Mole Update No.2

Well the mole hasn't shown much activity recently apart from 2 mole hills, but the little wotsit is digging furiously around our paddock and garden, 2" under the surface and creating a very unstable ground to walk on!

The other week I was trying to buy some 'Victor©' mole traps - a plunger with spikes on - but unfortunately, although they are one of the most effective mole traps in the world, the UK doesn't like them - so there you go, no dead moles!

I did however manage to find another type of trap, which I am trying out at the moment, called a Talpex trap.



I have set them and they've gone off, but no success at the moment - BUT I recently read that to set these babies properly, you have to literally JUST set the trigger - as fine as you can, and also lay them slightly on their side.

I put both these snippets of information to use yesterday, as I went on a flurry of trap setting!

First I managed to find 2 big runs, main runs, in which I set 2 Talpex traps - then I managed to find the main run going from the paddock, under the path, and into our back lawn. Here I placed a humane mole trap, with the hope that should it get scared by the Talpex's going off - it may run into that one instead!



Mole watch is certainly getting interesting - you start to get to know the 'ways' of the mole you're hunting - it really gets quite personal after a while!

Jo says to get a 'Moleman' in to get rid of our problem, but being a normal, typical man, I just HAVE to sort this out myself!

:D

Back to it!

Well, today I received two packages, one containing smoke bombs, and one containing humane mole traps.

The smoke bombs certainly seemed to do wonders - of course they may have just stunned the moles into submission, but who cares when they aren't pushing up as much soil or breaking peoples ankles on their tunnel network...

...WHICH by the way is totally ridiculous! You'd be amazed at how many tunnels these things can do.

Aparrently they can tunnel 4M in one hour...

...that's just over 13 FEET in ONE hour!!

It's not the fact that the tunnels are only about 2 inches in diameter, it's the fact that there are so MANY tunnels, and sometimes they make a sort of junction under the grass, thus making the tunnel into a small cavern underneath - i've lost my footing more than once in these junctions, I can tell you!

So anyway, I got these things in the post this morning, and I will eagerly use them as soon as there is more evidence of moles again - for at the moment everything is quiet on the front line.

I took my mower/tractor out onto the back lawn, and drove around flattening the tunnels and molehills so I would be able to see any new ones, or signs where the little blighter was living and hunting.

So far no signs of life - which may be a good sign that they've moved on.

Of course, it may be a sign that they've decided to breed like mad, then come at me with a whole army of tunnelling little horrors!

Luckily moles are solo animals apart from at breeding time, and very territorial, so I probably actually only have two moles on our land (well hopefully anyway!).

Let's see what happens over the next few days - I'll keep you informed!

Guerilla warfare begins!

Today plans are being drawn up, tactics are being written and equipment made ready for the assault on the moles which are infesting our paddock and back lawn.

This morning smoke bombs arrived - these little babies will be lit and pushed as far down the tunnels as possible, and will coat the inside of the runs with castor oil, which aparrently make the moles move on to pastures new, as it stops the moles from feeding in the treated areas.

I am not looking forward to the next step, which is setting traps for the little things.

First off will be scissor traps, which go in the runs and close onto the furry tunnellers.

The second type of trap is the Dufas trap which is a lot bigger than the scissor trap, but apparently more effective.

I will keep you informed of my progress, but I expect this to be a very drawn out battle, and hopefully... HOPEFULLY I will win the war!