The presence of raised earth and wilting plants often leads homeowners to blame moles for both tunneling damage and the consumption of their tomato plants. Moles are common subterranean creatures frequently blamed for destroying garden vegetables. Understanding their true dietary habits reveals they are not the ones consuming the roots or fruit of tomatoes. Misidentifying the pest leads to ineffective control methods, allowing the actual herbivores to continue feeding.
The Truth About a Mole’s Diet
Moles are classified as insectivores, meaning their diet consists of soil-dwelling invertebrates, not vegetation. Their powerful front claws and sensitive snouts are adapted for locating and capturing prey within the soil. The primary staples of a mole’s diet are earthworms, which can constitute up to 90% of their intake, along with grubs, beetle larvae, and other insects.
Moles possess a high metabolic rate, requiring them to consume a large quantity of food daily, sometimes nearing their own body weight. As carnivores, moles lack the specialized digestive system needed to break down the fibrous cellulose found in plant matter, such as tomato roots or stems. Their existence is dedicated to patrolling extensive tunnel networks, which function as traps for passing invertebrates. This constant search for protein-rich prey means they are beneficial in controlling garden pests like Japanese beetle grubs.
Why Moles Are Blamed for Plant Damage
Moles are blamed for eating plants due to the collateral damage caused by their relentless pursuit of food. As they excavate tunnels, moles inadvertently sever or dislodge the root systems of plants above them. A tomato plant whose roots are cut or lifted out of contact with the soil can no longer absorb water and nutrients.
This physical disruption creates air pockets around the root ball, a process known as desiccation, which causes the plant to wilt and die. The resulting damage—a dead plant sitting atop a mole tunnel—is often misinterpreted as evidence of consumption. The mole has simply passed by looking for a worm, leaving behind the structural consequence of its tunneling activity. The sight of a wilting tomato plant combined with volcano-shaped molehills leads to the incorrect conclusion that the mole ate the roots.
Identifying and Addressing the Actual Plant Eaters
The true culprits behind consumed tomato roots and stems are other subterranean mammals, specifically voles and gophers, which are herbivores. Voles, sometimes called meadow mice, are small rodents that use existing mole tunnels to access plant roots and bulbs. Vole damage is characterized by irregular gnaw marks about one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch wide on the bark or lower stems, and they will eat entire root systems.
Pocket gophers are larger rodents known for pulling entire plants, including tomato plants, down into their burrows from below ground. Gophers create fan-shaped or horseshoe-shaped mounds of soil that have a plugged or off-center entrance hole, unlike the conical molehills created by moles. For protection against these root-eaters, gardeners can install wire mesh baskets, made of galvanized hardware cloth, around the root ball of tomato transplants before planting. Trapping is also an effective control measure for both gophers and voles, but the trap type and placement must be specific to the target animal.