Kitchen Garden Forum

I've just been down the garden. The mole has finally found its way into my parsnip bed, and managed to tunnel under nearly all of the parsnip seedlings.
I could cry

I'll get the bugger in the end

Dear Caz, i'm so sorry to hear that, i know only to well how upsetting it is to be troubled by moles, quite a few years ago i had huge problems over the allotment with them.

I hope it soon moves on to pastures new.

Caz, get a professional mole catcher to get rid of them! The allotments in our twin village were plagued with moles from the neighbouring field and the mole catcher soon caught them! It's too late for your parsnips, I am afraid, but at least you wouldn't suffer any more damage.

Hi, OH

If I have my way, it will be moving to pastures in the sky!
But over the last few weeks i've spent several hours stood out there armed with a sharp spade, ready to send it on its way, but it seems to know when to keep its head down.

At this rate, it's the neighbours who'll be having me carted off!

Hi Monika

Like the allotments you mention, I think the moles in my garden come from the neighbouring field. I can't help wondering though, even if a professional got rid of them from my garden, how long would it be before another moved in to take its place?

Whoever owns the pasture next to your allotment should be just as interested in getting rid of moles as you are, Caz, so why not work with him/her and employ a mole catcher? If it is a meadow which is mown for hay or silage, getting soil into the hay or silage from the molehills could be dangerous for the animals that eat it, so the moles should really be destroyed. A good molecatcher's effort will get rid of the little beasties for at least a year!

We have had our allotment for about 8 years and never been troubled with moles until last year when my OH built a new bed and filled the bottom of it with manure and topped it with soil. The mole started from one end to the other and completely wrecked it. I had purple sprouting broccoli in it and they went all wobbly but they did live. and we did get a good crop off it. We caught two in the end and, touch wood, we have not been troubled since.

I think the worst problem occurs when, they have young ones, and then these move out a little to find areas of their own.

Gosh, i sound like the portrayer of doom.

Dear OH

Those words of doom have helped me make a decision - I've decided it's time to invest in some mole traps, because this problem isn't going to go away on its own, and is going to keep coming back anyway!

So, can anyone advise me on the most effective sort of trap to get? I hadn't realised there were so many to choose from until I googled them.

Actually, I'll start a new thread for this question, over on the Weeds, Pests and diseases forum!

Dear Caz, i don't really enjoy trapping Moles but i have done as a last resort. When i got over-run with them a few years back i trapped 28 in one year, just off my allotment.
I used the tradditional finger trap, as it's meant to be the most humane, the traps where you catch the moles alive and then release them for someone else to have the problem, are very difficult to catch the mole in the first place.

When placing a trap don't bother putting them in the runs where they are working just below the soil surface. Instead try and find a main run, you can do this by pushing a bamboo or thin stick in the ground around the outside of the plot in firmer ground or a little distance from a mole hill. What you are trying to feel is when the stick suddenly pushes in the soil easily. You need to carefully dig down to open up the run, but not open the run up much wider then it is, then clean any soil out that has gone into the run openings and set the trap. Place tufty grass, trying not to let it fall into the run, round the mole trap to block out the light.
It pays to wear gloves as some moles just backfill dirt into the traps if they can smell a scent on the traps. you may have to move the trap a few times until you find a suitable run.

Hi, OH

Thanks for the advice.

I already have a good idea where the main runs are, but I think I am going to have problems opening them up without all the soil around collapsing because the soil is very light and sandy. But there are one or two places where they go under the lawn - maybe that would be a better place to try?

Anyway, I'm certainly going to give it a go.

Dear Caz, the lawn would be the ideal place.

I don't know if you will feel like me, but i still feel guilty when i have caught one, despite the frustration and anger caused by there damage.

Dear OH

Yes, I know what you mean. I don't like killing things at all - I even prefer to chase flies and wasps out of the window if possible, rather than swat them - but if I want to be able to grow food in my garden, I don't think there's much choice. The mole has to go.
But when it comes down to it, I might have to get the other half to do the dirty work

Like OH says, moles are very sensitive to human smell, so rub the gloves you are using with some "moley" soil and don't wash them or use them for any other purpose between dealing with the mole traps!