I have a mole at the top of my garden. The first hill appeared about 10 days ago and the second, nearby, a couple of days ago. Both in lawn.
What should I do? Our garden is intended to encourage wildlife but hills all over the grass doesn't seem to me to be a friendly hello from a visitor. Do the sonic repellents work or do I have to insert a trap in a tunnel and take it far away?
I have to say I had always wondered what the fuss was about (not having moles here!) but have recently visited a cousin up near Cambridge who has moles, heaps are no problem, but walking across her grass was like walking on a water bed it was so undermined. What ever you chose to do just bear in mind that as soon as one mole moves out another will soon occupy the vacant territory, so a sonic deterant may be worth a go, mixed views on here, from wonderfull, to, does nothing at all.
Hope for a really hard winter.
If you want to get rid of the mole read this before you do anything...
I've tried two traps...
sissor traps
I got five traps from ebay for a few pounds each . I probably wasted £100 on ultrasonics and batteries that don't work before I gave up on those. The DEFRA report make clear why they don't work.
Good luck
Large wooden Mallet and a deck chair, sit at night in said chair and wait for heap to start to appear then belt with mallet.
We tried the sonic device with no luck, luckily they/it seems to have moved on this year.
I've tried virtually all the remedies for getting rid of moles from traps to poison to gassing to petrol down the holes etc etc. Frankly the best you can hope for is the particular mole will move on or die. However, if you are surrounded by fields as we are, then more moles simply take their place. They are territorial, so a vacant plot soon gets a new resident.
I've given up trying to get rid of them now. It just means putting up with the lawns looking unsightly and having to walk with caution as the ground is so uneven - a twisted ankle or a fall for the more elderly being a distinct possibility.
On the plus side, fresh mole hills contain lots of really fine soil - ideal for mixing with cheap potting compost from garden centres for potting on garden plants etc.
Give the barrel type traps a go. I've found them very effective (in Belgim and the UK). See my other post.
"CWatters" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
Indeed. Trapping works, and is easy to do. The tunnels are only a few inches below the surface and can be readily located. There is usually a main tunnel with branches; the approx location of the main tunnel can be seen by the line of molehills and the exact location found by probing with a pointed stake or similar. Dig out and clear a very short section [I found a trowel + tablespoon (for clearing the actual tunnel you have broken into) to be useful].
I used scissor traps very succesfully but YMMV. They were of a different design to that linked to on eBay and similar to the 'Sure Grip' design shown here:
I ordered them by phone from a company advertising on-line (but can't remember who) - they are readily available in hardware stores, garden centres etc.
Aside: despite the cuddly image, moles are nasty, vicous, solitary and cannibalistic creatures. They even eat their own young if they hang around too long. Indeed, one reason that poison is effective is that an incoming mole entering a vacated tunnel network will eat the poisoned corpse of the previous occupant. Just thought you'd like to know...
Hope this helps
Like I said, given that they eat worms, hope for a hard winter that kills the worms.
And harms the soil? I don't think, so thanks!
Tough luck, been there done that got the uneven lawn. SWMBO reckoned over thirty mole hills at the height of last summer.....
Forget the sonic repellents, they don't work, and may actually work against you, as does the old wives' tale about sticking windmills in the ground coz they don't like the vibrations. All that does is to tend to bring the worms up close to the surface, so the runs are closer to the surface which tends to make the lawn more uneven.
Had a mole catcher when we had our first troubles some years ago, two or three years with LOTS of pellets dropped down the mole hills into the runs, no effect whatsoever. In the end they just went on their way.
The last lot we had, last summer, was a family. In the end we got them with traps. DON'T use the so-called 'humane' traps, which are supposed to let you catch them live and release them a long way off. Moles need to eat continuously, and will actually starve within two or three hours if they are confined in a trap. Use traps that actually polish them off there and then. Much better to kill them off immediately than let them starve.
Oh, and cats don't work. Ours just sit and look at the mole hills appearing.....
I have had good success with the plunger type -
But I also found that filling in the main run - by lifting up the turf along its full length, filling with sand and topsoil and replacing the turf - seemed to send the moles elsewhere. They certainly didn't excavate the same tunnel again -- although they might just choose another route across the lawn.
Another trick I will try if the varmits come back is to block off the side of the lawn they usually come in (from (the field next door) with some roof slates buried vertically along the lawn edge. They don't like going too deep and may go somewhere else if they can't find an easy route across your lawn.
. . . and our cats reckon mole hills work great as cat-loos! Nice even thin soil in which it is easy to make a little hole for poo or a pee-pee! :-) We watch out cats go from mole hil to mole hill in an adjacent field! "Nah, used that one yesterday!"
Eddy.
They do with me. Very effective although they do get a lot of help from a Jack Russell and a flock of chickens (they will kill and eat moles).
They will come back.
They breed faster than the moles ;-)
...
And they're wonderful at bringing up archaeological debris :-)
Mary
Si, I have given up on moles, I have had sonic do dahs, windmills, sticks poked down the run, traps, and finally a man to come in and use poisoned worms - they are still pushing up the earth - I have learned to live with them - they can stay, I will just move the piles of earth, it is much easier than all the attempts I have made so far to no avail.
innews: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
Agreed. Don't muck about with sonic repellents - ours appeared to work for a week, then ended up in the middle of a faerie ring of new molehills. I tried a scissor trap that I got from my dad, that he got from an antique shop (!), and claimed to have caught a couple of moles with. It got set off twice, but on each occasion was empty. Bought three traps from this lot:
You can't pussyfoot about with moles. Either you decide you're going to put up with them, or you have to get rid with extreme prejudice. I took the benign attitude for a bit, then decided that if I didn't do something, next summer they wouldn't be tunnelling so much as riding about the lawn on little motocross bikes. I'm tripping over the ground just walking to the shed, so obviously took too long to come to this decision.
Regards Richard
innews: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
One of the worse aspect of moles is the unseen tunnels just below the surface. I've had one or two jarred ankles while pushing the mower along and the ground gives way under foot. They sometimes bring little rocks to the surface too which hit the mower blades.
And disturbing the layers!
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