Moles

[Sheneval]

Anyone had bother with moles and experience of repellents as opposed to mole catcher traps?

[Bigmallly]

Yep & nope.................
Yep I have trouble with moles & nope I haven't got rid of them yet. I've tried canes with milk bottles on as the vibration is supposed to deter them but I have no proof that this works. What I do now is collect the mole hills then beat the hole with the spade...........not sure if it does any good but it makes me feel a whole lot better............

[Sheneval]

Yep & nope.................
Yep I have trouble with moles & nope I haven't got rid of them yet. I've tried canes with milk bottles on as the vibration is supposed to deter them but I have no proof that this works. What I do now is collect the mole hills then beat the hole with the spade...........not sure if it does any good but it makes me feel a whole lot better............

Our trouble is that people have been collecting the molehills lovely soil and leaving holes and bumps as tripping hazards all over the site. We can get a mole catcher but we have a few animal supports on site so are looking for alternatives that work. :-)

[Greenleaves]

You can get none lethal smoke bombs, something based on caster oil i think

[Nicos]

I've given up with them...tried all sorts of things but they just move a short distance.
Give them names and collect the molehills!....

[PyreneesPlot]

I have been fighting with moles - well one mole at a time - pretty much for the last six years.
Nothing deters them, although I admit to not trying the sonic things. But then our neighbour in Oxford used them and still had a mole problem.
I've tried constantly digging out the runs when they are in the veg plot, bottles on sticks, bottles in the ground, chilli pepper, brambles, rose, holly in the runs ...
Trapping and removing is pointless here because a new one moves in within days and immediately begins home improvements
I understand your worries with the holes and bumps having gone over as a result of the ground falling in a few times, most often face-first when planting stuff and my arm disappears into the hole followed by me

[burnie]

Jasper Carrot had a solution............................................(don't buy those "rockets" that you put batteries in, they don't work, I even stuck one in their run and they just dug it out of the way.)

[roitelet]

Anything that stinks will discourage them. But they are almost impossible to get rid of.

[Bigmallly]

Just wondering if they can be flushed out with water but all they would do is find a new place to destroy.

[Sheneval]

I noticed when I was watering my courgettes last year that one took as much water as I cared to pour in whereas the other bottle filled up and emptied much more gradually. I observed an upheaval under the thirsty one - it was a mole burrowing underneath. I reckon I was watering the plants belonging to my neighbour 3 plots down the hill as the moles/s had been running amok on his plot for weeks before they arrived on mine. Needless to say the fruit from that plant was practically non existent. :-)

[PyreneesPlot]

That is my biggest bug with moles - I'm on a slope so the water just rushes underground and waters the path at the bottom of the bed .
Last year after a load of mole activity, I dug around all my aubergines to try an get rid of all this unwanted additional drainage and then gave the plants a good water. There was a ferocious load of squeaking and the ground began to heave and without thinking I just stuck my hand in and came up with a very wet mole! It went into a bucket of compost that was nearby and Mr PP took it for a walk ...
They are a pain in the proverbial but utterly gorgeous

[Sheneval]

They are a pain in the proverbial but utterly gorgeous

I agree and there are people on the site who are totally against trapping so I am trying to find a humane solution. My search on the Internet has revealed a variety of repellents some of which I will try if I can convince the rest of the Committee to spend the money :-)

[Nicos]

Their runs are actually substantially long.....apart from killing them, the next best thing is to persuade them to move over to a further section of their runs.

[Sheneval]

Their runs are actually substantially long.....apart from killing them, the next best thing is to persuade them to move over to a further section of their runs.

That seems to be the purpose of the various repellents on the market - the ideal would be to create a barrier that keeps them outside the site altogether but I think it will need to be done over a period of time and may cost a fair bit but we can well afford it provided it works. :-)

I think we will have to establish exactly where they come from and take it from there.

[Bigmallly]

Don't the likes of Onions & Garlic deter moles?