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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To take up the mole traps from PIL lawn?

114 replies

MoogDroog · 15/08/2013 15:28

Staying at the PILs whilst they're away for the week. Beautiful garden with a lawn currently getting ruined by 'that bloody mole'. FIL has set traps, holes dig in lawn trap laid, piece of ply on top.
He's set up a goalpost next to the minefield for DCs (2 and 4.5) to play with. MIL expressed some concern about 'tiny fingers' but was dismissed.
They left a couple of hours ago and DH is taking them up.
We're right aren't we?

OP posts:
littlemog · 15/08/2013 18:40

Well we live in the deepest darkest countryside and I have always lived very rurally. Perhaps it is the townies who hate wildlife impinging on their manicured sterile lawns and spoiling the pansies in the borders...?

TiggyD · 15/08/2013 18:41

What would you do if you had leopards in your garden? Live with them or spray?

thebody · 15/08/2013 18:44

It's a bit of a silly question though isn't it. bats are protected.

if they weren't and were causing huge damage to my roof then yes I probably would have to deal with them.

I couldn't afford to do otherwise.

I also had to get a wasps nest removed and sorted as mindees could have been stung.

again that's life.

anyway are you going to address the op? do you think it's acceptable for her to have removed the traps which are not in her garden?

BoozyBear · 15/08/2013 18:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thebody · 15/08/2013 18:44

'townie' oh dear that's hilarious.

thebody · 15/08/2013 18:46

sorry had to add just read 'pansies in the borders'

you do talk a pile of judge crap don't you?

Salmotrutta · 15/08/2013 18:47

I would be resigned to disposing of a mole if it was invading my garden.

Same way I'd get rid of rats or mice.

As far as I know moles aren't exactly endangered. Mind you if I disposed of enough I could make a lovely fur coat.

only half joking

As for bats - they are a (admittedly very small) rabies risk. They carry a lethal rabies like virus but unfortunately if you have some in your house you can't get rid of them. And their droppings stink to high heaven.

I wonder about the town/country attitudes too.

I've lived rurally all my life pretty much and don't tend to view vermin as "poor little creatures"

Salmotrutta · 15/08/2013 18:50

Nothing like a mole in your garden to divide opinion.

RustyBear · 15/08/2013 18:53

When my sister and BIL moved in to their new house they had lots of molehills in their beautiful lawn, with new ones appearing regularly. BIL got a couple of sonic repellers - they are solar powered and cause vibrations in the soil - Apparently the moles think it's another animal digging (either a predator or another mole) and bugger off. Whether that theory is sound or not, the sonic repellers certainly worked; there are no moles there now...

Emilythornesbff · 15/08/2013 18:54

I think YABU. Not your lawn and moles are a Menace.
But i'm not sure how to make them safe around DCs. That would be my concern.
Did he pick up any bloody fox traps? Now they would be useful.

thebody · 15/08/2013 19:01

sorry had to add just read 'pansies in the borders'

you do like to project and judge.

thebody · 15/08/2013 19:03

we tried sonic repellers and they didn't work for us.

TheSmallClanger · 15/08/2013 19:09

I live in the countryside, have done for most of my life. Moles are harmless and lovely creatures, no disease risk, and a model of industriousness and diligence. I really don't give a shit about lawns. We had moles before, and the only way they annoyed me was by not popping out so I could look at them. Seriously, it's grass. Herbivores eat the fucking stuff, we walk on it. Seriously not worth killing anything for.

I would have removed the traps, taken the springs out and thrown them in the nearest deep canal. I have done this with traps in the past and will almost certainly do so in future.

thebody · 15/08/2013 19:11

in someone else's garden?? really??

HoneyDragon · 15/08/2013 19:20

I once had a mile come out under my fridge. He was all snurfely, and fuzzy. I set him free. But I really wanted to keep him forever and call him Simon. Sad

HoneyDragon · 15/08/2013 19:20

Mole, not mile Hmm

phantomnamechanger · 15/08/2013 19:23

I would have removed the traps, taken the springs out and thrown them in the nearest deep canal. I have done this with traps in the past and will almost certainly do so in future

yep, that's the way to respect nature for sure Hmm

phantomnamechanger · 15/08/2013 19:24

honeydragon - I read that as FRINGE and now am LOL

TheSmallClanger · 15/08/2013 19:25

Yip, in someone's garden once. I've pulled up hundreds of snares and decommissioned a crow trap once by jumping on it, and as a child, de-sprung several gamekeepers' horrors and chucked them in the cut.

cory · 15/08/2013 19:27

CoolaSchmoola Thu 15-Aug-13 17:43:44
"Here's hoping you don't end up in A&E with a child with a broken leg because they got caught in a molehill... Molehills often give way underfoot and as a result a child could easily get hurt."

Well, in that case here's hoping nobody ever lets their child walk in a meadow or along a footpath then, as they are clearly far too dangerous for the present generation.

Salmotrutta · 15/08/2013 19:32

You threw traps in a canal??

Not bothered about pollution then obviously... Hmm

Or that some other hapless animal or bird might come along and get caught up in wires etc.

furbaby · 15/08/2013 19:37

Good for you small clanger .I was walking through churchyard today and someone had stuck a note on notice boared advertising fox and badger trap for sale ..,. :( I must admit that the note some how found its way into my pocket and then the bin .., very odd that someone would want to sell or buy a trap (cruel bastards)
We have moles in our beautiful garden and I find if I leave them to make their tunnels they stop making a mess and just patrol tunnels looking for worms but if I upset them they just tunnel more

furbaby · 15/08/2013 19:39

Arr honeydragon Simon is the perfect name for a mole :)

thebody · 15/08/2013 19:45

furbaby, its YOUR garden though. that's kind of the point of the op isn't it?

on the town v country thing in my experience those born in the country, ( not recent converts who adore all wildlife and often complain about the noise of an early Sunday morning tractor in a working farm) are far less squeamish about stuff like this than so called 'townies'.

BinarySolo · 15/08/2013 19:52

'Moles are a menace'. Really? How so exactly?

I grew up in a rural village and our school field was covered in molehills. Funnily enough all of the students survived without ever disappearing down a mole manufactured cravass.

If remove the traps. I think they're cruel. Not as tho moles spread disease in the way that rats or mice do and they don't infest homes.

I'm so saddened to see how many mole killers are on this thread. The meat eater/vegan argument is bollocks too as cows are generally not chopped in half and are bred for purpose. Not comparable to slaughtering wildlife because its a bit inconvenient due to wanting a pretty lawn.

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