How to remove moles from your garden
Posted by Fiona Nevile in General care | 46 comments
I always feel a bit sad when I find a dead mole in the garden. With its soft velvet coat and long sensitive nose, the mole seems such a small loveable creature. The Min Pins catch them and then toss them aside for their human pet to collect. Clearly they are not as appetising as the guinea pig that they killed in the garden and carried into the house for an impromptu bacchanal on a pretty pale yellow button backed chair. But that’s another story.
Occasionally we get an active mole in the garden. They can be a real pest, especially if they are in the kitchen garden. Years ago, when I lived here with just one elderly Min Pin, I engaged the services of a mole catcher with good results. I was under the impression that trapping moles is a skilled countryman’s pursuit.
I am working locally at the moment in a lovely house set in a large garden bursting with wildlife, including an adventurous mole. My clients are busy people with schedules that do not include scratching around in the garden. So I was amazed when the lady of the house pulled on a smart pair of Wellingtons and announced:
“You probably won’t approve but I’m going out to kill the mole.”
Disapprove? Not wanting to get my hands dirty, I had hired an assassin in the past.
Moles do not spread disease like rats but they can wreck a lawn in a few days. Left undisturbed, the mole bongo drums must throb because coach loads soon arrive and you open your door to more hills than the Himalayas.
I watched her stalk across the lawn wearing a pair of marigolds and holding a mole trap.
When she returned she was instantly interrogated. Had she caught a mole in the past?
“Well, yes.”
I was impressed.
She sat down and explained. Moles have a finely tuned sense of smell. Basically the secret is to always wear gloves when handling a trap. Wipe a new trap and put it in the garden to get rid of all human smells. After a couple of days you can set it.
To do this you need to locate the underground run between a couple of molehills. This is easily done using a bamboo cane if the ground is soft. Then, using a slim trowel or ultra fat dibber, make a hole into the run and place the trap. The general idea is that the mole will tootle along the tunnel and into the trap. Within seconds the mole will be investigating that great mole hill in the sky.
The mole in question is clearly a relation of Einstein. She has not been caught. She spotted the trap and turned around sharpish. She is now tunnelling across the paddocks beyond the garden perimeter. The perfect outcome for those who love and those who loathe moles everywhere.
Tricks and tips:
- Mole claw traps are inexpensive. If you cannot buy them locally, scissor type mole traps
are available here. - I was advised in the past that old fashioned moth balls dropped into the runs deter moles. A reader has emailed me from New Jersey to say that it’s a bad idea to put mothballs in the soil as they kill beneficial microorganisms and earthworms.
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Moles in the garden are not harmful as such, but they can make a right mess of your garden by the tunnels and chamber systems they dig. They are attracted to gardens because of the earthworms and other insects that live beneath the soil but they are not harmful to plants and roots – the havoc they can wreak upon your garden is simply a by-product of the kind of lifestyle they lead.
There are several different methods of dealing with moles and ways in which you can deter them from using you garden in the first place.
I’ve been using solar powered mole repellers that I bought from http://www.ukgardendesigns.com
The seem to be working very well, my lawn is completely untouched!
Thank you all Mole Catchers for dropping by.
I’ve employed mole catchers in the past and they have always done the business with traps. Generally they tended to put the dead moles into the runs and this did the trick in days – there were no more mole hills.
Now I have the Min Pins who are pretty good mole catchers. One or two mole hills in the morning means a day of digging and hunting. The bodies are always laid out on the path or me to see in the morning. And this is the hard part. Moles are attractive, velvety creatures. They might have been digging up the veg patch but when I see them I always feel sorry that they are dead. Rather likes squirrels – I enjoy seeing the bound through the trees ut hat to see them digging up my bulbs.
Luckily we don’t see moles alive. If we did you might be out of a job!
Most of the work I do involves catching Moles by trap which I much prefer, however I am sometimes asked to gas.
The problem with gas is not a fault of the product but of the user. It is used frequently by pest controllers who don’t trap for whatever reason. Unfortunately the treatment is often done badly and produces poor results.
A recent client I trapped for had paid a pest controller twice for trapping and twice for gas, neither worked. Why? Simple, the Moles tunnel system ran across three gardens, and the gas was only administered in hers. If the tunnel system cannot be treated in its entirety, it won’t work. Clearly his trapping abilities were just as poor.
Gas is a very effective method if used correctly, much the same as with traps. The disadvantage with gas, is you cannot directly see the results.
With so few Traditional Molecatchers, some people simply don’t have the choice!
There are no ‘baits’ approved for use in britain today.
If you have moles, save yourself alot of time and trouble by employing a traditional mole catcher. As the lady molecatcher in an earlier comment has pointed out, it shouldn’t take long to resolve the problems, and is fairly cheap.
Anyone who needs help or advice is welcome to visit my site: www.uktrapper.com, or the Guild of British Molecatchers who work hard to promote mole welfare and high standards.
Whatever you do, do not employ anyone to use gas fumigant – it is expensive, and unlikely to resolve the problem.
The best success I have had with getting rid of moles is using the bait and applicator from http://www.mole-be-gone.com
Hope this helps!
Living on a small holding,with horses,moles are a dangerous and unsightly visitor.With great sadness at first did i use the devishly fiendish ‘mole depth bomb’.Basically a simple device where a small explosive on the end of wire connected to detonater,set of by movement underneath.Success everytime.
Just got a mole problem this week. Love the correspondence. Just wondered though, if you’re a mole busy in your nice new, or lovely old hole, how do you bump into so as to court, woo and team up with, another mole?? To make it worse, at least half the other moles will be the wrong sex I guess. Any ideas folks?
how deep will a garden/paddock mole be under the surface?
Hi Emma & Joan
I am The Mole Lady of Lancashire.
Have a look at my web site.
www.Lancashire-molecatcher.co.uk
I do not know who your landlord has called in to catch your moles so I cannot comment on their experience but I would expect any mole expert would expect to catch the majority of active moles within 24 to 48 hours.Depending on the area covered there is the occasional mole that may take a few more days to catch.
Its all to do with setting the trap correctly and in an active run.
I have been called out by homeowners that have tried traps from their local ironmongers but set them incorrectly in the tunnel.
I only specialise in catching moles and I am happy to answer any questions if I can on moles if anyone would like to email me.
Its the speed I catch them that amazes my clients.
If anyone reading this has mole problem, email me and I maybe able to give you a phone number of a traditional molecather in most areas over the UK.
I am accredited by the British Traditional molecatchers Register (BTMR)
Emma – Same happening to me and ‘specialist’ has been on the job for a few days now and caught noting. Can see 5 traps from my window. Perhaps they aren’t multiplying just a very clever mole making more runs to avoid traps?