Moles and what to do.

Evening All,
Warning this is going to be a long thread so please read it all.

Moles,
The first thing you'll need to know is as much as you can about the "Mole"

Lets start with the build up of a Mole, for a start he/she are not blind and never have been,
Their eye sight reacts to bright light, if you think about it the mole lives underground and just like the miners who got into trouble and had to stay underground for 12 weeks the first thing they had to do was have eye protection until they could (a bit at a time) get use to the bright light of day light,

So the mole can see but not in bright light.

Hearing!

The mole has very good hearing, hence many traps that are on the market are designed around sound (much more about traps later)

Smell!

Now this is another one of the Moles very strong points, he/she can smell worms / human scent from a good distance.

What keeps the mole alive?
Worms being one of its main foods plus other insects,

Do moles hibernate?

No, they are active all year, and they work for approx 2 hours non stop per day.

Mole's make and live in their own series of tunnels, they dont share.

Their power in the front "shall we call them claws" is very strong they'll remove soil and this results in the tell tale sign of mounds of earth,

Just a mention here!
This earth is just about the best dug-up earth you could want for potting plants or sowing seeds,

Now we've had a few pointers ref Mr/mrs Mole way of life,
this should give you some ideas as to how to both know the signs (mounds of soil) when they're in your garden and why they are there! "worms"

Over the years the verious companys have flooded the market with all kinds of kit's /traps etc to rid us of the mole population,

Well the first thing im going to say is this "You wont rid the population of Moles"
They we're here long before you or me "But you can controle the mole"

So lets have a look at the verious traps etc.

(1) The windmill sticking up out of the ground idea!

Well firstly if you have a large garden and the grass area has a load of childrens windmills sticking up all over the place!

Its going to look daft to say the least, And i can assure you this method will not work, ive seen mounds of earth next to these windmills.

(2) Glass or plastic bottles dug into the earth so that the neck of the bottle sticks up approx 1 or 2 inch , now the idea here is that the wind blow's over the protruding bottles neck and sends a noise down the mole run
(remember the mole has very strong hearing) and the mole packs his case and re-homes next door (your neighbours garden)

Well not only is this a bad practice if children or animals use the garden
but 9 times out of 10 you'll run over the bottles with the lawn mower!
and you'll have glass or plastic bits all over the top of the area and a very sharp broken bottle just waiting for the feet to tread on it,

(3) The vibrating prod thing thats made to go off every so many seconds,
Im not going to say to much about vibrators except that i know they dont work in the garden and they're not cheap.

(4) Jayes fluid and other strong smelling chemicles,
The idea is to play on the moles strong smelling advantage's,

Yes these smelling chemicles and plants do work, But they only last a short while and the mole can have a series of tunnels going in all directions and to use these smells in every tunnel is really asking a lot,
Once the smell has warn off Mr mole will remove his gas-mask and reward you with a lot more new mounds of earth.

(5) exhaust fumes,
It was the thing at one time to fit a pipe to the exhaust of the likes of mopeds or ride on mowers and again let the fumes drown the under earth.

Two point here, (a) the above ground grass & plants turn yellow because they've just been gased

(b) If you do this method ensure you dont fix a hose pipe or any other plastic type material to your means of getting the fumes from as these pipes melt and could block the engine exhaust and you'll hear a big bang!
above ground so the mole wont be bothered but you will as engine blocks cost a lot more than a good mole trap.

(6)
You'll love this one!

It was a practice of the victorian gardeners to empty the liquid contents of the masters potty (urination or wee wee)

Now most of us have a loo and so if you want to try this method and your a male! then i'd say do it late at night,
because if your seen by neighbours or passing friends on your knees bending down with ----- tool in hand!

How the hell your going to talk your way out of this situation christ only knows
(Honest i know what your thinking & how this may look but im only getting rid of the moles)

But seriously, Urine was used in days gone by, I do know urine on the compost heap works but ive not honestly tried the night time knee bent aiming at the moles hole method (im scared stiff of being seen)

So what works.

Now the two methods ive tried and had good results time & time again are these two,
ones cheap and works the other is a bit costly as far as outlay goes but also works, So lets have a look at these two.

The scissor trap.(CHEAPEST!)
Now this trap has been around for years, and all it is is a metal clamp trap thats like a pair of scissors with a strong spring and a part of the trap that holds the scissor action open via this metal plate "the plate has a hole in it so that the mole comes along and tries to go through the hole and this disengages this metal plate and the spring forces the scissor's to close and this kills the mole.

This trap is the cheapest ive ever bought, it last for years and except for cleaning with a dry cloth "remember the mole has very good smelling so dont use oil or anything that will leave a scent on the trap.

The only way to stop a mole is to kill it!

Method (2)

bullet loaded trap.
Now i won this trap for writing a garden poem a few years ago and so as it was free i thought i'd try it.

It's again a spring operated device but it 's loaded with a bullet thats full of a chemicle and it 's made to make one hell of a bang (remember mr moles hearing?)
Now this really will work, but make sure its out of the play area of children or anyone who's been in a military fighting zone because you dont want to start scaring the hell out of your neighbours and if you use this device i would inform close nieghbours what your doing as you wont know when mr mole will cause this to go off "night or day"

this device is a bit costly but it works, the other items ive talked about cost pennies but dont work, so buy good & buy once.

SETTING THESE TWO TRAPS;

Half the battle is to find a device that works, ive done that for you!

The other half is remembering what ive said ref mr moles life style,

wear gloves 'cotton' is a good material (remember mr moles smelling sense?)
by wearing gloves you wont be leavinbg human skin oil smells!

find the last mound of earth mr mole has dug up, "you can test if the mole is still active in your garden by just removing this soil mound and waiting for 24 hours, and you should see another mound we're the one you removed was!

Now put your fingers down the moles last freshly dug hole and feel for the hole leading to what ever direction he's made the tunnel !

place the set trap so the plate on the trap (1) is in such a possition that the mole will think its part of his tunnel and will just crawl throught the metal hole and the trap will close (ensure the space your putting the trap in is wide enough so it will not have any stones etc to stop it going off and closing tight shut.

Now using leaves (cabbage are a good cover as the mole wont bother ref the cabbage smell, but make sure you cover the complete top ground open hole area so that its dark underneath and no wind etc can alert the mole.

(2) trap 2 is set in the same way except that a bullet will fire directly into the moles face when the spring is released via the mole trying to craw through the metal plate killing it, and just incase he sets the trap of before he enters the metal release plate the gas from the bullet will also kill him.

These bullet traps do work and again you dont need to do anything more than clean them.

Traps are as they say "Traps" and if you decide to use a trap! respect the animal you've killed and check and remove any dead animal daily,
if you dont you'll atract vermin.

Well folks i hope this little lot has helped and i hope you've had a laugh at some parts.

Good gardening to you all.