The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Ghdp on January 13, 2018, 11:58:53 am
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As the ground below our land has got wetter every Mole for miles has moved into our fields (or so it seems) I was just ignoring them but really think I need to do something now. A cold caller has left a note in my post box asking if he can get rid of them. Clearly they are quite obvious to all passers by! I am quite happy to reward his entrepreneurial approach but before I contact him - how much per carcass is the going rate?
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Around here, it depends on how difficult they are to catch. My friend makes a living at this during the winter. He charges £7 for plentiful moles on easy ground, and £10 for smaller numbers over wider areas or in rocky soil.
That may sound like a lot, but TBH he's doing well if he can make minimum wage on average, especially in the third and fourth years working for the same farms.
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Used to be around a £5 here - but there were many stories of catchers bringing dead moles with them to bump up their charges.
It's not that difficult to catch your own
Everything you need to know is here
http://www.walcotefarm.co.uk/molecatching/mole_catching.htm (http://www.walcotefarm.co.uk/molecatching/mole_catching.htm)
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OH charges £10/mole for one offs or £10/hr for long term trapping.
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Depends on the size of the place and the area, coming from the pest controller side if my son went to a farm or say a stables and mole hills were everywhere he would charge a set up fee and a visit fee that was agreed in advance. The problem is he always said that as you clear moles from one area then other moles can move in and so the problem starts again.
For gardens and sorting out the odd mole / mole hill (if it was local) he used to charge £10 per mole caught. To be honest £10 a mole was not really viable because it didn't cover the time it took to visit or the public liability insurance he carried.
So if someone offers to do it for £10 a mole or less then I would say you have got a bargain. ;D
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£30 set up £10 per mole
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If you're not intending to make hay on the area is it actually necessary to kill the moles? I have great respect for them - wish I could shift 7 times my own weight in soil! The soil is ideal for giving to newborn piglets as it gives them iron without needing an injection and, coming from well below the soil surface, is free from muck and rotting vegetative matter,
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Thanks all. That is really helpful. I have left a message for the mole catcher so I will wait to see what he says. I feel I have a better idea what to expect!
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Cross posted with MF. I share your respect for them. I had been ignoring the moles. It just looks like I have about 10% of the field given over to mud heaps! The heaps are now in the garden and breaking out in a second small paddock.
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coming from well below the soil surface, is free from muck and rotting vegetative matter,
It's also brilliant for planting things in. We go around collecting our own molehills and then mix it with our own compost and chicken manure. You should see our pumpkins! :trophy:
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Yes molehills are useful in the garden, but there are a couple of problems with having a lot on grazing pasture. One is that they can bring listeria to the surface, so as sheep graze they will pick up some soil, or soily grass and run the risk of listeriosis. The second is that a ewe can drop her lamb onto a wet molehill, so the soil sticks to its wet newborn wool and is very difficult to get off. Very heavily pregnant ewes can 'cowp' (or whatever you call getting stuck upside down in your area) if she gets it wrong or is already on a slope. Lambs love molehills though as they are big enough for them to shelter from wind and rain.
A tale of a molecatcher: when I was growing up in 1950s Norfolk, there was an old guy who was to be seen every day on the rattliest old bicycle you can imagine, dressed in a filthy long coat and with a couple of saggy bags hanging off the handlebars. Turned out he was the molecatcher . I think he lived in the woods, not a house. He came to ours sometimes, not for moles as we didn't have any, but just for a gossip. You could smell him long before he arrived and he was rather a dour old chap. My mum asked him about the one very long finger nail he sported, which turned out to be for defence!! He saw himself as scraping out someone's eye with it if they attacked him. Very sadly he disappeared, and we found he had been crushed to death against a wall by a lorry as he cycled along - his defensive finger nail was no use at all. Looking back, I think the coat was probably made of moleskins, the bags too, and the smell a mix of mole and well, man.
Oh I nearly forgot. We have loads of moles here and one day the gamekeeper from the big estate stopped and offered to catch them. He charged a pre-agreed £60 to clear the lot, which required several visits and bagged about 20 moles, so at £3 a mole it looks like that was a bargain. Of course he didn't catch quite all of them.........
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If you make hay or silage there is a risk (as well as broken cutter blades) that soil will be present in the crop, meaning that animals the following winter could be exposed to soil born disease such as Listeria.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/silage-soil-contamination-warning-listeria-cases.htm (http://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/silage-soil-contamination-warning-listeria-cases.htm)
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Update
Well the agreed rate was £10 for the set up and therafter £1O per mole. I wait agog to see how many he catches over the next 2 days.
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My brothers used to charge 6d (two and a half pence) per mole.................though this was sixty years ago!!
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Well first set of traps caught 7 moles in 48 hours. I will have to see whether that will make a difference!
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That is a LOT!
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That is why OH charges per mole for short jobs. Once an area is cleared there can be very few to catch which is why they are charged per hour.
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Folks, if anybody fancies doing this themselves, I just watched my friend set a few traps and have uploaded some photos to my wee blog (https://anoutdoorlife.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/how-to-catch-a-mole/). Hopefully they will be of use to somebody? :thumbsup:
(https://anoutdoorlife.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/10.jpg?w=768)
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"My" mole is still concentrating on the 20 x 20 metre front garden. I'm hoping that once the worm population has been obliterated he'll move along but I have to admire his persistence.