MOLES ARGHHHHH?!!!

Hi Chez, I will be watching this thread with intrest, and passing on any good tips to my Mum, she has at least fifty mole hills like you say, Bomb site!!! , she has been battling with them to no avail for years, after trying everything, at her wits end she even took to putting her dogs pooh on top of them, that just made them dig more hills as they wouldn't then use the hills with the pooh on.

Hi Cheryl

I know what you mean about moles.  I remember having them in my parents gardens, and the back field of my parents house all those years ago.

At that time my dad used to smoke them out.  It was legal to kill them in the 60's, but not so now.

Now these days if I had to deal with Moles,  I would be inclined to get in a professional mole catcher and remove them that way.  Just think if you do not remove the ones you have got from your lawn area, they will multiply and you will have a bigger problem each and every year.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MOLES

The mole's breeding season is from February to June each year and litters of young will leave the nest at 5 weeks old. Moles often damage the roots of seedlings and plants causing them to wilt and die, in addition, mole hills can cause severe damage to machines such as lawn mowers.

• Worms are the mole's major foodstuff and each mole must find around 200 worms a day to survive.
• Moles can produce as many as 1.5 hills a day, each hill containing roughly 5 litres of loose soil.
• Males and female moles live apart most the year, but in breeding season males dig over large areas in search of a mate.
• Moles can create 20 metres of fresh tunnels every day

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Unknown said:

We have got moles in 4 different places in our garden and it looks like a bomb site especially where the ducks 'puddle' the mole hills before I can get to them.

I have tried every humane method I can think of - sonic devices, windmills and plastic bottles on canes but to no avail. I must admit I hate the darned things with a passion but don't wish them any harm. I just wish they would buzz off into the nearby fields and leave my lawns alone.

Any help or ideas would be gratefully received!!!

Cheryl

Yes I can sympathise. We bought 2 sonic devices which you push into the ground and they emit a loudish buzz and vibrates every 20 seconds and is supposed to scare them off but the little devils just pushed one out of the ground.  I was talking to a man who used to work for Rentokil and he told me that they are haemophiliacs and to just push old hard twigs of either roses or brambles (or anything with hard thorns ) into the holes or tunnels 'cos if they scratch themselves they will bleed to death. I can't bring myself to do that - perhaps I should!!!!

Cheryl

I know they multiply - we have had this problem for 3 years running now and it has got worse and worse. We did get the local 'Mole Man' to come and have a look and he said that traps sometimes work but the best method was gassing. We decided agains this as he said that it is very dangerous even to humans and that nobody is allowed within 10 mtrs whilst they are doing it, also if the gas goes down a tunnel and there is a hole it can escape upwards (if you see what I mean) and anything that gets a whiff will die.  He said it is possible to cover the area with plastic for 3-4 days. We keep chickens & ducks and have cats and dogs and it would be impossible to keep them off the area as it is so large and to be honest we thought it a very drastic and inhumane method so we decided not to go down that road.

The only good thing is that once we start mowing the lawn it seems to annoy them and they dissapear till next December!!

Cheryl

Hi Chez, traps can be affective, at the stud that my stepfather works on they have a chap known as the mole man, he's there full time taking care of the moles, you just have to use a stick to locate which way the tunnels run and place the traps in the tunnels accordingly, he manages to keep the stud fairly mole free it is always an ongoing battle though, he's offered to lend my stepfather traps but my Mum won't have them in the garden because it is not always a quick death, they can sometimes take a while to die, which I think is cruel.

I LIKE MOLES:))))))))))))))

seymouraves said:

 

I LIKE MOLES:))))))))))))))

 Well Chez there is your answer catch them alive and send them to Seymouraves

Sounds like a good idea!!

I like moles - I like them in books, I like them on TV,  I even quite like them in other peoples garden - but when my poor lawn looks like a mud pond I hate the little devils!!!!

I planted a new little silver birch last week and a mole has tunneled up right underneath it and I found it on it's side.  I have lots of shrubs which have died because the moles have excavated around the roots and you don't know it's done that until the shrub dies.

I don't want to hurt them - just put them off my garden, there are lots of fields they can go to and not cause any problems.  If the neighbours could see me they would think I was mad  'cos I stand in the garden next to the latest mole hill and shout obscenities at it - I keep expecting little men in white coats to visit!!!

Chez

Unknown said:

my poor lawn looks like a mud pond 

Apparently, keeping a muddy puddle in your garden is a good way to encourage house martins to nest, so maybe it's a mole-duck conspiracy to improve your biodiversity...