So I can quite happily live with Mr Mole pushing up mounds in my orchard, but almost along side my patio and across my lawn generally( including my weeds) is another matter. Poison is obviously a none starter and I’d like to be humane so how do I rid myself of them. The daily task of removing the mounds is tedious and long term the ground could become uneven.
Thorny rose stems stuck vertically into the mound / burrow, apparently, is a tried & trusted deterrant
We now employ the services of a mole catcher (human) for our hectare of park. Costs us about a euro/day (payable annually under contract) and we are now basically mole free.
If the cost seems high, this should be measured against the cost of 3 new ride on lawn mower blades every year, damaged by the blades striking the myriad small stones pushed up by the bleeding little critters…
Crikey Graham, I think you should shop around for cheaper mower blades 
They are mulching blades… collecting and disposing of grass cuttings from a hectare of land is an almost impossible task and during the growing season, the grass is cut twice weekly. The blades are fitted by our local repair service who also service the machine annually.
It was worse when we had a 7 gang mower towed behind our David Brown tractor…
They live on worms, so you can take it as a sign of good soil condition. They tend to move on as the food supply diminishes. But attempts to get rid of them are unlikely to succeed because a vacant territory will soon attract a new tenant.
Our cat catches one from time to time and the dog will excavate a couple of metres of mole tunnel the moment I turn my back, only making matters worse!
My best advice is to relax and learn to live with them. Rake over the mole hills and redistribute the soil to fill any hollows to keep a neat appearance and wait for them to move on.
Our plot has been completely flooded the last few winters and they must have drowned in their thousands, but they always come back when it dries out.
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Nuke them from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure
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Fair enough.
We also have a one hectare park which I cut with a large Husqvarna ride on. I too use mulching blades which I fit myself along with the servicing so I understand the cost difference.
As for the furry little buggers I employ Le Detaupeur, avialable from most DIY outlets.
Boom! and gone.
The fields adjoining our park have mole hills but now they rarely appear on the park so I believe we have trained them well.
It’s like having a “keep off the grass” sign for moles 
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Détaupeur works for us too. Tried lots of other things previously. Isn’t cheap though, especially when you’ve got more than one active group.
Le Détaupeur doesn’t work for mole rats though, as their burrows are too shallow.
My neighbour has bought a robot mower and since doing so has had no moles. I still get them from time to time but usually go for the rake and ignore system as although I do use a Detauper occasionally and it does seem to kill the problem a new mole seems to move in very soon afterwards.
I have a Husqvarna ride-on mower and bought my replacement blades for about €7.50 each from a French online supplier. Some maintenance items still cost dear however, the oil filter it needs was 10 times the cost of most of the others sold by the same supplier. None of the others will do as they are too tall for the space where it is located.
We have gites with their own gardens and lawns, and a swimming pool set in a lawned garden. There are some areas I can let moles live in, but feel I have to deal with them in other areas. Having tried everything else, I eventually went back to old-fashioned mole traps. It upsets me - not to mention them - but it works.
Not a “small” mole problem then Mike 
Détauper works every time.
Kites are pretty efficient too. If only I could train a couple…
That’s the field opposite. Ever ready to expand their territory.
Bloody immigrants! Send them back where they come from. . . . .
Isn’t it about now that somone (usually me 
) posts a link to that Jasper Carrott sketch?
I have been chuckling… and thinking about that
So do old-fashioned mole traps - once you’ve learnt how to set them - at a tiny fraction of the cost, either financially or environmentally (I’ve no idea how much mole traps cost by the way - mine are inherited and I guess 40-50 years old - but that’s exactly the point - effectively zero environmental impact - except on the moles!).
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We left our ancient (but excellent) mole traps back in UK… for the new Owner…