have the accidental effect of exposing roots to air, killing your grass.

If the mole hills annoy you when you mow, or create a tripping hazard, just grab a shovel or rake and redistribute the dirt. You can also step on the tunnels to flatten them before mowing or landscaping. But the nuisances are temporary. “Mole tunnels and hills will collapse on their own over time,” Dickens says.