# Moles



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Me and the 710 hate gardening....









But this year, we actually spent a little time seeding bare patches in the lawn, feeding the lawn, trimming borders etc and it was begining to look quite respectable









Then a mole turned up about a week ago







. Lived in this house for 10 years and never had a mole before...it obviously knows this is the year to really upset us.









710 likes moles, but not when they dig up her nice new lawn...she's bought a humane trap for Â£4.95 but it's never going to work







....she's tried bashing the lawn with the back of spade for 20 mins....this seems to work but mole just moves off to differerent part of the garden.









So, any ideas from the Forum? Prefer not to kill it at this stage....just catch it and release it some place else.

Cheers

Paul


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

A bit of browsing found this:

When Mole Hills Become Mountains

Bob Stewart

[email protected]

An adult mole only weighs four ounces, and an average population density is only three to five moles per acre, and yet these small furry creatures can incite rage and despair in gardeners and defy all and every attempt to neutralize their activities. Scalopus aquaticus is the eastern mole and the primary culprit among the dozen or some mole species found in North America. Although similar in appearance to mice, moles are classified as insectivores, and are more closely related to shrews and bats than to rodents. They eat meat, primarily in the form of insects, spiders, and earthworms. In this aspect of their lives they could be considered beneficial to gardeners, since they destroy a number of important soil insect pests. However, it's how they obtain their food that's at the bottom of their constant dispute with gardeners. Moles dig blindly through the soil and eat whenever they happen upon food. They have a very high metabolism and must eat a lot, often an amount of food equal to their body weight each day. To eat that much they have to find a lot of food and that means a lot of digging. In average garden or lawn soil a mole can dig at the rate of 12 to 15 feet per hour. The tunnels moles dig in search of food are just below the surface and the digging of these tunnels severs plant roots and causes grass and other plants to decline. In addition to their surface feeding tunnels moles also dig deeper tunnels, called runways, in which they make their nests and travel throughout their territory. The soil excavated from these runways are deposited on the surface in the form of mounds of loose soil called mole hills. An active mole or two can lay waste to a well tended lawn or garden in short order. In the long run their digging may actually improve the soil but in the short term they cause ugly, serpentine yellowing of the grass, ground that sinks as you walk over it, and the loss of prized perennials and bulbs.

A life underground has it's rewards and moles have few natural enemies. The gardener and landscaper have tried desperately to be a potent mole enemy but have seemingly failed in every attempt. Such a failing record however has not been due to lack of trying. Over the years we have thrown everything at the mole, probably including the kitchen sink. Listed below, with a bit of tongue and cheek narration, are some of the control measures than have been tried.

*Poison baits: These are generally uneaten because the mole is a carnivore and doesn't care for peanuts, the most often used bait.

*Tunnel flooding: Moles can run fast and have many escape routes. In nature however floods are a major mole killer.

*Tunnel gassing with cartridges and mower engine exhaust attachments: The soil absorbs gasses relatively quickly and the mole tunnel complex is so extensive there is always an escape route.

*Moth balls in tunnels: Moles avoid treated tunnel and dig new ones, remember 15 feet of new tunnel in one hour!

*Soil vibrating devices, pin wheels and ultra-sonic types: Any strange smell or vibration may initially scare or irritate the mole but they quickly adapt and if your yard is where the food's at, they'll be back, and soon.

*Mole repelling plants: These plants only affect a small area, the root zone of the plant and would have to be planted in large number throughout the yard to be really effective.

*Traps utilizing knife blades and harpoons: These are the most consistent control measures but they take time and practice to use properly. Most traps are placed in feeding tunnels, where they won't catch anything, rather than runways)

*Live Traps (same as above)

*Killing soil insects in an effort to remove food supply: Controlling beetle grubs has been a standard mole control recommendation for years but in most yards there is usually enough non grub food remaining to keep mole happy. If anyone's interested I have a copy of a study that examined the stomach contents of 100 moles to find out exactly what they were eating.

*Shooting: You've got to be very good and usually it's not legal.

*Chewing gum in tunnel: Moles don't chew, remember they're carnivores not bubble gummers; how juicy fruit gum got to be a mole control is a funny story but basically was a hoax that caught on.

*Crushed glass in tunnel: Moles aren't that stupid.

*Gasoline in hole followed by lit match: I hope YOU are not that stupid.

*Stepping on tunnels: This doesn't get rid of moles but alleviates their damage.

*Wire barriers: Moles can't get through, but usually, you end up fencing the moles IN the yard.)

*The Pitch Fork Method: Moles can be killed by conducting a mole watch, but it is prone to accidents and such activity can frighten the neighbors and small children.

*Cats and dogs: Can be very successful but entirely depends on the nature of the pet. Some cats and some dogs are great molers, others could care less.

*The Pet Inevitability Phenomenon: Have the kids name the mole, fall in love with the mole, and within a short time the mole will run into the road and get hit by a car. This seems statistically to work as well as the other. 

*Others: Please list your mole control idea. I'm always on the lookout for new ideas to thwart the mole.

I'll end with a note about castor oil extract or Mole-Med. Castor oil does seem to be a repellent to moles and it can be applied in liquid form over a large enough area to be practical. The problem is in it's residual qualities, which seem very limited. Two or three rains seem to negate the beneficial effect of the castor oil. Obviously the hope is that when the moles leave the area the first time they will take up residence in another yard and stay there, but there no guarantee this is going to happen and the moles will usually return to the original yard. The most consistent control method continues to be trapping. This can be developed into almost an art form.

I remember my grandad used to shove a big bamboo cane down the hole then put a small windmill on top of the pole, one of those ones where a man chops a log repeatedly as the sails turn, the idea was the vivration would drive the moles out. I also remember him resorting to the hosepipe in the tunnel method as well when the windmills proved useless. Our local playing fields were a mole haven in years gone buy and I know the guy they used to use to trap them (he's dead now unfortunatly) used smoke and traps, you put smoke in the tunnel at one end and tried to put a trap at every exit so as to catch them as they ran out. Problem was they always seemed to escape down a tunnel you hadn't seen and in days were back to digging up the village football pitch.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

pg tips said:


> *The Pet Inevitability Phenomenon: Have the kids name the mole, fall in love with the mole, and within a short time the mole will run into the road and get hit by a car. This seems statistically to work as well as the other.


This sounds like our best bet














we have successfully lost 4 cats on the main road in as many years







our kids loved all those cats.


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Try here

http://www.pestcontrolshop.co.uk/acatalog/...the_Garden.html


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Thanks PG









I was looking for those more outrageous old wives tales from Forum members...you know...like "Stand on the mole hill, roll up left trouser leg and pee on a gabbage leaf while holding a rhubarb stalk."









Paul


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## ESL (Jan 27, 2004)

You're never going to belive this, but...

THE MOLE MAN


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

I had to go to hospital to have a dangerous mole removed from my penis....

Wont be shagging one of those again..


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

Silver Hawk said:


> I was looking for those more outrageous old wives tales from Forum members...you know...like "Stand on the mole hill, roll up left trouser leg and pee on a gabbage leaf while holding a rhubarb stalk."


 I have heard that dancing around the mole hill at sunset in the nude whilst offering the blood of a freshly defiled virgin as a gift to the mole god will work. Problem is I don't know any virgins!


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

> Problem is I don't know any virgins


Not in Whittlesey


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

not since Jase the Gigilo came visiting there ain't!


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

I couldn't resist looking this up on the Internet to what mad ideas some people would suggest:

This one will almost certainly get you into trouble:



> Insert one end of a garden hose into the exhaust pipe of a car; insert the other end into the mole run; turn on the engine and let it run for about thirty minutes.


Home made Mole repellent:



> Mix 1 T castor oil and 2 T liquid dishwashing soap in a blender until it is the consistency of shaving cream. Add 6 T water and blend again. Using 2 T of this mix with 2 gallons of water, sprinkle the mole-infested areas after a rain to make sure it soaks into the ground.


Other deterrents included:



> -Mothballs
> 
> -Garlic (maybe only works on Transylvanian Moles?)
> 
> ...


Floral repellents:



> Also several bulb plants are said to repel moles. One is the well-known daffodil. Two of the others are also classic spring bloomers, although not quite as widely known as the daffodil: Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) and crown imperial (Fritillaria imperialis).


Also:



> Deep burial of wire fencing (> 1 metre) will dissuade some moles. Ultra sonic devices or windmills have proved not that effective.


and:



> Get rid of the Earthworms that the Moles feed on. Although this wont do your lawn any good.


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