Moles infestation

[Anthony_John_lawton]

Hi any ideas please, I have always had a few mole hills but now they also seem to be running along just under the surface, now everywhere in the garden a right mess. What is the best way to get rid or reduce the activity? I have tried ultrasonic devices and castor oil but no effect. HELP

[Stella]

this link also talks about Moles… you need to go down the posts a bit… you are not the only one being driven mad by these endearing little animals…

Trouble with the gendarmes

No, not the boys in blue but the insects. [gendarmes] These little so and so’s are invading our place at the moment. Interesting little creatures tho’ because they can actually be helpful to us in that they consume other insect eggs and bugs. They very much enjoy hibiscus bushes so it’s not unusual they like us as we have loads of these bushes in the garden. They are members of the ‘punaise’ family, related to this chap. [punaises] These little buggers are more of a pest and the smell they exude when splattered isn’t pleasant so, best to let them live and put them outside maybe. Apparently they can live for up to a year without eating. Isn’t nature amazing ?

[ChrisK]

Our farmer neighbour gave us a couple of traps a few days ago. No luck so far though…There’s a house 100metres away that’s virtually surrounded by them!

[Stella]

Seems this is a terrible winter for moles… or rather… wonderful for moles and ghastly for gardeners…

[graham]

We have over a hectare of land surrounding our house and the pesky little critters were driving us to distraction.
We tried pouring red diesel down the underlying holes (not a very green solution I admit) to discourage them which worked for a bit but then it seemed they just took no notice and continues to populate other runs.
In the end, we decided to bite the bullet and called in the artillery (no, we didn’t blow the whole garden up - although the thought had crossed my mind) in the form of a mole catcher.
Whilst this has cost us quite a bit of money, I think we can offset the cost against constant re-sharpening of the mower blades and our peace of mind looking out on a mole free terrain.
We now have a yearly contract with the mole catcher who charges us in the region of 360€ and makes a number of visits to check on progress.
He is quite adept at identifying live/potential runs and leaves traps between visits.
Success!
We have been mole free for some time now (fingers crossed) thanks to his efforts but are quite aware that the little buggers can return at any time as, due to the expanse of ground and the number of unoccupied runs, the new generation of critters will look to re-occupy existing runs pushing out the soil where it has collapsed causing further hills to develop almost overnight making the whole site look like a WWI minefield!
We’re pleased with the result and will be engaging him for another year to maintain the mole free status quo.

[Bill]

A wee bit of Petrole in the runs works on our patch Graham, “They don’t like it you know”. (Dads Army).

[graham]

…and light the blue touch paper eh?

[JaneJones]

Just in case…are you sure they are moles rather than campagnols? Round our way that’s the main issue. Their life cycle seems to be that every 3rd year or so there’s a pullulation and the population goes nuts. Much tho’ I love wildlife, I draw the line at campagnols. Some of the books say that voles don’t make hills, but french ones do! The local cats are constantly demonstrating this. And these traps are very effective…

https://www.ebay.fr/i/263245659421?chn=ps&dispItem=1&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F709-134431-41854-0%2F2%3Fmpre%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.fr%252Fi%252F263245659421%253Fchn%253Dps%2526dispItem%253D1%26itemid%3D263245659421%26targetid%3D381437353362%26device%3Dt%26adtype%3Dpla%26googleloc%3D1005857%26poi%3D%26campaignid%3D979222036%26adgroupid%3D51206190649%26rlsatarget%3Dpla-381437353362%26abcId%3D1129976%26merchantid%3D116439685%26gclid%3DEAIaIQobChMI3qWhk8KZ2gIV7rvtCh2_dglLEAQYAyABEgI4e_D_BwE%26srcrot%3D709-134431-41854-0%26rvr_id%3D1485715368416

[Bill]

If you could get it to light, you’re a better man than me Gunga Din

[james]

One for @Rob_le_Pest

[Mat_Davies]

I recently had a mole problem in our garden - I bought a trap from. Amazon, watched a video in youtube set the trap and within 4 hours the mole was dead.

Buy a well reviewed trap and research how to set it.

[Bill]

Don’t want to kill them (or anything), just would like them to buzz off, a drop of Petrole works for me, they do get the hint

[phillipcox]

Try the Belgian way… bury them alive

[Bill]

Ho! Ho!

[Helen6]

My singular mole is quiet so far in the garden…no hills…a few inch wide burrows sans hills at the bottom of my “field” which I’m still presuming are voles…Collies mildly interested but no frantic digging them out yet…just “listening” to the earth at the minute…Last night I had one of the farmer’s cats in my back garden…not for long so probably nothing for her to hunt yet…x

[graham]

ever heard of
spontaneous ignition?

      or one dropped fag end

and kapoooow

[ChrisK]

Farmer told us how to set them and like you I looked at a YouTube video to make sure. We had around 17 molehills but since putting the traps in no new ones. Think they’re down there laughing at me.

[Bill]

If you can ignite Petrole, in a mole run, with a fag end, I will be VERY Impressed Graham

[Bill]

Another (humane) deterrent, is (if you have a dog), dog hair in the runs.

[Helen6]

I’ve heard of spontaneous human combustion…I had a book about it once…full of photographs and different theories…very strange…two human feet left still wearing stockings but the rest of the body gone whilst leaving the armchair intact…x