Moles ... and more moles!

[Ricard with an H]

This is nothing short of amazing, to catch all those moles within an acre would be unusual if you believed everything you read.

[The Mouse]

I'm still finding it hard to believe myself, Richard.

By now, any young ought to have left their nests (if those books are to be believed!!!), so I can only suppose that the ones I am catching now are those youngsters looking for their own territory. In other words, every time I 'remove' one, another moves in to take it over.

What I can't work out is why I am having so much success catching them this year, when my efforts in the past have been pretty dismal.

[Ricard with an H]

What I can't work out is why I am having so much success catching them this year, when my efforts in the past have been pretty dismal.

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, when I decided to catch moles I became obsessive. More so when I didn't catch any and they kept filling the traps with soil. In the case of the scissor traps, on one occasion the trap was filled with soil, sprung then pushed out/upwards.

I still have ten traps, five of each type, maybe, when I caught up with all my repairs and painting and the Pembrokeshire banks heavy-growth has been cut down and if I managed a bit of leisure time i'll take-em on again.

Moles don't appear to have caused any root damage that i'm aware of where they are tunnelling amongst things i'm growing and the sea buckthorn isn't showing any signs of distress so i'll leave them be.

Are you trapping moles just under grass ?

[The Mouse]

Are you trapping moles just under grass ?

No. All my traps have been set in the beds, amongst the fruit and veg that were being ruined.
I don't have a lot of lawn any more, and the moles don't do a lot of damage to it. For that reason, I have concentrated my efforts elsewhere.

Actually, that's not quite true. Last week I sat out on the lawn and after a while my chair tipped over backwards - one leg of the chair had gone through the turf into a mole tunnel. The hole it made was such a perfect fit for the tunnel trap that I am usually reluctant to use that I couldn't resist setting it. However, I think that tunnel is out of use at the moment. No signs whatsoever of movement there in the week since I set that trap.

[Ricard with an H]

All my traps have been set in the beds, amongst the fruit and veg that were being ruined.

Oh.

I hadn't even considered trying to trap in the beds. I assumed the soil would be far to loose to support a trap-situation. My beds are probably over-planted and the sea buckthorn trench is only a little more than a spade-width. The moles tunnel up and down the trench and around the roots.

I need to give this another coat-of-looking-at.

[The Mouse]

I reckon it's still worth a try in your beds, even if they are overplanted.

My own garden soil is really fine and loose, but surprisingly I have still managed to make trap-sized holes into the tunnels - though sometimes it does take several attempts before I make one that a trap will fit snuggly into.

In the front garden, the moles are amongst the closely-planted strawberry plants (where some plants died because their roots were left dangling in thin air), but I have still managed to set traps between plants.

I work on the basis that if the moles can make tunnels that don't instantly collapse (which they can!), it must be possible to get a trap in too!

If you give it a try, let me know how you get on

[Ricard with an H]

My own garden soil is really fine and loose, but surprisingly I have still managed to make trap-sized holes into the tunnels

Even more respect to you, I really must give this more thought.

[The Mouse]

Number 18
(No. 8 from front garden - exactly same hole as last one caught)

[Ricard with an H]

You encouraged me to have another go, I found a perfect tunnel-size for the tunnel trap, placed it carefully, eased back the turf that I had carefully cut and torn so it would go back.

Next morning, same thing. The trap was full of soil and presumably mr mole was laughing his hat off. Our local catcher wants £70 but his guarantee only extends to two weeks.

[The Mouse]

I have a theory - the soil might not be from Mr Mole trying to be clever, but from him deciding to dig under/around the trap because he has felt an obstruction. If your tunnel trap is anything like mine, it will have a sort of metallic hoop at each end, designed to guide the mole in to where the killer hoops are. I have only had success with tunnel traps when I have made sure that the trap is perfectly aligned so that those guide hoops are flush against the floor of the tunnel (and as close to the walls as possible too), so Mr mole doesn't really notice them.

But as we have agreed before, it might just be that my moles were not as bright as yours!

I haven't come across any new digging in my garden recently, so have my fingers crossed that this is currently a mole-free zone!

[Ricard with an H]

I haven't come across any new digging in my garden recently, so have my fingers crossed that this is currently a mole-free zone!

Mine are going mental right now. Taking the mickey comes to mind.

[Ricard with an H]

Do any of you know anyone who has tried these mole-bulbs ?

http://www.chaselink.co.uk/Pics/GA149/W ... timole.jpg

[Westi]

Yep Richard - didn't work!

Westi

[The Mouse]

Only a week ago I was about to post an update on here saying that this year it looks like my garden is a mole-free zone. Then a hole appeared!!! I set a couple of traps and caught the culprit and hoped I'd nipped the problem in the bud, but I've just found more holes this afternoon. It looks like it might be a repeat of last year . The only difference this time is that I don't think that they had bred in my garden, but are now coming in from a neighbouring garden in search of new territory. Either way, the battle is on again

[Ricard with an H]

My hero, if you lived closer you could be my guru.