Pilot
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2004
- Messages
- 1,208
- Location
- Oregon
- Tractor
- JD 770, Yanmar 180D, JD 420 (not running), had a Kubota B6200
I've never had any luck killing moles. 3 Victor Out O'Sight traps, in 24 years, 1 kill, but I admit I wasn't trying all the time. Tried a mound of dirt under the trigger, they just dug around it, under or over it, never thru it. Used a rock under the trigger, no luck. A friend came over with his blaster and a few weeks later the mounds appeared again (maybe new moles, illegal aliens from the neighbors). He also showed me how to gas them by pouring sulfur down the hole and burning it with a weed burner which produced poisonous gas, (don't try this, burning sulfur is listed as very toxic) which had about the same result as the blaster. I tried a "Molecat" a sort of gun that fires .27 caliber blanks used in construction. The dirt the mole was pushing forward and which fired the gun absorbed the blast & I could hear the mole laugh at it. I had just about given up, but I had put in new lawn last year & the the moles invaded in regimental forces.
Then someone told me about Christine. Christine lives half a mile away and someone pointed out that her lawn was like a carpet, zero mole mounds.
Christine came over and gave me a lesson in mole trapping. Showed me how to set the Victor traps, but said they aren't very good--no news to me--and said Trapline traps (Welcome to Trapline Products) are much better. Showed me how to set the Trapline trap and suggested sticking a flag (a plastic flag about 3" X 3" and attached to a wire) thru the loop on the end of the trap to keep a wounded mole from dragging the trap into the tunnel.
Finally went trapping less than a week ago. Set my 2 Victors and my 4 Traplines. Checked the Victors every day or two, but not the Traplines because you can't check them without pulling them partly out of the tunnel, then you have to reset the trap in the tunnel, that you have messed up and that may not work well.
But today, I decided to dig them up and move the traps to a different area, assuming I hadn't caught anything, since I had such bad luck in the past.
Score: Traplines, 2 kills, one probable and one zero. Victors, defeated with a score of zero, as usual. The probable was where I forgot to set the flag and in digging up the hole the trap was gone. Probing the tunnels didn't result in anything, so a wounded mole may have dragged the trap further down the tunnel.
Gonna order more traps & they won't be Victors.
Then someone told me about Christine. Christine lives half a mile away and someone pointed out that her lawn was like a carpet, zero mole mounds.
Christine came over and gave me a lesson in mole trapping. Showed me how to set the Victor traps, but said they aren't very good--no news to me--and said Trapline traps (Welcome to Trapline Products) are much better. Showed me how to set the Trapline trap and suggested sticking a flag (a plastic flag about 3" X 3" and attached to a wire) thru the loop on the end of the trap to keep a wounded mole from dragging the trap into the tunnel.
Finally went trapping less than a week ago. Set my 2 Victors and my 4 Traplines. Checked the Victors every day or two, but not the Traplines because you can't check them without pulling them partly out of the tunnel, then you have to reset the trap in the tunnel, that you have messed up and that may not work well.
But today, I decided to dig them up and move the traps to a different area, assuming I hadn't caught anything, since I had such bad luck in the past.
Score: Traplines, 2 kills, one probable and one zero. Victors, defeated with a score of zero, as usual. The probable was where I forgot to set the flag and in digging up the hole the trap was gone. Probing the tunnels didn't result in anything, so a wounded mole may have dragged the trap further down the tunnel.
Gonna order more traps & they won't be Victors.