Mole Problem?

[Henry100]

GREETING Slug Hunters,

Well I hope your all well And the dinner was nice, And it is time to just have a rest "And read this little lot"😀

The subject i thought we could chat about tonight is the "MOLE"

It is the one creature in our gardens that really will not do any good to the garden, But you do need to know as much as you can about this creature, It's needs/ Life style And what you can do to help keep your garden "The lawn  ! As if you do not remove the Mole you will have a lawn that is full of Mole hill's and these really do spoil the look of the Lawn,

The Mole diet is mainly worms,

The mole is active all year round,

The Mole is not "BLIND" as some people think But because he lives underground his eye sight is poor And direct light slows him down,

The mole makes up in hearing for what he  looses in eye sight and can hear a worm moving in the distance,

The Mole has very good sense of smell and again uses this to his advantage in tracking down his food (the worm) and human setting traps (wear gloves when setting traps,  ???????

The Mole also uses vibration in the ground, both as a warning and as an aid to hunting, But to loud a noise and the vibration caused by the likes of Lawn mowers etc warns the Mole of danger,

The Mole makes a maze of tunnel's for his own use he do's not share his tunnels with other Moles,

Now this is the Moles down fall for us Gardeners in as much we can see his tunnel pattern via the soil he pushes up from the ground on to the top of the Lawn grass, By paying attention to these soil hills you can know the area to place your traps and trap the Mole, (more about the ways to trap later)

Now you have been told the Mole's make up, To be able to deal with the Mole, We need to know what is the best method?

The Mole like you and myself needs food to be able to live, If we can do something about knowing how his food acts and when his food is more available then we have the first  tool to using this info to our advantage,

Nature's food supply for the underground both digging tool and natures way of keeping the underground aired and a form of bacteria (humus) to feed and break down the rotting leaves that the worms pull down into the earth,

the millions of worms eat this rotting leaves and as the food passes through the worm it comes out as one of the best food's for the soil,/ compost heap Any gardener could ever ask for, 'HUMUS.

But the worm is the main food for the MOLE, and because this time of the year Nature is causing the sap of all the trees to lower and stop feeding the tree's leaf hence these fall to the ground and it is time now for the worms to come up from under the ground to pull these leaves down,

The Mole has a feast also this time of the year without going two miles underground to find the worms (that's how far under ground the worms dig) And now you can see why the Mole hills are now showing all over the Lawn, Because if you do not remove the leaf?

By raking up and putting on the compost !!! The the worms will be active all over the lawn "we're you have tree's or the wind blows these leaf's

                                                                                  How to deal with trapping the Mole,

Nature has given us the MOLE, And this creature after digging the Mole hill and leaving it on top of the Lawn has just left you the Gardener one of the very best fine dug  soils you could ask for, the texture is perfect for borders / Mixing with manure for around tree base etc,

Trap (1) Is the common Mole metal trap, this is a device bought from garden center shops and it really is a clamp action with a metal spacer that you put between the open jaws of the device, this metal bit has a hole  through it and the idea is the Mole with it's poor eye sight crawls through this hole as he runs down his own tunnel and set's the clamp action to close, it is activated via a very strong spring and the Mole is crushed to death,

Tip,    If you decide to use this claw mole trap "remembering how the mole uses his very good nose to smell out the worm,

It is a good idea to spread a freshly cut worm around the hole of this trap for the Mole to go through and set the trap off.

Trap (2) Battery operated Mole trap,( I use this method and it is one of the best i have used,)    It is a two wire   trap with a plastic covered small explosive on the end, the trap is on a plastic foot  and the batteries are inside the foots tube(and can be replaced) and the tube has an on/off switch, you dig we're the soil has been removed and you'll soon find the tunnel, push your finger's inside the hole and you'll feel how big the hole is 2 or 3 inch circle, put the bomb section into the hole as far in as it will go (approx 5 or 6 inch , then push the plastic foot in front of the hole and you will see 2 connection push up clips, make sure the little clip is on the off position and now connect the wires, red to red black to black and push the clip to ON, a RED LIGHT WILL FLICKER ON THE TUBE TELLING YOU THE DEVICE IS ACTIVATED?    Now cover the complete tube with a bucket or large plant pot (safety)  for wild life  cats dogs etc, weight it down using a rock etc to stop the wind blowing it over,

And all you do is check daily to see the flashing greed light , if it is on non flashing red ?? THE DEVICE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED

To stop a live device switch to off, dis connect wire's and remove bomb by pulling it away from hole (You can see this device on Amazon under mole traps)

(3) Trap, A very old way is by use of Smoke, this is only any good when you know MR MOLE is home, it is a tube connected to the likes of a moped with the tube going down the hole (tunnel) and the moped engine going, the fumes / smoke kill the mole.

Well once again a long winded topic but full  of info, Hope it helps with your Mole problem and explains why we clear up those leaves ?

Old way of getting rid of moles was to lower yourself down to ground level and "PEE" down the Moles Tunnel, It was said the smell of human "PEE" got rid of the Moles, Hence in the big houses the young gardeners we're sent to empty the under bed pots down the Mole tunnel,

But if you could think of to days modern ways of life, And here you our on a Sunday  Morn  on your  knees in the garden "peeing down the Mole tunnel" And Next door are returning from Church and they catch you doing this !!!!

"No"     Honest, It is not what your thinking i am just Peeing in the Mole's Hole !!!!!!!😬

 

Happy gardening to you all.🥳

 

[Hectorsdad]

You have reminded me to get on and construct my own trigger device for connection to the readily available explosive devices. The design is quite simple so that suits me.

 Our lawns are covered in mole hills and the resulting humps and bumps are dangerous for anyone walking and they make mowing very uncomfortable. This coming year I intend to put in plenty of effort to eliminate the moles.

[Henry100]

Hello Hectors dad,

And a very merry mole Christmas  to you😊

Yes as i have said "Gardening in my world is like when we all bought our homes here in France, you will always find something that needs doing,

But with the likes of Moles it really is a for ever effort,

Have you ever gone for a walk in the woods (deep in the woods and looked at the nude trees and all the leaves laying under these tree's, You do not see much in the way of long grass or weeds close to the base of most tree's or Mole's !!!!

The grass not growing close I can understand (Lack of light due to the mound of leaves, But you'd think the Moles would be really having a feast "but little evidence  of this" 

Well lets enjoy our gardening and have a really "HAPPY NEW YEAR"😇