While moles won’t typically eat the vegetables growing in your garden, they will dig tunnels that could destroy your plants and your yard. A mole’s diet mainly consists of insects, which it finds by digging through the ground. In their pursuit for food, moles may dig up your fruit, flowers, or vegetables, leave holes and piles of dirt around your lawn, and their tunneling could eventually make your home’s foundation susceptible to damage. If you’re looking for an easy way to get these pests to leave your property, Tabasco sauce could be the answer.
Home remedies are not always the most effective for getting rid of moles, but by combining Tabasco sauce or hot sauce with other deterrents, you may be able to evict the moles tearing up your grass. That being said, if these animals are causing serious damage to your lawn, it may be best to call a professional pest control agency, especially if DIY solutions have been ineffective in the past.
How to repel moles with Tabasco
When combined with water, peppermint oil, and castor oil, Tabasco sauce can be used to encourage moles to leave your garden and move onto another area. To start making your mole repellent, pour one cup of water, ½ cup of castor oil, several drops of peppermint oil, and a teaspoon of Tabasco into a container and stir to combine. Add a few cotton balls into the solution and allow them to absorb the liquid. Once the cotton balls are soaked, drop them into the moles’ tunnels. You could also leave the cotton balls in areas where you’ve seen the pests or near plants that they’ve been uprooting.
Another way to use Tabasco against these animals is by combining one gallon of water with 4 tablespoons of chili powder, 4 tablespoons of dish soap, and 6 tablespoons of the hot sauce. Rather than using cotton balls, this mixture can be dumped directly into the pests’ tunnels. While the dish soap will help the Tabasco permeate the ground and drive out moles, it might also kill helpful garden bugs or harm some plants.
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Why Tabasco scares off moles in your garden
Moles are often blind, which forces them to rely on their sense of smell to understand their surroundings and locate insects to eat. Because of their strong olfactory senses, these animals can be deterred by substances with scents they don’t like, including hot sauce. While the smell of Tabasco sauce is unpleasant to moles, it will not hurt them, making this pest control method as humane as possible.
For Tabasco sauce to effectively repel moles, you’ll likely have to reapply your deterrents often. As the smell fades, moles might not leave or could come back. Hot sauce is also known to ward off gophers, rodents, rabbits, squirrels, and deer. The spicy condiment is also surprisingly effective as an insecticide. Tabasco sauce repels yellowjackets, ants, and other insects; the capsaicin it contains can hurt their membranes, nervous system, and metabolism, sometimes fatally. By using Tabasco in your yard, you can help make the environment less enjoyable for moles and other pests.
