uk.rec.gardening - FAQs - Moles and Their Holes

Moles and their Holes FAQ

Moles are a perennial favourite topic for discussion on urg. This faq attempts to collate all the various suggestions put forward by gardeners with first hand experience.
Jon Rouse suggested, "We did deter them from the kitchen garden using plastic pop bottles upside down threaded onto the end of garden canes. They rattle in the wind and the canes transmit the noise down to the mole runs."
Judith Lea has been having trouble with them. "I have tried getting them to move to surrounding fields by weeing all over the place, inserted a chirping cricket toy directly in a run, it just came up the other side of it, windmills, jumping up and down all over the runs, in my best gold slippers, and even talking to the mole heaps quite nicely and pleading with them to move on. Even a prayer to the Saint of lost causes has not helped, not even Cormaic's Matrix Medal did a bit of good. I don't want to kill moleys, I just want them to annoy my neighbours."
Thomas Prufer came up with, "One non-lethal method is to quickly dig up moley as he pushes up soil, and carry him in a bucket to wherever he won't bother anyone. I did this once, soon after the moles first came to stay, and found it ridiculously easy. I have since found that I was very lucky. Though I must tell you about the size of the other one, the one that got away...
Several neighbors tell me that this is a time-honored method of mole removal, although generally the aim is to have moley make the Great Change with a pitchfork or hoe rather than to dig him out. They also tell me that the time to look for moley digging is at 11 a.m. and four p.m. sharp (some said five p.m.). This was told with utmost sincerity, though the mole I had got came out without its watch, so I have my doubts.
Ashley Maile offered a remedy from the playroom. "I used to have a problem with moles...... but my 5 year old son solved it for me by strategically placing his windmill on top of the mole hole............the mole was never to be seen again, I believe it is the vibration that scares them off..
Angela suggested, "Moth balls down the hole sends them packing to someone elses garden!!!"

Setting Mole Traps
by Jane Ransom
This section outlines the basic procedure for setting up mole traps in your garden.

Go and buy your mole traps - at least 2.
There are 2 kinds to choose from :
a) A Barrel kind -
good for a deep run but it is difficult to see when it has 'gone off'
b) A Scissor kind -
good for a surface run and easy to see when it has 'gone off'
If necessary, ask how to set them!!!!!!!!!!

Bury them in the soil for a couple of weeks so that they loose their 'human' smell. Remember to mark the spot or you may never find them again.

Use the 2 weeks to observe moley's habits and locate his active runs.

To locate a run use a pointed stick. When you stick it in normal ground it takes quite an effort to push it into the ground. Over a run it will go quite easily or will offer resistance at first then suddenly plunge downwards. Surface runs are visible as they form ridges on the ground, deep runs take a bit of locating.

You know a run is active if, after you stamp it down on one day, it comes back up again next day.

When your traps are ready to dig up, go and find a pair of old muddy gardening gloves and put them on - you must not touch the traps with your bare hands as moley has an acute sense of smell and will smell you on the trap from a mile off.

Carefully dig the earth/sods etc from the top of one of the active runs - just enough to let the set trap in. Feel the direction in which it runs with your fingers and remove any bits of soil which fall in.

Set the trap and insert it into the run so that the mole must run 'through' it.

Carefully cover the hole again by placing grass sods craftily over the trap. Try to exclude all daylight from the run.

Repeat steps 7 - 9 about a foot further along the same run - you would be surprised at how twisty and turny the runs are. Some wiley moles know how to push soil into a trap to set it off and make it safe; others know how to tunnel under a trap BUT they don't seem to be able to count.

Mark where the traps are with poles as you may otherwise lose them.

Check (and reset if necessary) every day.

Be prepared for the dreadful feelings of guilt when you catch your first mole :((

FAQ written by Jane Ransom on 2nd May 1999 from the thread in uk.rec.gardening

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