Moles

milkloss · Mar 9, 2021

Tip to finding the main runs:

get a metal leccy fence post or length of rio and weld a bead or two round the pole an inch from the tip. As you podge it in the ground the bulge will 'pop' into the run if you're in the right place.

neilo · Mar 10, 2021

MRT said:
Why is it some moles fill traps with soil? My heart sinks when I pull up a trap with soil because if they fill one they seem to fill them all and they are devils to catch. What am I doing wrong? Talpex traps

Forgive me if I’m telling Grandma how to suck eggs, but Talpex traps are designed to work in the soil, so you fill it with loose soil yourself, then Mr Moley pushes/digs through it thinking it’s a collapsed run, triggering the trap.

I got on really well with them when I first tried them, but find duffus traps more reliable now. I save the Talpex & Puttange traps for those that have learnt to fill the duffus traps.

I have to confess that I’ve had a mole man in as well for the last 2 years, trying to get on top of where I’ve not been anywhere near active enough. He had 250 last year, and another 189 this winter! That’s on top of the 60 or so I tidied up behind him too.
He’s cleared the bulk of the bad areas now, so I just need to keep on top of them properly again.

Johnnyboxer · Mar 10, 2021

Bobthebuilder said:
Snap, not having a good run at all this year, not really had the time to check/move them every day [emoji57] in a line of hills how far back from the freshest hill is it best to put the trap?

Videos from Countryman Ben on FB are worth a watch

He can catch up to 20 a day in a field

Explains the difference between feeding hills and travel tunnels/hills

Worth a watch

Yale · Mar 10, 2021

I’ve now had 20 since the beginning of the year.

Pointless putting traps down in hard frost or very wet conditions.

The ones I am catching now are in comers.I’m at the point now where most are coming from the neighbours adjacent.

I‘m seriously thinking about strategically digging hedge banks for a few metres to stir them up to eliminate motorway runs which allow moles free run to travel a great distance into the farm.

If I can divert them at these points they will have to break cover at these points and should be easier to control or turn around and go back.

MRT · Mar 10, 2021

neilo said:
Forgive me if I’m telling Grandma how to suck eggs, but Talpex traps are designed to work in the soil,

I did not know that, bought traps put in runs! We seem to catch on 50% of sets straight away, and then up to maybe another 50% after a reset, and then the last 25% fill them with soil, dig under, around etc. So should those filled with soil and not triggered be left filled with soil where they are? I had been clearing them out or taken out and reset somewhere else with soil that I have placed in them?

neilo · Mar 10, 2021

MRT said:
I did not know that, bought traps put in runs! We seem to catch on 50% of sets straight away, and then up to maybe another 50% after a reset, and then the last 25% fill them with soil, dig under, around etc. So should those filled with soil and not triggered be left filled with soil where they are? I had been clearing them out or taken out and reset somewhere else with soil that I have placed in them?

With Talpex traps I dig out a section of the run, the same length as the trap, then clean it out and firm the base of the run with a T handle from a spade, the same as I would for a Duffus trap. Then set the trap, glue my fingers back on, put it in the run so that the trigger is where the top of the run would be, then loosely backfill with fine molehill soil. Mr Moley comes along his run, thinks it’s collapsed when he finds some loose soil, and attempts to clean it out by digging through, under the trigger.

If you’ve left them in a clean run and the mole has filled them, then he’s found it and wary. They must have maps, as they always seem to know it’s there if you clean out and reset in the same place.

I had one that kept filling Duffus traps last summer, so I tried a putange trap in the run and had him that day.

farmerm · Mar 10, 2021

Got fed up of moles filling up traps so have been gassing ours with the lawnmower...

ARW · Mar 10, 2021

One trick if you have a pesky mole is to set every trap you own around his area!

farmerm · Mar 10, 2021

ARW said:
One trick if you have a pesky mole is to set every trap you own around his area!

what if you have 50 pesky moles..

neilo · Mar 10, 2021

farmerm said:
what if you have 50 pesky moles..

Then get somebody in and pay the mole?

hendrebc · Mar 10, 2021

I'm not particularly good at trapping so have had more experience of traps filled with soil than actually catching them. A trick I find quite good with really bad ones is put the plug of turf back into the hole without the trap. Then the mole fixes his tunnel next day you can pull up the plug of turf up put the trap in and there's a fairly good chance you've got the little sh!t. Sometimes I have to clear up what the soil that the mole has fixed the day before so the plug goes in clean.
Inspired by this thread I've just spent way longer than it should have to find my traps and had a go at setting some. I expect them to be full of soil by tomorrow morning

7610 super q · Mar 10, 2021

What's the difference between talex / duffus / putange traps please ?
I've had limited success with whatever this is.....

neilo · Mar 10, 2021

Yours is a Duffus/barrel/tunnel trap.

Talpex traps are a lot stronger as they move through loose soil. They will hurt your fingers more, much more!

neilo · Mar 10, 2021

You won’t like the Putanges, they’re French.

UK Putange Supplies

mole control - putange mole traps for sale - find a mole catcher in sussex - find a mole catcher in surrey - ground voles control - the best vole traps

www.ukputangesupplies.co.uk

ARW · Mar 10, 2021

some traps work better than others but none off them will be 100%
I like tunnel traps and scissor traps, but they are the only traps I have...

Robin2020 · Mar 10, 2021

I've caught 6 in tunnel traps over the last 3 weeks. Check every other day. I agree that once they fill with soil...the problem continues. I find the runs with a tent peg. I spotted one yesterday coming up into one of his mounds....wish I had a gun then.
What do people do with the old dried up mole hills??? All I have is a rake so the nephew is gonna be busy!

DrWazzock · Mar 10, 2021

Educated moles bung up traps. If you set a trap badly and the mole gets away, it never forgets. Then high speed lead is the only answer.

TexelBen · Mar 10, 2021

Robin2020 said:
I've caught 6 in tunnel traps over the last 3 weeks. Check every other day. I agree that once they fill with soil...the problem continues. I find the runs with a tent peg. I spotted one yesterday coming up into one of his mounds....wish I had a gun then.
What do people do with the old dried up mole hills??? All I have is a rake so the nephew is gonna be busy!

I've trained the kids to kick em flat every time we walk through the fields.
Must find the rest of my traps, somone forgot about them last year. Found them with the pasture topper tho

coniser · Mar 10, 2021

I dig the hole clean it out with trowel then have dead mole witch I put in the hole and press it down with trowel take mole out put trap in cover with soil usually works

little_p · Mar 10, 2021

7610 super q said:
What's the difference between talex / duffus / putange traps please ?

Based on what I have read and seen online, use putanges when there is a three way tunnel or a L shaped tunnel. And a trapline type when there is a real tricky bugger that has evaded all the other types.

I've figured out a way to set a tunnel trap without having my finger pinched. It is using an extra long nosed pliers. I push the trapping circle down with the first hand and then used the second hand to hold it in place with the long nose pilers, whilst setting the clip / hook.

From what I've read the moles virtually always start off tunneling from a hedge or fence line and work in four hour shifts. Anybody know if they always go back to hedge at the end of each four hours?

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