Moles have two kinds of tunnels.
1. Feeding tunnels. That area of the lawn that looks like a wrinkled up carpet.
2. Highway tunnels (for lack of a better term). Those are the tunnels they use to get from home to work.
Those are the long, vein like tunnels with the occasional mound of dirt.
It is just about impossible to trap them in the feeding areas because it is so large and random.
Likewise, it is just about impossible to trap them in any mounds that they make. Mounds are where they push excess dirt up and out of their tunnels. If you dig up a tunnel, you will see two holes. If you dig up a mound, you will usually see only one hole. Setting a trap on a mound means the mole will have to push a bunch of dirt up, triggering the trap from underneath and not going between the scissors of the Out O Sight trap. Also, he may push so much dirt up that spike type traps won't reach down far enough to stab him.
The best place to trap them is in the highway tunnels.
Use the heel of your shoe to depress the tunnel every 10' or so. Check it again in 24 hours. If a mole comes through, it will pop your heel print back up. This indicates an active tunnel and that is where you should set your trap.
The Out O Sight trap is like two sets of scissors with a trigger between them.
Use your heel again and press down the tunnel in one spot.
Lay the un-set trap down across the tunnel so that it goes tunnel, scissors, trigger, scissors, tunnel, then use a small spade to cut slits down across the tunnel where each of the scissors will go. These two slits will make it easier for you to place the set trap.
Use the spring bars to set the trap and engage the safety hook. Keep the spring bars on the trap and keep a good grip on them. Use them as a handle to insert the two scissors into the two slits and push the trap down so that the trigger bar goes into the depression that your heel made. Make sure the trigger bar has good contact with the soil.
Slowly release the spring bars and remove them from the trap.
CAREFULLY unhook the safety hook.
Now, if a mole comes through the tunnel from either direction it will encounter a collapsed tunnel. By its nature, it will try to open the tunnel back up. In doing so, it will have to pass between the open blades of one set of scissor or the other and attempt to push the dirt up. As it pushes the dirt up under the trigger, it trips the trap and is pinched, usually right in the rib section, by one of the sets of scissors. And that's that.
When you set it, you should never need to put a bucket over it to block light in the tunnel, because there should be no light from you setting it. The only reason for a bucket would be to keep pets, small animals, and lawnmowers from messing with the trap.
To set it in deeper tunnels, you dig out a cross section of the tunnel as wide as the trap. Make sure you place the trap so that either tunnel enters the trap through the open set of scissors. Remove the trap from the hole, set a piece of sod in the hole so it blocks both tunnel entrances. Set your trap so that the trigger is snug against the sod. The sod will block the light from the tunnels. Again, if the mole enters from either side, it will encounter the collapsed tunnel and try to push the sod up, against the trigger.
The only place I have had trouble setting this trap is in really dry, sandy soil. The sand tends to fall out from under the trigger rather than being pushed up against it. You can drill a hole in the trigger and a canning jar lid and pop-rivet the lid to the trigger to make a larger trigger area. Then use some sod from a different location under the trigger in the bottom of the sandy hole. That usually works.
Hope that helps. Happy hunting. :thumbsup:
