Will hoey

[Charlottechicken]

Oh the joys of being rural, we now have moles in the garden

 

They have dug under the veggies, flowers (sunflowers are now tilted and dying ) and patio areas, it's surely only a matter of time before the lawn starts showing signs of them. I'm pretty sure that's what spooked the chickens this evening as there were several molehills in their run when I went to see what the problem was.

 

How on earth do you get rid of them? So many conflicting solutions on the internet, from smelly rotting vegetation to castor oil and toy windmills.

 

Anyone have any tried and tested methods they would care to share?

[Blackrocksrock]

Was told by an old mole catcher to poke a sprig of holly down the run holes!!! Or try a hose pipe.

[Purplemaniacs]

We have had problems with moles on the archery field. In the end due to health and safety we had to get a man in, he is on an annual contract and deals with them. We don't have any real problems with them any more.

 

But at school we have awful problems with the runs making the field very uneven and dangerous. They also have a man but he does not appear to be as successful as the archery man for some reason perhaps it is the location of the fields.

 

In the past school has tried various other mole friendly methods and none were successful.

 

Good luck!

 

Chrissie

[Cat tails]

Here in Holland you can buy Mole traps. Very easy to use and very effective. You don't have to bait them with earthworms....

It's a big clamp that you stick down the hills and when they surface, they are caught.

[Blackrocksrock]

Look under Sonic Mole scarers - my friend in the states uses them and they keep the moles off the lawns.

[Mrs Webmuppet]

We have a mole in our garden......it keeps digging under the chicken run....Little Miss Webmuppet can't decide wether it's brave or stupid digging under there!

[Charlottechicken]

Thanks for your replies.

 

Mole has been busy in the chicken run again and scared the living daylights out of the girls! He appears to not be quite as active now so maybe he has completed his network of runs? Mum did stick the hosepipe down a few of his holes and flooded the tunnels, I don't think he's been back to those yet, but he is still around.

 

I will look out for sonic mole scarers but not sure if it would affect the chickens. We had a cat scarer years ago but I could hear it, and it was very annoying!

 

It might be something we have to live with out here

[Beantree]

You can buy scissor traps from the agricultural merchants. They are placed in the runs which go between mole hills and covered over to exclude all light leaving the handles poking out. You can see when the trap has been sprung by the position of the handles. You may have to wait a week. Bit gruesome, but effective.

 

Old timers used to bury hawthorn, which cuts the moles and they slowly bleed to death. Not humane so we have never tried that.

 

In America we used to see windmills on flexible wire poles stuck in the gardens. The wind induced vibration is supposed to discourage moles, but the two we brought back had no effect on ours whatsoever.

[Charlottechicken]

I really don't want to kill moley if I can help it, just discourage him.

 

It appears to be one we have at present, as some days there are up to six new molehills, they are in garden areas where plants are growing so pretty hard to spot (or the chicken run!). If we get more then maybe we will have to trap them

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Apparently if you put a wine bottle (or similar) in the mole hill, neck upwards, the noise of the wind over the bottle will discourage the mole.

[Alis girls]

OH announced a few weeks ago we had moles. They were anthills

[Cat tails]

[Valkyrie]

Tiny moles then!

 

We've been lucky up till now. Don't know why they don't venture up here - they are across the road and down the hill and have been around for years. When my mum lived up the road from here Holy Moley drove her potty. Well it gave my dad something to do - he was always in favour of flushing them out. When I was young he did the same when they had mole issues - only it was a very big brown mole. I never knew moles had long tails. And I believed him.

 

When we were away this weekend we were having a sit down in the B&B garden and watched 2 moles having a barney on the lawn and then went their own ways - one stuck around and often went walking over the grass - so unusual that we filmed it! Although B&B farm lady said "why didn't you kill it?" Er nope, can't do that. But pointed out it's run and track - it seemed to like the same way because a little groove was worn on top of the grass! Claustrophobic mole?

 

She said they have a mole man but he also wasn't particularly brilliant. He is paid on production of his catch - she reckoned he may have some to hand and just walks around and then says look what I found. £££ please! And then she said 3 more hills arrived soon after!