I have these small piles of dirt about 3 to 5 inches in diameter in my yard. There are no raised mole runs going to them and they are not gopher piles. In the middle of the piles I've dug down 6 to 8 inches but cannot find the intersecting runs.

I want to set some traps in the runs. How deep should I have to go to find the runs to set the traps?

I don't know about Oklahoma, but in my neck of the woods they sound like gophers or aka ground squirrels or aka 13 stripped chipmunks. My neighbor puts the traps on the ground over the hole. No digging required.

My barn cat usually takes care of them for me. Wife found one of his conquest in the barn yesterday afternoon.

HTH...notnew...

I have trapped gophers in my yard and these piles of dirt do not look like gopher piles. These are small uniform piles where the gopher leaves a horse shoe shaped pile which is much larger.

I don't understand how your neighbor puts traps 'over the hole'. If I clear the dirt pile there is no hole thus I am trying to dig deep enough to intersect the run where traps can be set.

Here's how.

That would work, the neighbours might get a tad bit peeved.

Now, I just found two neat mounds of dirt on my lawn. They are about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and about 1-1/2 to 2 inches tall. Beside each one is a 1/4" diameter hole. These have been dug by a wasp, don't know what variety, but it doesn't look very familiar to me. Needless to say I've sprayed it and the holes with a wasp and hornet killer. Could this be what you are seeing?

I gave up on trapping the moles myself and have hired a mole trapper. He will be back today to check his traps.

Fred, the wasp you are seeing could be a cicada killer. I have some in my yard and they bore a small hole and pile dirt up. Here is a link: Cicada Killer Wasps | University of Kentucky Entomology

Yes, I think you nailed it, Cicada Killer wasps. Thanks for the info.

If they are Cicada Killers, don't worry about them. No need to kill them or do anything as they are HARMLESS to humans. I have them all over my Chicago house lawn this time of year, and you can pick 'em up and do anything to them and they won't bother you. Also, if they ARE CKs, you should be able to see them going in/out of their tunnels, the holes of which are more like 3/4"-1" diameter.

I've posted photos/discussion about these in the past... >>> HERE <<<

Video - watch to end.

And a close up of one of my buddies...

Exceedingly off-topic diversion.... LOL!

I was camping in the forest behind our home over the weekend, and around mid-day, my wife and I noticed a very large insect flying noisily and somewhat clumsily around the site. It landed on a spruce tree. HUGE wasp, about 1.25" long, with translucent black! wings and a huge (3/8" long, 1/32 diameter) stinger. Seemed absolutely oblivious to us, paid us no mind. We noted a half-dozen more over the next few hours.

A bit of googling when home revealed them to be Great Black Wasp, Sphex Pensylvanicus. Harmless unless really annoyed, and somewhat similar to the cicada killers.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/5530

J