MOLES

[landyandy]

is it just me. or as anyone else seen a huge increase in moles this year

 

[cold_feet]

Judging by the number of molehills appearing everywhere, there must be a population explosion!

 

[landyandy]

that's what I was thinking, they are blooming everywhere

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I've caught 7 since xmas eve, ruddy things are STILL making a damned mess of my paddocks, never ever had so many before!
I reckon there are at least another 10 working hard :mad3:

 

[HappyHollyDays]

My orchard looks like the surface of the moon with mole hills and craters everywhere and I regularly sink into the runs as the ground is so soft. The two hunting cats do a good job of catching them and we do find dead moles on the lawn and then I feel guilty as they are so soft and furry.

 

[Amirah]

Please can you send them over here, moles are wonderful for drainage, free tunnels.

 

[jumbyjack]

Must have something to do with mole bombs being banned and rightly so. Round here it costs £3 a mole to trap them, it's a time consuming job! There are hundreds of mole hills in the fields some are so big I hope it's a multi mole hill otherwise I would not want to meet the occupant! I caught one once as it popped its head our of a hill, for such a small beastie the strength was incredible, I let it go PDQ!

 

[Asha]

My cats have done a great job, caught 4 in a week. Much better than the Mole man, it took him 3 weeks to catch one. We seem to just get the odd visit now, word is out that Bob and Bert are in a mission !

 

[concorde]

I commented to my OH as we drove out of the village this morning that there must be a new race of super moles. The mole hills are HUGE and they are everywhere!
Some people's horse paddocks looked seriously wrecked by the damn things.

 

[irishdraft]

Yes i have mole hills all over my hay field & just about everywhere else !

 

[frostyfingers]

Quite a few years ago we had the most phenomenal amount of mole hills in our 1 acre garden and they were huge, we filled the best part of 4 8 foot x 4 foot raised veg boxes with the soil. We got the mole man in and I said there must be loads of them he said no, probably only one as they are very territorial. He caught one - and it wasn't particularly big either - I really thought it was going to be huge!

 

[cowgirl16]

My field is like mole city! Has been for years. And like another poster - some of the hills are HUGE! These critters must be the size of Jack Russells!
P.S. Don't ever handle these little monsters - our son was badly bitten by one - in disgust he handed it to the cat. Moley promptly latched onto cat's paw. Cat went berserk trying to shake the thing off!

 

[landyandy]

does anyone know the most effective way to get rid of them

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Must have something to do with mole bombs being banned and rightly so. Round here it costs £3 a mole to trap them, it's a time consuming job! There are hundreds of mole hills in the fields some are so big I hope it's a multi mole hill otherwise I would not want to meet the occupant! I caught one once as it popped its head our of a hill, for such a small beastie the strength was incredible, I let it go PDQ!

£3 per mole to trap? Around us I've checked on the internet & the mole catchers charge £10 per mole.

does anyone know the most effective way to get rid of them

Mole catcher. You can buy various gadgets to try & catch them or scare them away but they don't work. A professional 'Master Mole Catcher' is the way to go. There is a Master Mole Catcher website & you can find a catcher through that.

 

[EventingMum]

We spent several hundred pounds towards the end of last year on removing moles from our smallish garden. The mole man tried gassing them twice with no effect and then resorted to traps eventually catching six moles. The last few days there are four new mole hills on the lawn I want to try to keep them away as I really don't want them spreading into my fields.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Toby Z, 10 a mole? Round here its about 60 to 90 callout, then 40 per mole for agricultural land or pony grazing.

I must learn to be more efficient at killing the burgers

 

[RaposadeGengibre]

does anyone know the most effective way to get rid of them

Ferret poop in the tunnels.

Last couple of years we had been inundated by moles until I shoved crap from ferret hutch into the tunnels as much as I could. /after that I only watched them around fence line and next door's garden
This yea so far so good (fingers cross)

 

[Buddy'sMum]

Toby Z, 10 a mole? Round here its about 60 to 90 callout, then 40 per mole for agricultural land or pony grazing.

Yikes £5 a mole here.

I've got one run in one of my summer fields but the rest of my fields are clear so far but my farmer neighbour's fields are a mess (he only does anything about his moles when all his neighbours gang up and shame him into it every few years).

 

[MDB]

Moles all over my paddocks. Everywhere. I am in Spain. Never seen this many before. Looks like poo piles everywhere!

 

[cowgirl16]

does anyone know the most effective way to get rid of them

This method will depend on the size of the paddock - a few years back I rented a 10 acre field. In one corner of the field (the only flat part that I wanted to use for schooling), there were several mole hills. Feeling there was nothing I could do about getting rid of the little ******* - I carried on using it. Anyway, the grass was getting a bit long, so we got the old ride-on mower out and went over and over the area till the grass was like a golf course. We kept mowing it on a weekly basis as the grass was growing fast. No more mole hills appeared! I've no idea why. Others said it may have been due to the noise and vibration from the mower. We kept mowing that corner of the field till I left to go to another yard, and never saw another mole hill.

 

[Adopter]

Not only have I mole mountains this year but also badgers are rooting around every night and removing all my bulbs from the wild areas! I usually can see evidence of the odd mole run but have to agree this year they are very active, wonder if the mild weather so far has anything to do with it.

 

[Mike007]

Have you tried pumping gasoline down the tunnels ,It sort of worked in "caddy shack" Lol

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

The little bleeders are going along a fence line at the moment. As for the badgers.....they have wrecked my nice flat schooling spot in a dry area of the only field I can ride in.

My eldest needs some shooting practice!

 

[Mike007]

Just sharin............ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4xuZMpmXtc

 

[Amirah]

I don't get all this mole hate, they provide really good drainage (like expensive 'mole' drains) and aerate the ground. Just kick the hills over while you're poo picking.

 

[scats]

I'm fed up of trudging over to to piles of what I think looks like poo when I'm doing the field, only to find it's a bloomin mole hill.

They are cute though (the moles, not the hills)

 

[ohmissbrittany]

Where can I get a salty mole-hunting cat??? I need like 3.

 

[D66]

Copied from snowycel's thread a while back cos Im rubbish at typing and it's late.

Our moles are allowed the field but not the lawn.

day one
rake all mole hills flat.

day two
put traps in two or three of the mole hills and rake any others flat.

day three
check the traps, move them to the most recent and central molehills, rake any others flat.

repeat day three until no more molehills are created.

Take comfort in the fact that having moles means you have healthy soil supporting worms and bugs that the moles eat. They patrol the tunnels to find their meals. The really messy times are when they are looking for a mate.

We have one (at least) in the garden atm but it's sticking to the flower beds and long grass areas so is safe for the moment.

good luck.