Moles

[SueA]

I'm with you FVV, I remember at primary school a boy brought in a dead mole to scare all the girls with & I wanted to stroke it & see if I could bring it back to life!

[blackkitty]

I must agree moles are very cute. We don't get them I think because the soil is very heavy clay. The last place I had them we had a cat that thought that the mounds were the best thing for lavatory purposes. They didn't stay long. I think it counts as a humane method of scaring them off.

[SueA]

The Times newspaper gardener Stephen Anderton recommends a book called 'A Guide To Traditional Molecatching' by Jeff Nicholls (Matador £9.95). I wouldn't really want to catch them though-just chase them away!

[andrewo]

Well the way of catching and culling moles will be officially over soon, did anyone see Country File last Sunday? They are banning strychnine but it is a catch 22 situation, supposedly moles have had a population boost due to foot and mouth, trappers couldn't get into cull them and now there are record accidents, cows falling down mole holes, crops decimated and fields destroyed by the hills. Defra are good to look on, and give advice on moles at:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/rds/publicat...cal/tan_03.pdf

[poultrychat]

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.

Thanks sewer rat, I have been trying this for the last few weeks with a pistol, I don't know if I have got any but they are certainly moving back to the neighbours and leaving my fields at a very nice pace

[Peter]

Was clearing out at the weekend and found four traditional metal traps, from memory these work really well and pose no risk to the environment or any animal that does not go along the moles tunnel.

[SueA]

Rat, Nick & Poultrychat, you country types & your guns, I thought it was only us urban/city dwellers who had drive-by mole shootings. It sounds a bit drastic & I don't think the neighbours would approve!

[Gryfon]

Now if you were in France you can buy little land mines! Basically you hang them down the hole...little mole comes trundling along...touches the mine with his little nose and BOOM!!! Well maybe not that big a boom but you still end up with a dead mole! Bit drastic I think!

[SueA]

Good grief! I knew the French went round shooting little songbirds but landmines for moles!

[Nicos]

OK ...so one month down the line, I now eat my words about moles!!
Over the last 4 weeks we have been watching our raspberry canes slowly start to die back, either wilting or getting brown crispy edges to the leaves and stopping growing. Whilst everyone elses extensive raspberry patches look very healthy, we suspected we may have either raspberry blight or raspberry leaf wilt, so started spraying with 'bordeaux mixture' to try and rescue the plants.
However, yesterday when hand weeding, we noticed an extensive run of 2" wide tunnels running throughout the rootsystems of the raspberry canes
Not a molehill in site, so we hadn't suspected mole damage. The raspberry patch is right next to the orchard area too,so it's clearly part of the area covered by the tunnel system of the mole I mentioned earlier.
To top it all, the new plum tree we planted was having a similar problem with it's leaves as the raspberries and further investigation at it's base has unearthed (haa ha!!) another part of a tunnel system causing the loss of over half the root system of the plum tree!
What to do then folks???

[Sunbeam]

I will happily lend you my son - he loves jumping on molehills - it may not kill them, but it might give them a headache!

[sewer rat]

PC
Glad your moles are moving on but not sure if it's to do with the pistol, though it may be. The reason for using the shotgun is that it's the percussion that kills them, so you do not need a direct hit, somewhere in the approximate vicinity will do just as well - anyway, hope your neighbours don't start doing the same and chase the little beggars back to you !

[Gryfon]

It's true...been told you can get them in the garden centres!!!

[SueA]

Gryfon, you could nip over from where you live & get some & post them Nicos! Sorry to hear about your fruit Nicos, Maybe you could block off some of the tunnels & drop mothballs in them to put the moles off or maybe you could relocate your fruit to a different part of the plot?

[SueA]

Have just seen that you can get solar-powered sonic mole scarers which would be useful for people with allotments with no power etc. You just stick them into the ground (presumably into a molehill or run) & they emit a sonic beep every few seconds.