Yesterday afternoon in the newsroom, there was much talk among the gardening fanatics about the nuisance of moles. I could easily segue into an entire topic on just raccoons alone (yes, they are back... yes, they ate my cherries AGAIN. I swear I will never bake another cherry pie from that tree...but I digress).

So Managing Editor Karen Peterson was telling me about her mole problem. Then crime reporter diva slash green thumb girl Stacey Mulick chimed in on how frustrated she is with the little monsters.

Stacey and I had a shared moment where we were just in complete unison that moles... are evil little beasts.

For Karen, her mole dilemma is very focused on the ugly hills in her yard. For Stacey, the moles (she thinks) have destroyed her tulips. For me it's the evil raccoons. But that's another post, entirely.

We started talking control methods. Short of blowing them with dynamite (yes, we did go there, in conversation at least), it seems nothing works.

Stacey and Karen have both tried something similar to these things (for the lazy folks who don't want to click on the link, it's a spike that makes a beeping and/or weird little sonic noise, allegedly to scare away the moles). Have you tried them? Did they work for you? Stacey and Karen gave these beeping stake thingees big thumbs down. In fact, Karen told me that the moles seemed to take the spikes as a personal challenge and she could see the mole pathways straight to the spikes. Those are some aggressive and unruly moles.

Tell us, wise readers, what have you done to control moles? Get rid of them successfully? Is dynamite the clear solution? Post a comment here, let us know.