[WoodlandsDevon]

the moles are wrecking our lawn, any hints on the best way to get rid of them.

thanks

[Steph Hen]

This is rediculous, but my mother in law has chased moles off her lawn using the 'squeaker/player' from inside musical birthday cards... each time she tells me it worked for her I come up with a raft of 'but how can that work..?' But she just repeates that it has worked for her!
She digs into a hill, places the noicy thing in the tunnel and covers the hole again.

[Foobar]

I know you said "deter", but if you can't find anything that successfully deters I can recommend some good reading on how to catch (i.e. kill) them ... it's actually very easy, I caught my first in about 5 mins of setting my first trap and have had a very high success rate since then ...


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


And if you have any questions e-mail the author John and you will find him very helpful.

[WoodlandsDevon]

we tried a tunnel trap, i think it's called, and it didn't work, i don't know whether it was a fault but the catch on it was too sensitive. i believe you can get scissor traps that act like scissors??

[pgkevet]

You can buy sonic deterrants..not tried them so no comment of how they work. Personally i leave my moles to get on with it..mostly they do a good job of helping drainage and I can't be bothered to redrain a pretty good area to put them off. I just mow their hills down along with the rest of the grass cutting on the lawn and just harrow the field now and again.
But then i quite like moles and in the spring their spoil makes great seed bed stuff.

[Stereo]

I agree, let them be and they will probably move on in time. In the mean time they will do a great job of improving the drainage. I know it's a bit of a pain but I just kick the hills around before mowing with no problem. My dad spends (wastes) hours trying to catch them, kill them, freak them out and rarely has any luck.

[darkbrowneggs]

I remove the hills and make sure to do no stamping on the tunnels. 


They will produce more hills, but after a short while if you repeat the process they will have no need to dig more tunnels and all will go quiet till the breeding season in spring.  But once again remove and leave and they will soon settle down.


The soil is good for potting compost or making up deep beds etc in veg garden.

[Bodger]

I hope this helps.
 
Right here goes. Here are the pictures
 The traps that I use are known as tunnel traps. There are another type known as pincer traps but I prefer these.
I've actually set two traps today and I hope that if I run the pictures in the correct sequence, you should get a good idea as to how to set them.
The tricky bit can be actually locating the moles hole or run. You don't want to set your trap to close to the mole hill or you may find that the mole accidentaly sets the mole trap off by shoveling soil into it. For this reason, I always try and set my traps a fair way off from the hill. The mole hills are actually made from the soil that the little critter has dug out in constructing its tunnels.
Sometimes as you are walking on the grass, you will actually feel the ground give just a fraction as you take a pace and this is a sure sign that you have trodden on top of the mole tunnel. Otherwise I use a metal rod to thrust into the ground in likely spots and once again you will feel the rod 'give' as it breaks into the tunnel.
See if you can follow these photos, as I first of all set the trap and then position it into the run. 
The trap before its been set.



Setting the trap, this is where you have to watch your fingers.



You get two chances with this kind of trap. I've already set one of the mechanisms and I'm still to set the other one.





Both ends set



I've located the hole and cut a piece of turf out, now I've got to carefully place the trap at the bottom of the run so that 'old Moley' unsuspectingly trundles along the hole and sticks his head into the trap.   



The trap fits snuggly into the hole that I've cut out.



Then its pushed to the bottom of the run, so that the mole comes straight along it run from either direction and doessn't find any difference in the tunnel where the trap is set.



Then using the fine soil from one of the molehills, I cover the trap and exclude all the light.





Just to recap, heres the sequence of events as I set a second trap.

The set trap.















If you are lucky, you may catch the mole in a very short time but I wont be checking these traps until tomorrow. The mole lives on a four hour cycle and every four hours or so, it will do a whistle stop tour of its run system to check for juicy worms that may have fallen into the tunnels.
This sort of trap kills instantly by crushing the mole around the head or thorax with a steel band. The trigger mechanism is identical to that of a break back mouse trap. The mole trigger the trap by setting it off with its nose.
Fingers crossed and hopefully there will be a mole in the trap in the morning. 

[stufe35]

I would add the following advice to bodgers excellent set of photos and instructions

1.  You can locate the runs by standing back and weighing up the patterns the mole hole hills make,  the runs will go between them.  Find them by using something like an electric fence post to probe the ground, you can feel the lack of resistance as you gently push into the ground and then enter a tunnel.

2.  The key is digging a snug hole lifting the turf off the top of the tunnel without disturbing the base of the tunnel below and of a size such that the trap fits neatly.  Move or compact any lose soil which falls into the bottom of the run before placing the trap.

3.   Where bodger has shown filling soil directly on to the trap,  I have some pieces of ply wood cut about the size of a place mat that I place over the hole.  Then weigh down and seal the edges with soil to keep out light and draughts which the mole will detect.   This allows easy checking of the trap and prevents soil jamming the mechanism of the trap or falling into the tunnel.

Hope this is useful.

Cheers. Stu

[Hamish Crofter]

There is only one reliable way and that's to hire a traditional mole catcher, if they are there they will get them. As Jasper Carrot famously told us, everyone has an opinion but trust me only a molecatcher will be reliable and in the long run will save you money.

[danconfessed]

Ive seen this in action a few times 

Rodenator Pro, bunker buster

[MelRice]

,,,,Let my ex-racehorse on that bit of field ! him charging around prevents moles...trouble is they have now joined the mice in the vege patch COME on cats a few more please (actually the two of them are not bad I find left overs most days