Moles

"Why Moles Live Underground"

Many ages ago there was a man who was in love with a young woman who disliked him and wanted nothing to do with this young man. He tried in every way to win her favor, but with no success. At last he grew discouraged and made himself sick thinking about it.

Then one day as the man sat alone in his despair, Mole came along, and finding the man so low in his mind, asked what the trouble was. The man told him the whole story of the woman he loved, and her dislike of him, and when he had finished, Mole said, "I can help you. Not only will she like you, but she will come to you of her own free will."...more


The damp spring here has meant a wealth of earthworms, and that means good times for the moles. Their tunnels are all over the place. The trail was criss-crossed with them this morning, and it occurred to me that I know next to nothing about them, even though they're as common as, well, dirt. So I went surfing around the Web this afternoon in search of information, and I was a little shocked to find that there are scads of sites devoted to various methods of mole "control"--the polite term for poisoning, trapping, gassing and otherwise tormenting the harmless critters. I know they're considered pests, but geez, I had no idea of the hatred. The little fable above, supposedly a traditional Cherokee tale, was about the only scrap of admiration I could find. Even most of the wildlife sites discussed them primarily as a problem for lawn-obsessed humans. I did find a fairly neutral page here.

Bats, snakes, spiders, cockroaches--they all have their fans, but the mole seems to have no one. So the next time you see a mole mound, spare a kind thought for the little guy. He needs all the friends he can get.




Photo from Wikipedia