Killing Moles with Marshmallows( Latest Guide)

Moles are elusive underground creatures with excellent tunneling prowess. While they may appear harmless, they can wreak havoc on your garden or lawn, leaving behind a trail of unsightly molehills and damaged grass. Most gardeners are familiar with a few common mole control methods, especially traps and repellents.

However, the use of marshmallows is an unconventional method that has gained immense attention recently. These sugary treats, often associated with s’mores and campfires, are effective in controlling garden moles. This article delves into a few things you should know about killing moles with marshmallows.

Can Marshmallows Kill Moles?

While there are no scientific studies conducted to confirm the performance or effectiveness of using marshmallows to kill moles, there are several proponents who claim this method is effective. Proponents of this theory claim that marshmallows kill moles through slowing down the digestive system process.

Unlike other common methods, such as using traps, using marshmallows is an affordable and straightforward method, since you need to make or buy marshmallows. Using marshmallows is also a surefire way of getting rid of moles in your garden without fearing any bad effects on your kids and pets.

However, the effectiveness of this method highly depends on the tolerance of moles to these sugary treats. Besides, there are no assured chances of success since moles live and stay underground. Therefore, getting them to feed exclusively on marshmallows can prove challenging. Nonetheless, marshmallows can certainly reduce moles in your backyard.

How to Get Rid of Moles with Marshmallows

Follow these steps to get rid of moles in your garden with marshmallows:

1. Clean up your lawn and identify entry and exit points

You should begin by cleaning your yard. While it might be tempting to skip this step, you shouldn’t, as it helps you identify the entry and exit points. Cleaning essentially means clearing all areas in your garden with molehills.

Moles often burrow several access points leading to the same tunnel. Identifying active spots is important for marshmallow placement. To determine if the molehill is active, flatten the hill and check after a day. If the flattened area is raised again, you can be sure of its activity.

2. Remove all possible sources of food

The next vital step is removing all sources of food in your garden. You should get rid of all the items moles love eating from your garden. While removing everything moles eat from your garden is impossible, you should give it a try. This makes your garden less attractive to moles and starves moles already present in your garden. Possible sources of food for moles include spiders, grubs, snails, earthworms, and small insects.

3. Reduce watering on your lawn

A healthy, lush lawn is the goal of all homeowners and gardening enthusiasts. However, you should suspend your ambitions partially when dealing with moles. Note that this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t water your lawn completely. Reducing watering ensures that your yard won’t be damp. Damp gardens are a haven for worms. Therefore, cutting on water supply significantly reduces worms and other sources of food for moles.

4. Choose your preferred type of marshmallow

You can use industrial or homemade marshmallows to kill moles in your garden. Industrial marshmallows contain gum Arabic, carrageenan, and tetrasodium pyrophosphate. Manufacturers also include soy protein, gelatin, sugar, and corn syrup.

On the other hand, homemade marshmallows primarily contain sugar, gelatin, sunflower, and egg whites. Unlike their industrial counterparts, they don’t have CR, GAR, and TSP. That said, which is the most effective option for killing moles?

You should use marshmallows with carrageenan to kill moles in your garden. This is the important ingredient that kills moles. It causes inflammation and bloats moles, preventing normal digestion. Nonetheless, if you want to use homemade marshmallows, include carrageenan in its ingredients.

5. Place marshmallow

With everything set, you should then prepare to place marshmallows in the entry and exit spots. Open each molehill and place two or three large marshmallows. Ensure the marshmallow completely blocks the hole so that moles won’t have space to escape. There are two theories as to why you should seal the hole completely with marshmallows.

First, plugging both the entrance and exit spots with marshmallows suffocates the mole or leaves them starving to death. While this might sound harsh, it is a better alternative than poison. The second theory is that moles will be forced to bite off the marshmallow. Ingredients like TSP and carrageenan will affect their digestive system, killing them.

Either way, killing moles with marshmallows is a popular and inexpensive way of controlling moles in your lawn.

6. Monitor and repeat

You should check the tunnels and mole holes regularly to see if marshmallows have been eaten or moved. If they’ve been consumed, expect a significant decline in the activity of moles in your garden. You should repeat this until there are no molehills in your lawn.

Do Marshmallows Really Kill Moles?

The claims of using marshmallows to kill moles are based on the ingredient profile of commercial-grade marshmallows. As mentioned, industrial marshmallows contain carrageenan, which potentially slows the digestive system of moles, ultimately killing them.

Note that moles have specialized diets of earthworms and insects. They don’t consume plant-based or processed food items in their natural habitat. Therefore, consuming marshmallows significantly disrupts their digestive system.

Main Ingredients of Marshmallows

The main ingredients of marshmallows that kill moles include:

1. Carrageenan

Carrageenan is used in manufacturing plants as a thickening agent or emulsifier. However, this ingredient is known to cause food allergies, bloating, inflammation, and cancer. Placing large marshmallows in mole tunnels means they will eat a lot of carrageenans. Besides not being their natural diet, eating a lot of carrageenans slows down their digestive system. Since they can’t digest it, they eventually die.

2. Tetrasodium pyrophosphate

Most commercial-grade marshmallows also have tetrasodium pyrophosphate. It is an emulsifying agent that can also kill moles. TSP reacts to dirt and cellulose or mineral-based absorbents. Since moles primarily eat grubs and earthworms, this ingredient reacts to their diet inside the body, killing them.

What are the Benefits of Using Marshmallows for Moles?

You should consider marshmallows for the following reasons:

• Safer compared to pesticides – marshmallows are a safer option than using poison and toxic chemicals. It eliminates the risks of accidental ingestion of toxins by pets and kids.
• A cheaper alternative – hiring professional exterminators to get rid of moles in your garden is certainly expensive. Marshmallows are an affordable option, as you only need to buy marshmallows for a few dollars.
• You don’t need to be a professional – any homeowner can use marshmallows to kill moles. However, serious mole issues may benefit from professional assistance.

However, while this method is certainly beneficial, using marshmallows may attract other animals, such as ants, opossums, and raccoons, who love sugary treats.

Endnote

You can effectively control moles in your garden with marshmallows. However, you shouldn’t rely on it to solve serious mole problems. If your garden is severely infested with moles, you should consider harsher methods. This method also requires a lot of patience.