Moles

rutland

Well-Known Member
Can anybody enlighten me on these destructive creatures, I have a really big garden area with nice neatly mown lawns and this year I seem to be inundated with moles. I get them cleared up and then all of a sudden there is active molehills. They seem to be around the area of the previous hills and you can feel the tunnels just under the grass.
I live down a country lane and sometimes you can see them making their way down the verge and I try to get them before they get to me. I can go weeks with no activity then they appear with all their mates.
Has anybody got any advice,
Thanks in advance
 
Don't know much about them but they are ruining my lawn this year and not succumbing to my evidently amateurish attempts to trap them.
 
Got to keep trapping them. Use weathered traps, find the tunnel with a sharp stick, only make a hole big enough for the trap, clear the spoil out of the tunnel or the mole will push this against the trigger and set it off before he goes in. Put a light sod over the trap to keep it dark .Hear of people putting kiddies windmills in the ground, apparently the moles don't like the vibration
 
We had them in a largish lawn - like badgers they seem to 'home-in' on the runs made by previous moles. I've caught several from the same single run. They seem to move overland at night. The problem may have been caused by a reduction in mole trapping on agricultural land, leading to a surge in their population ?
The chap who lived next door used to employ a chap who used worms inoculated with strychnine never seemed bothered about what consumed the moles. I use a brush and sweep the hills away and just swear at them.
 
Got to keep trapping them. Use weathered traps, find the tunnel with a sharp stick, only make a hole big enough for the trap, clear the spoil out of the tunnel or the mole will push this against the trigger and set it off before he goes in. Put a light sod over the trap to keep it dark .Hear of people putting kiddies windmills in the ground, apparently the moles don't like the vibration


This above advice is spot on, I have taken 16 moles out of my own garden in the last 2 years this way and several more for the farmer whose ground I shoot.

Perseverance is key though, keep at em.
 
like most other wild animals nows about the time they kick there young out the runs to make there on way in life hence you'll get new hills poppin up everywhere, they mate in march have about half a doz young in april may, and boot them out about end of june, iv done them on farms and gardens round about me for about 3 seasons now and they are get ridable but you need to keep at them, best you can hope for is to keep them to a minimum and admire there tenacity and remember one mole makes many hills so you prolly don't have as many as you think
 
As others have said, weathered traps. Our farm borders moor and it's a continual battle to keep at the little bleeders!
Imagine a moles run like a tree if you will, he will live at the roots, whizz along the trunk as his highway and then feed at the canopy. The canopy is the abundance of mole hills you see. Chances are he's coming along a ditch, hedge line or fence line. Moles re-use runs, so a newcomer may use an old run! Trap the incoming highway rather than the feeding ground if you can.
 
Got to keep trapping them. Use weathered traps, find the tunnel with a sharp stick, only make a hole big enough for the trap, clear the spoil out of the tunnel or the mole will push this against the trigger and set it off before he goes in. Put a light sod over the trap to keep it dark .

I agree with this but will add try not to clean the hole out with your hands, I try to keep my sent to a minimum on the trap and in the hole.

And the more traps you use the better the odds, (I know this is obvious), last year we replanted a field and it seemed to attract them from everywhere, I caught 31 in 12 acres in about a month.
 
As others have said, weathered traps. Our farm borders moor and it's a continual battle to keep at the little bleeders!
Imagine a moles run like a tree if you will, he will live at the roots, whizz along the trunk as his highway and then feed at the canopy. The canopy is the abundance of mole hills you see. Chances are he's coming along a ditch, hedge line or fence line. Moles re-use runs, so a newcomer may use an old run! Trap the incoming highway rather than the feeding ground if you can.

+1 You need to find their M1 which is usually along a hedge or fence line. A lot of moles use these main highways and branch out into their own territory. I use the Dufus or double action tunnel type trap and have had several double catches on main runs. Don't set where the hills are as they are only tips off a used run,find that, set, and you will catch him, but try and find the M1 first.
 
Don't worry about scent. Contrary to popular belief, moles don't have a great sense of smell anyway. I predominantly use Duffus-style tunnel traps (Not the cheap copies from China! The springs just aren't up to the job) or Talpex scissor traps (again, not the cheap copies). Windmills don't work, nor will those ultrasound devices you can buy. Nor does bleach, mothballs or anything else you might be advised to put in the tunnels. And for gods sake DON'T put glass in them! Yes, I've seen it done! All that'll do is make the mole-catcher you might end up hiring hate you forever.

Probe the ground between the hills until you find a straight length of tunnel (if the run is only just below the surface find somewhere else-three inches or so is deep enough) Open up the tunnel section only enough to get the trap in. It should be a fairly tight fit. Tamp down the floor and walls of the tunnel, and place the trap, making sure you have enough space above it to allow it to operate correctly. I use a piece of matting above the open tunnel, and rebuild a 'molehill' over it, covering the roots of the turf you've cut out to prevent them dying. Then you can clear the existing molehills (don't just try to flatten them as the grass underneath will die.) This way you can monitor for fresh activity, and also have your traps marked in such a way that only you know where they are, and they're unlikely to be tampered with. How large an area the mole's affecting will determine how many traps you set

Best of luck
 
I'm surrounded by moles. Except on my lawn. The ultimate deterrent is children runnig on the lawn, playing cricket, football, rugby, tag. My soil is now so compact there are few worms and fewer moles!
 
On the 7th day, God created the .410 for mole control - many evenings in my younger days on stakeout :D
 
Talunex or phostoxin are your friends

Apart from the fact that they're potentially lethal, they can be very difficult to use against moles, and anyone wishing to use them must be in possession of either a City and Guilds or RSPH qualification.

This reminds me of the time my landlady wandered down and tried to hand me an ancient container of cymag and a teaspoon to deal with a wasp byke. I couldn't get away fast enough!!! :eek:
 
Last edited:
So what do you do with them when you "catch" them?
Do they taste a little like chicken?
We have these fellas.


WOMBAT.jpg
Grant.
 
Apart from the fact that they're potentially lethal, they can be very difficult to use against moles, and anyone wishing to use them must be in possession of either a City and Guilds or RSPH qualification.

This reminds me of the time my landlady wandered down and tried to hand me an ancient container of cymag and a teaspoon to deal with a wasp byke. I couldn't get away fast enough!!! :eek:



Nowt wrong with Cymag. Smells loverly on a damp morning!!.
 
Back
Top