And the mole never returned, the horrible odor of napthlene driving it away to another part of the yard. Since my industrious little mole is merely 7 inches long and weighs less than 6 ounces, I have to admire its ability to move a heavy stone that I didn't appreciate lifting. These insectivorous mammals are fascinating creatures that actually do more good than harm in the garden. Researchers estimate that a single mole can eat between 50 to 80 pounds of insects per year. This is because a mole must eat at least its weight in food daily, or it will die.
Moles are especially fond of earthworms, unfortunately.
And when a mole happens upon more earthworms than it can consume at the moment, it stores them in a cache. The mole will bite off an earthworm's head, twist it into a knot and push it into a cavity in the soil. A single mole can store several thousand earthworms this way. Even if it doesn't eat all the worms, there is no waste. Earthworms regenerate at the head, so they grow a whole new body and wiggle away.