'Of moles and men' column correction

Regarding our column, “Of moles and men,” dated Aug. 5, in which we talked about our battle with moles in our yard and efforts to thwart them while at the same time protecting our pets and wildlife. Unfortunately, we included a word which we did not discover until after our next article had already been submitted. 

The erroneous passage read: "The one alternative that has worked for us is to use a castor bean oil spray, which hooks up to your hose to cover your lawn."

We should not have included the word "bean." What is a castor bean? The castor bean plant (ricinus communis) is typically found in tropical or sub-tropical regions. The beans themselves grow in tiny capsules, which contain three beans each. Every part of the plant is toxic to all animals, including dogs, cats and even humans but especially the beans.  

Though it is doubtful you have raw castor beans or other castor plant material in or around your house, castor oils, made from the beans, is a common ingredient in many household items. If your pets, livestock or even children have a habit of getting into things they shouldn’t, it is best to keep these castor oil-based products safely away. 

So, to sum things up, we made a mistake by including the word "bean."

How we missed that when checking our article, we do not know. As you can see by the photos that we have included, the products we use contain either processed castor oil or castor oil USP with the difference being USP being the designation that it meets the quality and purity standards set by the United States Pharmacopeia.

The USP is an official public standard-settings authority for all prescription and over the counter medicines, as well as other health care products in the United States. When a product like castor oil is designated as “USP Grade,” it means it is of a high quality suitable for food, drug and medical purposes. 

Another fault we noticed was what may have been perceived as a lack of safety instructions. This could be partially attributed to the fact that neither of these two products have any safety instructions included, with only one having a precautionary statement to “keep out of reach of children. This product may be harmful if swallowed and avoid contact with eyes. If contact with eyes occurs, immediately flush with water. Seek medical attention if either occurs.” 

It goes without saying that everyone should always read the warning labels on any lawn or garden care product before using. Most pesticide or fertilizer products warn to keep both animals and humans out of the area covered during application and until the product has dried. Even if that is the recommended safety procedure, we choose not to use any pesticides or other chemicals anywhere they have contact with our animals. 

Please note that there are no such warnings on either of these two products. While one product claims “Harmless to Plants and Animals,” neither product mentions any potential side effects or risks to animal through accidental ingestion and/or what to do in case of accidental ingestion. As always, we hope any pet owner would always have their vet or emergency vet hospital phone numbers handy, or posted where they can easily access it should an accidental ingestion occur. 

In fact, while we have found both of these products to be successful, (Author’s note: these are our results and your results may vary. We have used these products for over 15 years with no harm to anyone, anything or any moles.), we find the application instructions lacking.

If you follow their instructions and cover your whole yard at once you will possibly trap the mole in your yard leading to more destruction. When applying we do it in a three-step manner.

The first step being to spray a simple or light covering starting closest to your house, and then one-third of the total area you wish to cover out from there. Just a light sprinkling will do. We then follow up with a thorough soaking of the just treated area. This causes the repellent to be diluted and soak into the ground which is where you want it.

After several days we repeat the procedure starting at the house, but this time going two-thirds of the way from you or the area you wish to treat. We then follow up with the final treatment a couple of days later, this time covering the entire affected area. What we accomplish by doing this is to force the mole out and abandon his feeder tunnels, while limiting the amount of repellent. 

We apologize for any confusion our attempt to provide a humane way of dealing with moles might have caused, but this can partially be explained by the “word count” we are limited to in our column. We are only allowed so much space and try to do the best with what we are allotted. 

Paws for thought 

"Our animal friends teach us more than we could have expected and love us more than we could have hoped." - Unknown 

Thom Donitz and Trish Lynn are neighbors and close friends, who share their love of animals and wildlife. Trish and Thom are residents of Tumwater. Contact them at  pets@theJOLTnews.com.