Uh oh! Moles!

By Erika Biga Lee

Posted April 2, 2025

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Transcript

Y:What's up Don? You seem upset.

D:It's this mole, Yaël. It spends all day digging tunnels and piling dirt on my lawn. It looks like a mini-mountain range.

Y:It's just looking for food. Moles do a breaststroke through the soil with their shovel-like front feet. Can you imagine swimming through dirt for nineteen hours a day? It needs to eat an earthworm or grub every few hours or it'll starve.

D:Sounds like quite a workout. Does it drink a lot of water?

Y:No. Moles don't have to drink at all if worms are on the menu. Worms are full of water. (PAUSE) Have you ever eaten a worm?

D:Not that I'm aware of.

Y:Well, if you had, you'd know they're also full of dirt. So first the mole grabs the end of the worm with its sharp teeth. Then it uses its front feet to squeeze the soil and sand out the other end like a tube of toothpaste. Voilá. De-sanded and ready to eat.

D:Sounds delicious. But I thought moles were almost blind. How do they find enough worms to eat underground?

Y:Oh, they have very sensitive noses. A mole can smell a worm through three inches of clay, and if one gets into its tunnels, the circulating air brings the smell right to its nose.

D:I'm surprised it can breathe so well in a tunnel.

Y:It helps to have extra large lungs. Plus moles have twice as many red blood cells as most other mammals, so it can store more oxygen for when it gets deep in the soil.

D:Well, that's impressive. I guess I'm making make a "mountain" out of a "mole hill."

Mole [Talpa europaea] in the lawn inside the flower garden

(Image by Adobe Stock)

Do you have a mole in your yard spending all day digging tunnels and piling dirt on your lawn?

It's most certainly looking for food. Moles do a breaststroke through the soil with their shovel-like front feet. Can you imagine swimming through dirt for nineteen hours a day? It needs to eat an earthworm or grub every few hours or it'll starve. They don't necessarily have to worry so much about drinking water, however, because worms are full of water. They're also full of dirt, so how do they avoid eating dirt?

First the mole grabs the end of the worm with its sharp teeth. Then it uses its front feet to squeeze the soil and sand out the other end like a tube of toothpaste. Voilá. De-sanded and ready to eat. But how can moles, being almost blind, find enough worms underground?

Well, they have very sensitive noses. A mole can smell a worm through three inches of clay, and if one gets into its tunnels, the circulating air brings the smell right to its nose. It helps to have extra large lungs. Plus moles have twice as many red blood cells as most other mammals, so it can store more oxygen for when it gets deep in the soil.

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