[colliewoman]

I can't help with the moles (unless you want to borrow Red Dog for a bit, she'll catch anything ) but please do tell a little more about the plastic grid gardening stuff that sound like it could be my saviour. 

[jaykay]

I'd be interested too, I was thinking of putting it down in my grass gathering pen.

[henchard]

I'm afraid the only real solution to moles is to catch them. Here is excellent advice about how to do it.

http://walcotefarm.fernhillsolutions.net/molecatching/mole_catching.htm

[goosepimple]

Thanks I look at that later when kids not around

Grid stuff is just plastic grid mesh you would get on a roll at the garden centre.  We were left lots of it here in the polytunnel and so have put it down outside the goats house and on frequently used routes, it does help reduce the feet clogging thing quite a lot but you have to lift it every week or so, shake it out, put it down again but that's hardly a hassle really.  You get different gauges so the closer gauge works better than the wider type. If you don't have any its worth buying some as it's working quite well, but think it may be a bit pricey.  We only have pygmy goats so perhaps they're lighter footed walking on it, should think it would be useless with piggies but they'd probably eat it anyway

[sabrina]

We have quite a few on the hill paddocks. They only appear over the winter I think because the ponies come off the hill in October till March. My cat has caught lots over the past couple of years.

[artscott]

One tip from my Grandad that did work for me was to partially bury bottles without lids in the mole runs.  When the wind blew over the open top it made that musical tone we used to make as kids by blowing over bottle, this shifted the moles form our garden.  We used old glass milk bottles but it may be worth a try with plastic ones.

We also had a cat that was so good at catching them he got renamed “moles”.  He used to take great delight in dropping them on the concrete drive and watching them try to escape.  Wicked cat but very useful.

[goosepimple]

Good reply, I liked that!  , we've got a jcb coming in soon to start relandscaping bits so that may give them a shock (wonder how fast they dig?)

[lachlanandmarcus]

The only reason I dont like the mole hills is that they increase the risk of grass sickness in horses by disturbing and bringing up the bare soil. We have lots of mole hills and as a neighbour lost a horse to GS I do worry. But I figure that they are pretty impossible to eradicate, and this mild winter has given them a field day (literally!)

[suziequeue]

Personally I've come to embrace the moles as my land is heavy clay and poorly drained and I figure they are nicely aerating it for me. I just spread the hills out a bit and pop down a bit of new grass seed.

Same here. We are in Wales - horrible heavy clay soil round here.

It's an opportunity to do a bit of soil analysis

[goosepimple]

  yes, and see how much landfill is around