What a mole squad. What does a mole eat? Catching live moles

What moles eat worries all gardeners, because it is not always clear whether animals bring benefit or harm. In some cases, animals are beneficial land plot, loosening the soil, eating harmful insects, in others they cause the death of young trees and root crops. In nature, they can be found everywhere in areas with soft soil; in search of food, they often settle on human property - gardens, vegetable gardens, flower beds.

General diet

Moles are insectivorous animals. In nature they eat the same “products” that they eat in gardens and dachas. The main and easily accessible source of food is earthworms. To catch them, moles dig new labyrinths every day at a depth of 15 cm from the soil surface or use old passages. Earthworms are eagerly eaten by the younger generation after a month of growing up.

What else moles eat depends on the fertility of the soil.

The animals eat mole crickets, caterpillars, chafer larvae, and small insects.
Moles have an aggressive disposition. They do not disdain carrion, sick rodents, and amphibians.
An underground creature can use a mouse, shrew, sick rat, lizard, snake, snake, frog as food.

Note!
According to various sources, moles eat potatoes, other root vegetables, plant seeds, roots, seeds, and grain. These foods can be included in the diet, but not as a main course. It's all about a fast metabolism and a brutal appetite. Without food, animals live only 17 hours and cannot withstand hunger. In difficult times, they switch to plant foods, but such a diet cannot last long.

Diet

The mole constantly forages for food and stores itself for the winter. It's all about accelerated metabolism; food is completely digested in 5 hours. The animal has developed its own sleep and wakefulness pattern, alternating every 4 hours. During the day, the animal eats an amount of food that exceeds the weight of the animal itself. During the day, the mole, in search of food for adequate nutrition, builds up to 20 new tunnels. The network of labyrinths covers tens of meters. During the day, the mole loosens up to 45 m of soil.

Interesting!
Other underground animals use the labyrinths of moles and build their nests in them. Having discovered such a tenant, the mole can simply gnaw him to death.

It goes up to 2 m deep, but the optimal location of the main passages is 100 cm. The width of the network of intricate labyrinths extends to an unlimited distance. Entrances and exits on the surface of the earth are marked by soil tubercles - molehills.

Feeding the Cubs

The mating season for moles begins in April and lasts until the end of May. Pregnancy lasts about 30 days. The younger generation is born in June-July. Very rarely does a female give birth to two litters in one season. She gives birth to about 9 babies at one time.

In the first week of their existence, they weigh no more than 5 g, are naked, toothless, and absolutely helpless. For 3 weeks, the diet is exclusively milk. The female carefully looks after them, takes care of them, and protects them from enemies. At the end of the month, young moles begin to eat worms and larvae, and after 60 days they reach the size of an adult animal and are capable of strangling a mouse, lizard, or snake.

Winter nutrition

With the onset of cold weather, moles do not hibernate and do not go deep underground. The animal is not afraid of cold weather; its thick, soft fur protects it from the most severe frosts. The main enemy in winter time- hunger.

The animal spends the entire warm season making supplies for the winter. In most cases these are earthworms. The animal bites off its head and places the prey in a special chamber. In the cold season, the mole continues to dig tunnels, looking for beetles, pupae, and larvae. Periodically builds labyrinths under thick snow.

Interesting!
The total lifespan of a mole under favorable conditions is about 5 years.

Harm or benefit

Moles love soft, loose soil, moderately moist. In most cases, they grow in gardens under shady trees, in nature - on the forest edge, near swamps, in fields. In early spring you can notice molehills in the garden.

At their summer cottage, the animals feed on insects, which helps people fight pests. Moles destroy the larvae of cockchafers, which are difficult to deal with, mole crickets, and drive away shrews and mice. However, with the intensive construction of passages and tunnels for their own food, they themselves become unwanted guests and begin with them. During construction, animals disrupt the root system of trees and interfere with the growth of root crops and any crop.

Although the underground animal feeds on insects in the garden, it can also reduce yields and cause significant harm to crops. using special means - gas tablets, folk remedies, constructing, stretching, using. These are not pests that need to be mercilessly destroyed, but it is worth getting them to move in before the new planting season.

For many years, summer residents and gardeners have been indignant at the appearance of moles on their plots, and as soon as a person discovers traces of the presence of a mole, he immediately begins to look for ways to fight the mole and remove it from the plot. As a rule, such behavior on the part of a person is due to the fact that he, as a gardener, is afraid for his harvest, because it is believed that moles feed on potatoes, carrots, beets, do not disdain garlic, and so on. But is this really so? What does a mole eat and what is it like?

Contrary to the opinion of the overwhelming majority of gardeners, the mole is a carnivorous predator, as evidenced by its external and internal structure: the mole’s digestive system is short and its metabolism is fast, which is why the mole is forced to constantly search for food, and eats food comparable to by his own weight. The mole has well-developed front paws and claws, as well as well-developed incisors and fangs, which also indicates that the mole is a mammal.

It is noteworthy that the mole is the smallest predator of all existing (the average individual reaches from 5 to 20 centimeters in length and has a mass of 150-200 grams), but despite this, it is the most voracious of all mammals. If we apply the feeding style of a mole to a lion, then the lion would have to eat 150-200 kilograms of meat per day, which is equal to the average weight of a lion.

But the best proof that the mole is a meat eater is the conclusion of scientists, which they came to by examining the contents of the stomachs of moles. It turned out that moles feed, for the most part, on worms that live in the soil.

It was also recorded in the experiment that moles can feed on various kinds of insects and their larvae, invertebrates, and in general, they can eat any animal that is smaller than the mole itself. The mole consumes the bulk of its diet on the move, while digging a new passage in its underground mine.

It is also worth noting that a mole’s diet depends on the biome of its habitat. Thus, moles living in the forest love to eat ants that they come across on the way, as well as the larvae of various insects, because there are much more of them in the forest than in the summer cottage.

A mole living in a field focuses its diet on insect larvae and adult insects. However, if a mole lives in soil rich in sand, then its diet is limited to only worms, because it is rare to find an insect or slug in such soil. This is why moles, for the most part, try to avoid sand-saturated soils.

What do moles eat in winter?

In winter, moles’ lifestyle practically does not change, because they spend most of it underground, and not on its surface. Moles do not hibernate, like bears, for example, and their diet remains virtually unchanged, except that the content of beetles and insect larvae in it decreases, and the content of worms increases. After all, in winter it is quite difficult to find insects; they appear mainly as pupae hidden deep underground.

And there are a lot of worms in the ground throughout the year, with the only difference being that in the summer they are actively
move, and in winter they are in suspended animation. Moles also sometimes store worms for the winter, storing them underground. This is helped by the peculiarities of mole saliva, because it contains an enzyme that paralyzes the victim, so the mole may not be afraid that the worms will crawl out of his warehouse.

Moles are often brought to the gardens of summer residents by the abundance of insects and invertebrates that live in the soil, roughly speaking, the abundance of food, which is by no means grass. Also, a mole can be brought to the garden by any place of constant accumulation of moisture. For example, a garden bed, the owners of which do not skimp on daily watering, which is why it is constantly in a wet state. Thanks to this place, the mole will be able to satisfy its needs for water, which is why it strives to dig a path to this particular bed.

Pest or not?

Does it make sense to drive moles out of your area? Before answering this question, it is necessary to analyze the pros and cons of the appearance of moles on the site.

So, the advantages include:

The fact that moles contribute to loosening and increased aeration of the soil cover.
The fact that moles eat all the pests that can live in the gardener’s soil. All possible grasshoppers, mole crickets and even field mice are safely eaten by the mole.

But no matter how many advantages there are in the appearance of moles on the site, the disadvantages are much more serious:

These are not all the troubles that a mole can bring, and that is why it needs to be removed from the garden, fortunately, humanity has come up with a lot of ways to do this.

Ways to fight

The easiest way is to fill the mole holes with water. Of course, in this way you can remove the mole from the garden, but only for a couple of hours, until the mole digs a new tunnel next to the flooded one. The second method, more effective than the first, is to put pressure on the mole’s strong sense of smell and drive it out with the help of pungent odors.

To do this, you can use kerosene, mothballs, castor oil and even rotten eggs, anything that gives off an unpleasant odor. For example, you can dilute kerosene in one hundred grams of hot water, wet a rag with it and plug all the mole holes that you can find with it.

But the most effective way to drive moles out of the area is with the help of special ultrasonic devices, which can be bought in specialized stores. The essence of the device is simple: it emits ultrasound, which is unpleasant to animals, which is why moles will be forced to leave the area within the shortest possible time. The only disadvantage of this method is its cost, because such devices are by no means cheap.

The mole is a small underground animal that belongs to mammals and insectivores. distributed throughout the world, loves moist, loose soil, is not found high in the mountains or in marshy areas. Many species of moles have a similar appearance, lead an identical lifestyle. The mole is found everywhere in Russia - on forest edges, in deciduous forests, fields, vegetable gardens, in summer cottages, gardens, and flower beds. The names of the family come from the word dig, dig.

A real mole, which is often encountered by gardeners, gardeners, and wildlife lovers.

The body size of the mole does not exceed 20 cm, the average dimensions are 15 cm. The body is oblong.
The weight of an adult is about 120 g, the tail is no more than 4 cm long.
The muzzle is elongated, the nose with splayed nostrils is clearly visible. There is nothing else that stands out on the head.
Mole eyes with small slits without movable eyelids. , but the sense of smell is well developed.
The fur is soft, thick, short, black. The color on the abdomen is lighter. The tone changes somewhat depending on the time of year. In winter, the wool is the fluffiest and most beautiful. The animal sheds about 4 times a year. A photo of the mole can be seen below.

The mole animal has one striking distinctive feature - spade-shaped forelimbs with long claws. With them the animal digs the ground, screws itself into the passage, and pushes the soil out with its hind legs. In places where holes are dug, mounds are formed - molehills.

The mating season begins in early spring and lasts until the end of May. Around June-July, the younger generation appears. There are about 9 moles in the litter. The female bears for about 30 days. The European mole gives birth only once per season. Carefully takes care of babies for about 2 months. The cubs squeak like chickens and cuddle each other, but already at the age of 1 month they become pugnacious and aggressive towards their brothers and sisters.

The earth mole only appears outside to mate; this happens at night. The rest of his time is spent underground. Digs numerous passages and labyrinths. earthworms, insects, pupae, less often slugs, lizards, snakes, frogs.

Interesting!
The mole builds labyrinths for hunting at a depth of no more than 20 cm from the surface. Earthworms crawl into the ready-made tunnels, attracted by the musky smell emanating from the mole. The animal bites through the head of the worm, immobilizes it, but the prey remains alive for some time.

It is one of the varieties of ordinary moles. Found in the Caucasus and Turkey. Externally, the mole looks like a European one, but is smaller in size.

The average body length of a mole is about 14 cm. Females are smaller than males.
Weight no more than 90 g.
Tail length is about 3 cm.
The eyes are covered with skin and are hardly noticeable.
The mole's nose stands out well on its elongated muzzle.
The coat is thick, black, and becomes brown in the summer.

The Caucasian mole digs holes at a depth of 5-20 cm, leaving loose soil on the surface. In hot weather it goes deeper by 50-100 cm. It also builds a nest there. The main camera is placed under a tree or in a shady area. Numerous passages extend from the mole's nest.

Interesting!
During the day, a small mole loosens about 45 m of soil. In search of food, it builds 20 new tunnels a day. The habitat area of one adult animal is about 1 hectare. The animal cannot stand competition, lives alone, and tolerates the presence of a couple only during the mating season. The territory is marked with a special secret.

Reproduction of moles begins at the end of March; cubs appear in April. They grow up extremely quickly. At the age of 1 month they reach the size of an adult mole, and at 60 days of their existence they leave the family to build their own nest.

A variety of common mole. It differs from its relatives in its large size. Lives in Siberia and Mongolia.

The mole's body size is about 20 cm. Females are somewhat smaller.
The length of the tail does not exceed 4 cm.
The eyes are round, small, and have a movable eyelid.
The muzzle is elongated, with a well-defined nose.
The ears are small, almost invisible.
The mole's shovel-shaped front paws have long claws; the hind paws are similar to rat limbs.
The coat is dark black, but can be smoky, yellow, or brown.
The Siberian mole weighs from 100 to 225 g.

A distinctive feature of this type of mole is its long pregnancy. Fertilization occurs in the summer, but the embryo freezes until spring. Cubs appear in April-May. Pregnancy lasts 9 months. There are about 11 cubs in the litter.

The main food is earthworms, followed by beetle larvae, pupae, and small insects. A Siberian mole can easily gnaw on a mouse, lizard, sick rat, mole cricket, snake, snake, or frog. There are cases of cannibalism. The winner takes possession of the victim's possessions, marking his territory with a special secret.

The second name for the mole is star-nosed. It differs from its relatives by its unusual nose. The stigma consists of 22 soft processes - tentacles. Thanks to them, the animal gropes for food. The rest of the body structure is similar to the European mole.

The mole's body is elongated, about 22 cm long.
The tail is long - 8 cm.
The coat is thick, soft, silky, black and brown.
There are no auricles.
Small eyes are not covered by skin.

The starfish swims and dives well. The mole feeds on crustaceans, slugs, earthworms, larvae, and mollusks. In addition to the underground, aquatic lifestyle, it leads a terrestrial one. It can build nests in rotten stumps, hollows of old trees, under leaves. Prefers swampy areas, soil with high humidity. Often found near rivers, lakes, and swamps in the United States.

Interesting!
This representative of the mole family can easily live in pairs. The male helps the female raise and feed the babies. Unlike other relatives, it is less aggressive.

Representative of Australia, about whose life and behavior very little is known. Body size is about 20 cm, weight up to 90 g. A small tail is 2 cm. Body color is white, pink, brown. The wool is soft, thick, extremely beautiful.

The marsupial mole lives underground, but does not build a huge number of passages or tunnels; most of them are immediately buried behind itself. It seems that the animal is swimming in the sand. Leads a solitary lifestyle and finds the female by smell during the mating period.

Periodically appears on the surface, especially after rain. at a depth of 1 m. Its favorite food is beetle larvae; it also feeds on lizards and plant seeds. It can live no more than 17 hours without food.

There are moles different sizes, are somewhat different in appearance, but lead an identical lifestyle. They are useful animals - they loosen the soil, destroy harmful insects, but when they are very active they cause harm agriculture, undermining the root system of plants in the process of digging tunnels. Farmers are fighting for this, trying to preserve their crops from underground pests.

Finding characteristic earthen mounds, so-called molehills, on their site, summer residents ask themselves: what does a mole eat, who settled next to their home? Does he eat root crops, plant roots, and does he pose a threat to the future harvest? To answer these questions, it is necessary to understand what these underground inhabitants are.

Body structure and distinctive features

The common European mole is found in well-moistened river valleys, in forests, and also near human habitation: in vegetable gardens and fields. This animal is naturally adapted for digging underground tunnels - they have a cone-shaped head, a dense cylindrical body, wide front spade-shaped limbs curved outward with powerful claws, specially designed for moving away the dug earth. A hardworking individual is capable of digging an underground passage up to several tens of meters long during the day.

You can find out that a mole has settled in the garden plot by the appearance of cone-shaped earthen mounds on the soil surface, through which it pushes soil upward, breaking through its underground tunnels at a depth of up to 5 meters.

The underground dweller has practically no vision, but such senses as touch, smell and hearing, necessary for obtaining food, are well developed. Since digging tunnels is a very energy-intensive activity, the mole spends a lot of time replenishing energy. Due to its constant exposure to cold ground, it needs a lot of food to maintain a viable body temperature. In this regard, he has an excellent appetite and in a day is able to eat an amount of food comparable to his weight, which is approximately 30-40 g.

The mole's daily routine is quite simple: most of the day he wanders in search of food, sleeps and eats. He needs to eat several times a day, every 4-5 hours, otherwise he may become inactive and simply die of hunger.

Mole diet

All, what does a mole eat, is located underground. Therefore, almost all year round he is engaged in digging long underground tunnels, called feed tunnels. These are peculiar traps into which spiders, ants and centipedes fall, earthworms and small lizards fall. The mole just has to walk along the dug highways and collect the insects that get there. If the required amount of food is not collected, it digs new tunnels. Therefore, moles are considered small predators, which is confirmed by the structure of their teeth and digestive system. Separately, living tunnels are dug, the so-called nests in which the offspring are raised.

Rumors that moles eat crops are fueled by damage to carrots, potato tubers, and bulbs by the powerful claws with which this animal rakes the ground. When they get to the surface, they can push out the root of a plant or a root crop, which naturally spoils the planting. In addition, mice and voles often use mole tunnels to get to juicy root crops. And ignorant gardeners blame all losses on moles.

But, nevertheless, invertebrates are the main source of food for these animals. Most of all, moles like to eat earthworms. Unlike the shrew, it does not eat or store vegetables and root crops, so all gardeners’ fears that moles can destroy the crop are unfounded. Mole is an insectivore companion of human habitation. Earthworms, about 20 of which can be eaten by one individual at a time, slugs, spiders, woodlice, centipedes, various insects and their larvae form the basis of its diet. Most garden pests, such as mole crickets, beetles, caterpillars, click beetles, and May beetles, are also destroyed by the European mole. He will not disdain small vertebrates - a lizard, a small frog, a field mouse, a shrew.

Oddly enough, moles do not hibernate in winter, but only lead a less active lifestyle, digging fewer tunnels, feeding on earthworms stored in abundance since the summer. Moving along the passages in the summer, this animal bites through the nerve center of the earthworm it encounters, which paralyzes the invertebrate, preventing it from crawling away. When stocking up, this animal eats the heads of worms and stores the remaining carcasses in storage facilities specially dug for this purpose. In addition, mole passages built in winter attract invertebrates that have fallen into suspended animation with warmth and a specific smell, which replenishes the mole’s menu with fresh food. In winter, the diet of these animals also includes beetle larvae, butterfly pupae, shallow-overwintering wasps, and hornets.

Moles: harm or benefit

Why do gardeners and gardeners dislike moles so much? The fact is that although this animal does not eat crops growing in the ground, in the process of digging tunnels the roots of garden plants, berry bushes, and trees are damaged. And heaps of disturbed earth on a well-groomed lawn do not look at all aesthetically pleasing. In addition, by eating a large number of earthworms, moles harm the garden plot.

On the other hand, having a mole in the garden also brings benefits: it loosens the soil, filling it with oxygen, and destroys harmful insects. And given that these animals prefer to live separately from their relatives, driving them away from their territory, the benefit from one individual can outweigh the harm resulting from its life activity. In addition, by getting rid of a mole, it is impossible to guarantee that the vacant underground housing will not be occupied by something no less harmful to humans: a mouse or a wasp.

Therefore, each gardener decides for himself whether to get rid of such a neighborhood or close his eyes and not pay attention to the minor inconveniences caused by these generally harmless animals.

Even small children know that this animal does not see anything. Older people know that the common mole is a soil mammal. In this article we will look at how this little animal lives, what it eats and what it does.

Common mole. Description

Representatives of this species can live in forests, fields, steppes and meadows. The European or common one (Talpa europaea) is often found. Where he lives is always dark, which is why he has no eyes. Although some individuals have small organs of vision, the only function of which is to distinguish light from darkness.

How did it initially become known that the common mole is a soil animal? People were prompted to this idea by piles of soil on the surface of the earth. These are the so-called molehills. While watching them, we discovered this animal. Later, while studying it, the person determined that the mole had no vision. At the same time, the animal has developed other senses that make it possible to use smell, touch and hearing to a significant extent. His ears are located inside.

Special constitution

The common mole is a small animal, only 10-20 centimeters in length. There is a tail located behind its body. Its length is 2 centimeters. In addition, the structure of the body also allows the mole to move underground without interference. Its skin is covered with smooth, short fur, pleasant to the touch. It does not interfere with turning and backing away in dark passages, due to the fact that it grows upward and not backward. Most often, the animal has black fur, although sometimes there are exceptions in the form of ash or brown shades. But still, the fur is not immune from damage. After all, a mole has to move in a confined space.

Reverse

In order to restore hair in time, these animals shed 3-4 times a year. They acquire the most beautiful fur after the autumn molt, which begins at the end of October. In winter it grows taller and thicker, and in summer “relief” sets in again and the coat becomes shorter and thinner. The animal's muzzle is elongated and covered with sensitive hairs.

It is known that the common mole can “walk” backwards. It has this ability thanks to the vibrissae growing on its tail. He has a special tool that makes movement easier. The common mole digs underground passages using its paws. If you look at it closer, you can see that they are wide, powerful, equipped with strong claws. The mole works with these “shovels”, moving in endless underground tunnels.

Prose of life

Nutrition

The mole is called a pest because, moving underground in vegetable gardens, it gnaws the roots of plants, which then die. But it is a mistake to think that this animal eats greens. He is far from a herbivore. ordinary? He is an insectivore. The mole eats all representatives of invertebrates that come across its path: mollusks, larvae, worms, slugs, millipedes, woodlice. It happens that he gets lizards, mice and frogs. This little guy is a terrible glutton. This is not surprising, since small mammals have to eat a lot to maintain body heat. He consumes an amount of food equal to his weight per day (60-100 grams). In winter, he eats what he managed to store.

Increase in numbers

The common mole strives to leave offspring, like any other creature on our planet. For this purpose, the male mates with the female. This usually occurs in March or April. After a month, the female brings forth offspring in the amount of 4 to 9 cubs. Initially, they are not covered with hair, are very small and require constant care. Therefore, the mother stays next to them until the moles reach the age of 1.5 months.

Mole's house

This animal not only crawls underground. He arranges a house for himself, which he covers with dry grass. In addition, the purpose of the moves that the mole makes varies. One by one he makes his way to a watering hole, food and his nest, while others serve as invertebrates. The common mole makes its home at a depth of 1.5-2 meters. Most often, housing will be located between roots or under buildings. There are no restrictions on the depth of passages that form a multi-tier system. If the soil is loose, the mole can go down 100 meters. The “corridors” dug by him are preserved for a long time. If they are not destroyed by other animals or people, several generations of moles can live in them.

These animals work with their paws at high speed, so there are a lot of winding passages underground. An obstacle for them is “heavy” soil. The mole has a particularly bad time during drought. It may even die if it fails to crawl through a dried-out area of soil. The common mole makes traps for future food products shallowly. Interestingly, its smell, which repels predators, attracts worms. They crawl into the passages he makes, where they are usually eaten. Other animals, such as mice, also use wormholes. And shrews often penetrate feeding passages specifically to eat worms.

Do nature and people need them?

If such an animal exists, it means there is some benefit from it. Not everyone will be able to determine what it is. Especially those who have summer cottages or live in their own house. Such people know that a mole is a pest. By making passages, it damages plants that may die. Molehills spoil the appearance of lawns and lawns. Their activities reduce the amount of nutrients beneficial to the soil. The owners are trying to get rid of such an unpleasant neighborhood. For this purpose, both modern and folk remedies, they try to do everything to make the mole leave their area. But at the same time, this animal eats pests and loosens the soil. This means there is still some benefit from it. The main thing is that he works away from the household plot.

It’s hard to imagine who would have come up with the idea of sewing a fur coat from moleskin. The creator of the first such product probably came up with this idea because of the softness and silkiness of the animal’s fur. Yes, such fur coats look attractive, unusual and exclusive. But they are expensive. Other products are made from such fur. We can say that this is how a person takes revenge on a mole for ruining his gardens.