I hate moles

[zanz1bar]

the dam thing has taken up residence in my raised veg bed and wrecked it.
It seems to be pinging off the wooden sides like pin ball. All my lovely new seedlings has been turned upside down.
How on earth do I get rid of it?

[tallwivglasses]

I can't help you I'm afraid but I thought I'd sympathise. I've heard explosives work well...which is what I'm resorting to to annihilate the slugfest in my front garden.

At least slugs look hideous and haven't been anthropomorphisised (ehem sp) into lovable storybook characters.

Sorry zanz, wasn't meaning to take the piss - I've just started growing veg this year and I would be incandescent with who or whatever murdered my little seedlings.

In other words bump.

[zanz1bar]

Fecking, fecking mole. Three more molehills and scenes of devastation , little pea and bean seedlings smashed to pieces, beetroot ripped up by the roots.
It must die!

[AliciaFlorrick]

I have one on my lawn and judging by the size of the mounds it must be the size of a dinosaur. I hate them.

The cat once brought one into the house once, they're vicious little buggers, I was expecting Roly Mo and got this hissing, spitting scratching thing, it took massive gardening gloves and a big bucket to get it out of the house.

I would be gutted if one got into my veg patch though. Apparently if you stick bramble sticks or something thorny down the hole they will cut themselves and bleed to death being haemophiliac or something like that - don't know whether it's true but it's what my 90 year old farmer neighbour tells me to do when I'm bashing down mole hills in temper.

[Taffeta]

Count yourself lucky. We have a badger. Nearly 70 holes in our lawn. Grrrrrrr

[Beamur]

Nothing humane seemed to work with our mole - I tried sonic devices, smokers, jeyes fluid - all it seemed to do was encourage it to dig more tunnels to get away from the annoying things I kept putting down his tunnels!
It seems to have gone now - maybe died? DP has rotorvated the lawn as it was so bumpy and ruined by the mole.
They are territorial animals and all the damage will be caused by just one individual. If one comes back to our garden I'll be calling in a mole catcher! They have excellent sense of smell and so are very tricky to trap!

[Taffeta]

PMSL @ Alicia "I was expecting Roly Mo"

Impressed @ your cat

[TooManyBlossoms]

Would you like to borrow my dog? He's a yorkie so bred for ratting; he sits in the garden staring intently at the ground for hours, until the little moley buggers pop up - he then leaps up and yanks the thing out of the ground and kills it. Job done.

I have to say I was amazed at how small moles actually are; I imagined them to be more the size of a badger with the bloody mountains they leave!

[Beamur]

Your dog would be the answer to every mole infested garden! You could charge and make a small fortune.

[AliciaFlorrick]

I need that dog TMB my mole has put up over 10 holes in the garden this afternoon and we've been watching for it - I've gone very anti mole and have stood out there with a shovel in my hand waiting for it. It's either waited until I've popped indoors to the loo, or for a drink then it puts up another mole hill.

[ajandjjmum]

Nearly as bad as the squirrels stealing all of the nuts and digging up all the newly planted bulbs.

We had a sonic mole thing that got rid of them eventually - right pain though.

And now a badger has decided to think about relocating to our garden, and has done some exploratory digs. DH urinated around them last night - apparently the badgers will then keep away? Perhaps try it with the moles!

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Read in a magazine today that someone had trunks with moles. Apparently made a slit in ground the depth of a spade. Got one of those cards that sing Happy Birthday when you open it, opened it and stuck it in the ground. Supposedly after 3 days of listening to non stop Happy Birthday, old Moley packed his bags and left. Am a bit cynical about that but that's what it said.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Sorry, 'trunks' was supposed to be 'trouble'

[GrimmaTheNome]

Trunks with moles? - heck, thats even worse than having them in the lawn!

We had moles last year - DH tried everything. He did actually dispatch one with a mallet he happened to have in his hand because he was driving in (useless) sonic deterrent thingy ... the earth moved and WHAM. DD said he'd used up a months worth of badness, she wasn't impressed! But we got more... eventually at a country fair we came across a mole catcher, who came and set traps - bingo. Cost a bit, but probably cheaper than all the other things DH had tried.

[AliciaFlorrick]

Just been talking to a friend today and he was telling me about some traps you can get, it's a tube with flaps at both end and you put it in a tunnel and hopefully the mole will go in the tube but not be able to get out. He's said he's managed to catch nine moles with this at his house, but the mole he's got at the moment just burrows underneath or around it.

Also apparently the male moles go in a straight line and the females zig zag.

Saying that I wouldn't want a badger in the garden, they can be quite nasty if you get on the wrong side of them.

[GrimmaTheNome]

The thing about the professional molecatcher was that he knew exactly where to put the trap. He probed for runs, and found one (as he expected) near the compost heap. Mole banquet there, and if they'd stayed in that dank corner feasting on worms they'd have been welcome to stay (I value worms but there were plenty!) - but oh no, they had to invade DHs our lawn.

[AliciaFlorrick]

I actually priced up a mole catcher today and he's so expensive 120 euros so I'm going to have to wait a bit and maybe try the brambles down the holes. Although old Roly Mo has got into my raised bed now, fortunately I was just preparing it for the tomato plants, but it does look like I've got my own version of smack a mole going on in there.

[zanz1bar]

So called in a mole catcher man, he set traps but as it's so dry the ground is rock hard and the tunnels very deep.
Next day he turns up with a gun and a camping chair and sits next to my raised beds drinking tea.
I potter around house wondering if it's really a good idea to let a stranger with a loaded shotgun wander around my garden.
Didnt get any dam moles.

[GrimmaTheNome]

120 Euro? - our chap operated on a 'no mole, no fee' basis, I think £30 for the first mole and £15 thereafter.

[AliciaFlorrick]

You see £30 is doable, 120 euros is way out of my budget. I might have a chat with my farmer neighbour he doesn't appear to have a single mole hill in his garden.

Zanz1bar I like to hear of a mole catcher who takes his job seriously. Hope he catches him in the end.

I have been doing extensive mole research in the last couple of days and apparently they can travel up to 3 kms a day. That's some serious tunnel digging. The one I've got appears to go from the field opposite my house and then burrows under the road in front of the house, under the house and then comes out with a massive mole hill on the other side of the house, and is wandering across the lawn towards the vegetable garden.