Moles

[SueA]

I don't have a problem with moles (touch wood) but I was reading a 'gadget' catalogue which had a garden section & they were selling Incarvillea bulbs as a mole deterrent. I've heard of people putting mothballs, empty milk bottles & toy windmills in mole holes to deter them but never heard of growing Incarvillea for this purpose. They claim to be effective over a 7m radius & at £6.99 per bulb plus p&p seemed a bit expensive.Does anyone know if this works?

[poultrychat]

Hi SueA

I haven't tried it but have been told it only moves them away a small distance, but I have tried mole smokes to the same effect so now I only ever trap them which I don't really like doing but it is the only effective way I have found

[Nicos]

We have a mole on our plot,but it's in the lawned orchard area rather than where the veg grow. It used to live in the plot next door and has travelled over to us. I'd never experienced the damage a mole can do other than the mole hills on grassed areas until I saw what it did to next doors onions! It (or they) munched it's way through the roots of a whole area and they just died off. They were well established onions too.
We will leave him be at the moment(will regret that decision if it's a pregnant female )and hope it moves on.
We do have a plant which I'll try to identify which grows like a weed and is supposed to deter moles, but it's in the area the mole is living in so dosn't seem that effective. OH pulled up the seedlings last w/end but if anymore grow, I'll collect the seeds if anyone wants to try them out. Pretty plant-reddish leaves-chest height-flowers the same colour as the leaves. Oh... maybe that's another one for Jennie??

[Bugeyes]

A friend of ours inmvested in some expensive gadgets that emit a high pitched noise every now and then to deter moles. You can easily see where the gadgets are as they are usually surrounded by a small crowd of moles laughing helplessly....

[fruit&vegvirgin]

apparently the earth from molehills is brilliant for the garden... lovely sieved topsoil!

[Alice]

Earth from mole hills is also excellent for seed trays. it's what we used in "the good old days" Think I'll start that as a thread. Don't know about any of the mole eradication gadgets being talked about but I had a cat who dedicated her life to their eradication and she was very successful at it.

[JennieAtkinson]

Thank God we don't have moles - just rabbits, rabbits, rabbits ..

[Peter]

I believe Jasper Carrot did an educational talk of the methods of getting rid of moles.

[fruit&vegvirgin]

we have one rabbit - we used to have two, who lived in a cage/run. then one escaped, we spent 3 months trying to catch it with no success at all, and eventually let the other one free as well! they lived very happily in our logpile for about a year, successfully evading dogs, cats and foxes. in fact, all the local cats have come to an arrangement where they pretend this white furry thing is not an animal...
one disappeared about 18 months ago, but the other is still going strong. he's very sweet to watch, and not too destructive, although he has recently discovered a taste for my geraniums that I've just divided.... he also likes to bite my shoes. he will be fed by hand, but you still cant get a hold of him. I wouldnt want to catch him now anyway, he's got a wonderful life!
its funny though, when people walk along the sea wall at the bottom and look down into our field, you can always see them doing a doubletake. we get about 10 people a year knocking on the door, saying 'do you know your rabbit's out?'

god knows why I thought you'd all be interested in all that!!!

[Alice]

Thank you for sharing that fruit and veg virgin. We don't have the rabbits or the moles but we do have the roe deer! and what a destruction they can do. There's practically nothing they don't eat and what they don't eat they trample on. Last year we had 6 marauding the place and they're not the least bit timid.We were forced to put up fencing to keep them out which was successful. Recently 1 has been getting in occassionally but we can't find how it gets in. It gets out in a panic by jumping the fence but I'm sure it doesn't jump in. Need to find a solution very soon or the garden will be destroyed again!

[sewer rat]

If your mole hils are fresh, stand by with a shotgun and if you see the earth move on the most recent hill in the run, give it both barrels - no more mole problems. Guaranteed success - you don't even have to dig up the mole for proof.

[nick the grief]

You can use a similar solution for roe deer, But a rifle is better than a shot gun as it make carving & eating easier

[Shortie]

we have one rabbit - we used to have two

We have a Houdini hamster in our house somewhere...! We've had him less than a year and in that time he's escaped three times, and you know what they say about 3rd time lucky!

First time he got our of his cage, up the stairs and managed to totally avoid our two cats. He came into our room and climbed onto our whicker linen basket. The basket made a noise that woke me up and I thought it was one of our cats having a scratch on it so my OH went to swipe it off to hear 'plop' into the plastic bin beside it. I thought we had a mouse so on went the light, and low and behold there was our hamster! The last time though he was no-where to be found. Don't think the cats have found him as the alwsys leave evidence behind.

I have visions that one day our house will be burnt to a cinder because he chew through the wrong cable or something!

Anyway, back to moles.... a friend mentioned ages ago that there is some chemical you can put on your grass that will seep through and kill them. I'm pretty sure though that it also kills the grass...? Don't know if anyone else knows what I'm waffling on about?

[Lesley Jay]

Ken Muir sells mole bulbs. Plant them in the ground and the moles can't stand the smell of them. www.kenmuir.co.uk

[fruit&vegvirgin]

thing is, though, moles are lovely! am going to start a nature thread I think!