It seems like all around the country, every area has its own particular types of varmints committed to ruining the landscape; and plenty of Caddy Shack type characters committed to doing in these lawn wrecking, garden eating Al-Qaeda of the underground. As a kid in Connecticut, I remember woodchucks (like Punxatawney Phil); 
and the mess they could make of a hay field. Here in the NW we have moles. No one has ever seen one of these creatures (just kidding---but have you ever actually seen one?) but all night long they raise havoc with the lawns of homes and golf courses. They leave little mounds of dirt everywhere as they excavate miles of tunnels under the lawn. The only recognized method of getting rid of these little creatures is trapping---considered quite difficult. Flooding the tunnels, fumigation have not proven to be effective.
If you want to "try" and get rid of these nuisance pests you should call a licensed pest control company----I have no idea how to do it. I do have to deal with their "work" sometimes though. Like the other day I went to check the compartment that contains the back-flow valve for the property. (I'll do a blog about these devices at another time but just suffice it to say for right now that if you have a lawn irrigation system you most likely have one or are supposed to have one.) Here is what they look like. They are usually behind a cover like pictured on the left, and usually look like the device in the picture on the right.
At this point you are probably wondering what this has to do with moles.
Well, moles like to make their tunnels undetected. What gives them away? The piles of dirt all over the place. What if they had a place to put the dirt?
Very often I will find these compartments or the water meter compartment entirely filled with dirt by these little earth movers. As you can see in the next picture, this is what I saw when I lifted the cover of the compartment pictured (above left).
Holy Moelie!
Where is Bill Murray, alias Carl Spackler, when we need him. In the words of Carl: "I have to laugh, because I've outsmarted even myself. My enemy, my foe, is an animal. In order to conquer the animal, I have to learn to think like an animal. And, whenever possible, to look like one. I've gotta get inside this guy's pelt and crawl around for a few days."
Charles Buell
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Holy Cow..... that is amazing how they filled up that compartment .. TO THE TOP !! Thanks for shaing.
Sean Allen
Katy,
We have some feral cats in my backyard and every once in awhile they catch a mole. Sorry to say but they look like this mole from Canada, which also looks like Charlie on a bad day when he digs his way out of the crawl space.
Sean, I was pretty impressed with how industrious they can be.
Katy, they can do soooooo much damage to a lawn
Steve, that is it----you promised not to post that picture----I am calling Carl!
Hi Charlie,
Some years ago, I was in my back yard in Kent and "felt the earth move under my feet." I didn't see any mounds and didn't quite know what to do. Sure wish I had my terriers then--they would have had a ball.
Here in SW Fl we have the Armadillo's that dig at night along with the possums.
The armadillos dig for the mole crickets and the possums (Opossums?) dig for th eheck of it.
Joseph, such a funny movie----love it.
Kim, we are the "intruders" in so many areas on the planet aren't we?
Bridget, sure don't want no Armadillos---I imagine you could loose a leg or your children down one of their tunnels:)
Melissa, Katy, here is the link to my new blog with more info about these critters: http://activerain.com/blogsview/418513/This-Mole-Hill-IS
It truly is amazing how much dirt those little critters can move, and how much havoc they can raise with homeowners hell-bent on having a 'perfect' lawn. Still, the picture of the box filled with dirt makes me shake my head and laugh.
Hi Chris, you must have been doing some digging yourself to find this old blog:) Glad you enjoyed----and welcome to Activerain.