Mole Catchers

[Tubbylew]

Another 2 this afternoon, so 5 for today:

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Our ground is still quite wet in places, but I read that Traps full of mud is through the little buggars burying under them - so I compact the ground well before setting trap now, and had 5 for today and no empty or mud filled Traps?

Need to roll the field really as it is like the himalayas, plus the grass needs grazing.

Thats save £50 today then, some say to tamp the bottom of the run with the top of an old fashioned tee type spade handle, also father reckons a good place to catch them is in a run crossing a gateway, I guess due to the ground being firmer. Well done btw, was worth a try after all.

 

[Ukjay]

Thats save £50 today then, some say to tamp the bottom of the run with the top of an old fashioned tee type spade handle, also father reckons a good place to catch them is in a run crossing a gateway, I guess due to the ground being firmer. Well done btw, was worth a try after all.

It's been interesting learning really. As Neil stated above, it's quite addictive in a way, as you know it is stopping the damage to the fields - but also the thought of have you set it out in the right manner.

 

[down n'dirty]

Shot 5 in the last two days- walked around the field and levelled the tumps with my welly-within half an hour the little buggers were starting to push up the soil again. If you watch patiently,you can see where they're working and 9 times out of ten, a 12 bore cartridge will do the trick! (I always dig them up to make sure that i got them)

 

[Ukjay]

Think I'll pass on the shooting moles route - this is proving quite effective, and I will not have to worry about people complaining to the authorities about me going around shooting the ground like a looney

Going out in a minute to check and reset the traps - see what today brings

 

[Mur Huwcun]

They’ve started doing mistakes here now aswell....

 

[little_p]

Do different types of mole traps - putanges, scissor, duffus / barrel etc - work better in different circumstances or situations?

Is one brand / make of duffus barrel trap considered to be better than the others?

 

[Yale]

Do different types of mole traps - putanges, scissor, duffus / barrel etc - work better in different circumstances or situations?

Is one brand / make of duffus barrel trap considered to be better than the others?

I would recommend these Duffus traps,recommended to me by @neilo .

Pest-Stop Tunnel Mole Trap: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

For difficult ones I swap to talpex.

 

[Ukjay]

I would recommend these Duffus traps,recommended to me by @neilo .

Pest-Stop Tunnel Mole Trap: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

They're the ones I bought too - they're like the mole Traps for Dummies, as even I could catch the little buggars

 

[farmerm]

Fed up of trapping, I and whilst shooting them is fun it take a lot of patients to really bring numbers down

After some great success sorting a rat issue with the old lawnmower and a bit of pipe I have deployed it against the moles.... "treated" 10 runs this afternoon that had fresh heaves. The dozen I did last week have largely remained inactive. Anyone got any tips on the optimum duration to run the engine on each run? I reckon 3 minutes to full the tunnels and 3 more to kill the moles and 3 more to be sure of it?

 

[neilo]

I would recommend these Duffus traps,recommended to me by @neilo .

Pest-Stop Tunnel Mole Trap: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

Great prices on your favourite Gardening brands, and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

For difficult ones I swap to talpex.

Those PestStop ones were recommended to me by a guy that does a good bit of mole catching locally. He has a few traps about...

I have a few more expensive ones from specialist websites, but I don’t think they’re any better. They have slightly narrower loops, so I use those in narrower runs.

Talpex (genuine, not cheap knock offs) work well too, but I prefer Duffus traps.

I bought a few putanges to try, and they work if you have an annoying little bugger that keeps filling traps. It’s impossible to check if they’ve been tripped while driving past on a quad bike though and, I would suggest, more chance of just catching one by one leg, which isn’t going to be a nice way to die.

I have to confess to having the above mentioned mole man in again currently, rather than get cold, wet & miserable myself at the moment. I have obviously become a fair weather mole catcher.
He came in last year to do a block that had got so bad that I just didn’t know where to start... he had 250 away! I tidied another 20 off the same patch in the summer.
He’s had another 60 so far in the last few weeks, and I suspect he’ll have another 40 or 50 before he’s done, then I’ll mop up behind.

 

[Ukjay]

Gotta do something additional for the rats round here.
They are burrowing in the bank near the barn, getting weary of the air rifle, so may look at smoking them in the burrows bloody things are massive...

Also, dead fox behind muck trailer yesterday - young one with no visible sign of being shot??

 

[farmerm]

Gotta do something additional for the rats round here.
They are burrowing in the bank near the barn, getting weary of the air rifle, so may look at smoking them in the burrows bloody things are massive...

Also, dead fox behind muck trailer yesterday - young one with no visible sign of being shot??

I can recommend smoking the burrows as being very effective

 

[Ukjay]

I can recommend smoking the burrows as being very effective

I have heard it is good, vso what did you use - old chainsaw without bar etc, or old lawn mower?

Did you block some holes up to stop them getting out, or just leave all open?

 

[farmerm]

I have heard it is good, vso what did you use - old chainsaw without bar etc, or old lawn mower?

Did you block some holes up to stop them getting out, or just leave all open?

smoky old lawnmower. could refine the technique if I had a lot to do but I just used a length of steel pipe I had to hand, butted up to the exhaust port, its not a perfect seal and not flexible getting it positioned but you can feel 90% of the exhaust gas pushing out the end of the pipe... where there were holes clearly connected to the same burrow I just decided which was easiest to access with the smoker and used the spade to fill the others in.

 

[toquark]

Gotta do something additional for the rats round here.
They are burrowing in the bank near the barn, getting weary of the air rifle, so may look at smoking them in the burrows bloody things are massive...

Also, dead fox behind muck trailer yesterday - young one with no visible sign of being shot??

Funny, I found a young fox lying dead at the foot of a tree today. No obvious sign of death either but didn’t bother the vet with it...

 

[Ukjay]

Funny, I found a young fox lying dead at the foot of a tree today. No obvious sign of death either but didn’t bother the vet with it...

How bizarre, and like you - never took this one to the vets.

 

[little_p]

Those PestStop ones were recommended to me by a guy that does a good bit of mole catching locally. He has a few traps about...

I have a few more expensive ones from specialist websites, but I don’t think they’re any better. They have slightly narrower loops, so I use those in narrower runs.

Talpex (genuine, not cheap knock offs) work well too, but I prefer Duffus traps.

I bought a few putanges to try, and they work if you have an annoying little bugger that keeps filling traps. It’s impossible to check if they’ve been tripped while driving past on a quad bike though and, I would suggest, more chance of just catching one by one leg, which isn’t going to be a nice way to die.

I bought a PestStop duffus / tunnel trap to give a go. No moles caught yet, but plenty of trapped fingers :-(
Is there a particular way to set these blessed things?

Currently got a mole that is pushing soil in front of it ('bulldozer' mole) , so my putanges aren't catching this one.

 

[neilo]

I bought a PestStop duffus / tunnel trap to give a go. No moles caught yet, but plenty of trapped fingers :-(
Is there a particular way to set these blessed things?

Currently got a mole that is pushing soil in front of it ('bulldozer' mole) , so my putanges aren't catching this one.

Practice, and pain?

If they push soil in front then they’ll probably fill a Duffus trap too. Talpex works on those sometimes, as they work through loose soil.
Don’t close one of those on your fingers though, they make the Duffus traps seem weak.

 

[Ukjay]

I bought a PestStop duffus / tunnel trap to give a go. No moles caught yet, but plenty of trapped fingers :-(
Is there a particular way to set these blessed things?

Currently got a mole that is pushing soil in front of it ('bulldozer' mole) , so my putanges aren't catching this one.

I had the exact same problem - then I started to firm the ground below and each side of the run as it enters the trap with my fist.
Started to catch then, apart from one which is a sneaky wise one - still got to get it.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

61 cought