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Has anyone had any luck catching these, humanely? They are WRECKING the grass but I really don't want to kill the little blighters, as daft as that may be. It's just grass, after all. Suggestions, accusations of non manlyiness, numerous anecdotes, and links to Jasper Carrott sketches all welcome (nay, expected!).
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As a boy my dad would sit in the garden with a shotgun. When the grass started to move he let rip. Worked!
Optimistic bump for the evening crowd?
We're also being overrun, with some huge molehills erupting each week.
I haven't tried anything to remove the moles - I just stamp down on the molehills whenever I cut the grass. It just seems like it would be too difficult to do anything about the moles.
However, I did speak with a gamekeeper-type chap a few weeks ago, and he said something about finding the last molehill which appears, making an imaginary line between it and the nearest water source, poking a rod through the ground half way between the last molehill and the water source, and then inserting a trap.
Along with the moles we also have a rabbit problem, although they seem to be under control now that a stoat has moved in. Then there's the problem of the sheep and cows which sometimes make their way in and make a right mess of the ground. I'm not a gardener, but even so it can be quite demoralising at times when molehills appear along with burrows and hoof print indentations.
You could try mole repellent granules
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There is a product called rezist that can be used as a repellent, but is professional use only ,it is the same active as scoot fox repellent available at garden centres
Never heard of a humane way to catch them. And why would you anyway? Wherever you release it the bugger will be doing more damage. I did catch one once, so I buried him alive. That'll teach him 🙂
My grandad used to clear a lot of west Cumbrian farms of moles ,using traps.
He used to take me too. 🙂
Deejayen's gamekeeper isn't far off...the mole hill will have a tunnel running through it.
Use a stick to find it ,about a foot from the mole hill ,prod the ground until you feel the hollow of the tunnel.
Cut the sod out above the hollow. Place trap. Cover with sod .
Come back in the morning and peg out the mole. Success rates increase if the trap doesn't smell of human and if you can smear a mole over trap( chicken & egg bit) prior to burying it.
If you get up really early you can see the hills being created. Sometimes the largest hill will have a nest in it. Those , if you are quick ,can be lifted with a spade and then the babes are helpless . I've only seen this a few times and it put me off tbh. Poor moles. They feel soooooo velvety.
That's because moleskin is velvety 🙂 It is prized as a fabric because it always feels smooth which ever direction it is stroked. This is because the moles have to be able to move forwards and backwards along their burrows in equal measure so need hair which moves all ways. Or they can be naked like those really ugly mole rats in Africa
Put glass jars facing down in every molehill. They'll bugger off soon enough.
Talpex trap, humane in that they kill quickly, much much better than your normal scissor trap.
Make hole in run, place trap in run, back fill all around/over the trap with soil from mole hill. Mole thinks run has collapsed and drives in to clear it triggering the trap which is powerful enough to kill the mole through the soil.
They will keep coming back though.
Poke a hole in the run and ram some fresh dog berries in. They hate it.
I'll maybe look at the Talpex trap.
Is it possible to say how many moles are likely to be in an area?
Is it possible to say how many moles are likely to be in an area?
1, they are solitary and very territorial, they only leave their area to mate. They do tunnel a lot each day though so 1 mole can do a lot of damage.
Do not use "humane" traps. Moles eat about 1/3rd of their body weight in worms every day, and dehydrate quickly. So unless you sit there watching the trap constantly then by the time you get to it you've got either a hungry, stressed and dehydrated mole, or a dead one, neither outcome is humane.
Do not release moles off your property. For one thing it's illegal because they're a pest, secondly you've just released a hungry, stressed, dehydrated mole into an others territory. They will fight, and your mole will lose, so it's dead anyway (again, not humane). Even if there isn't another mole, they store worms in a worm larder, so it'll probably starve/dehydrate before it finds enough food anyway.
TLDR : Just kill it, there is no "humane" option.
Sorry, but I had to do this 🙂