Mole Activity in Spring: Why Your Lawn is Being Destroyed Now
The Morning Shock
You spend all winter looking out at a flat, peaceful garden. Then, seemingly overnight, it looks like a construction site. Fresh piles of earth—sometimes five, ten, or even more—have erupted across your lawn.
At Newmarket Pest Solutions, our phone starts ringing off the hook for moles in February. But why now?
Many people assume moles hibernate. They don’t. They are active all winter, usually deep underground. However, as we hit late winter and early spring, their behaviour changes drastically, causing the explosion of activity you see on the surface.
The “Tunnel of Love” (The Real Reason)
While moles dig for food (earthworms) year-round, February to April is mating season.
During this time, male moles stop just pottering around their usual territory. They begin digging extensive, shallow tunnels specifically to find a female. They work at an incredible speed, moving up to 6kg of soil in 20 minutes.
This is why the damage seems so sudden and aggressive. A single male mole looking for a mate can create dozens of hills in just a few days as he expands his search range.
Why Our Local Soil Makes It Worse
If you live in Brandon, Red Lodge, or Mildenhall, you are in the “danger zone.”
These areas sit on the edge of the Brecklands, where the soil is light and sandy.
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Clay Soil: Hard to dig. Moles have to work for every inch.
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Sandy Soil: Like digging through sugar. Moles can tunnel through sandy soil with terrifying speed.
This is why a garden in Brandon might get destroyed in two days, while a garden in Cambridge (heavy clay) might only see a few hills.
Why Solar Spikes Don’t Work
When the hills appear, most homeowners rush to buy “Solar Mole Repellents” or vibrating stakes.
We will save you the money: they rarely work.
Moles are used to vibrations (footsteps, tractors, traffic). If you stick a buzzing spike in the ground, a mole might be annoyed for 24 hours. But because his drive to find a mate or food is so strong, he will simply dig around the spike or push it out of the ground. We have visited countless gardens where fresh molehills are sitting right next to buzzing solar spikes.
The Only Way to Stop Them
You cannot “scare” a mole away permanently. The only effective solution is traditional, humane trapping.
Our Mole Catching Service relies on skill, not gimmicks.
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Locating the Run: We probe the ground to find the main “highway” tunnels, not just the feeding tunnels.
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Professional Traps: We use high-quality scissor or barrel traps placed underground, away from pets and children.
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The Result: We physically remove the problem mole from the territory.
Save Your Lawn Before Mowing Season
The worst thing you can do is wait. If you leave the hills until you start mowing in March/April, the uneven ground will scalp your lawn and damage your mower blades.
Got a mole problem? Stop the destruction before the mating season peaks. Contact us now for fast, effective mole removal in Newmarket and the surrounding villages.