Ta da! 2 dead moles!

[MossRoad]

That's something interesting about moles.... when it gets dry, and the worms go deep, the moles go deep, too. And then you don't notice them because their tunnels aren't pushing up your lawn. I also read that they have twice the amount of red blood cells per measure as humans. That's how they can breath in tunnels where oxygen is scarce.

Here's a good read on moles....

Mole control, biology and trapping help, 1986, professional, author, tom schmidt | The Mole Man

 

[dickfoster]

While not as much fun as blowing them up, I think just pumping the hole full of propane or acetylene would do the job. A few sniffs of that and they would die without all the dirt blowing up and destroying the lawn. Since propane is heavier than air, it would stay in the mole tunnel and the mole would either have to exit or die.

I saw a UTube of a guy who plumbed a hose from the exhaust on his car to a gopher or mole tunnel. Carbon monoxide is probably the lowest cost poison gas to use especially with gasoline prices at the current level.

 

[Pilot]

Would probably only work with older cars. Newer cars have cleaner exhaust.

 

[MossRoad]

There's been several reports of people accidentally remote starting their newer cars in attached garages and getting carbon monoxide poisoning. Newer cars are still deadly for CO.

 

[k0ua]

There's been several reports of people accidentally remote starting their newer cars in attached garages and getting carbon monoxide poisoning. Newer cars are still deadly for CO.

Exactly. Newer cars with working catalytic converters don't make as much Carbon Monoxide as older cars of the same displacement. There is nothing changed about fuel air mixtures and the production of Carbon Monoxide. But the CAT converter does change some of it into CO2. Of course the CO2 buildup can displace oxygen and kill you too. Various pollutants are much less with newer cars, but you can't change the basic reaction. You will have a difficult time killing them with the exhaust from your Nissan Leaf or Tesla though. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I just read an article that said some hybrid car (can't recall which one), has a keyless starting system. You can start the car with the FOB in your pocket while you're in the car. The owner could get in and start the car's heater to warm it up, and then exit the vehicle. The car will keep running on electric until the battery discharges enough to cause the gas engine to start up. Then the CO starts pumping. People don't think about stuff like that.... they just don't. The manufacturer of the car had to add software that shuts the car down after a time. I know our 2013 Impala has remote start. You can start it and it will run for something like 8 minutes. It shuts off if you don't get in, put a key in, and turn it. You can remote start it twice. Then it won't remote start again until the key is turned. I think that's to lessen the chanced of CO buildup and/or some EPA thing about running cars? Anyhow, its a good feature.

 

[k0ua]

I just read an article that said some hybrid car (can't recall which one), has a keyless starting system. You can start the car with the FOB in your pocket while you're in the car. The owner could get in and start the car's heater to warm it up, and then exit the vehicle. The car will keep running on electric until the battery discharges enough to cause the gas engine to start up. Then the CO starts pumping. People don't think about stuff like that.... they just don't. The manufacturer of the car had to add software that shuts the car down after a time. I know our 2013 Impala has remote start. You can start it and it will run for something like 8 minutes. It shuts off if you don't get in, put a key in, and turn it. You can remote start it twice. Then it won't remote start again until the key is turned. I think that's to lessen the chanced of CO buildup and/or some EPA thing about running cars? Anyhow, its a good feature.

We had a 2006 Impala with remote start, and we used it some. Mostly when getting ready to come out of a restaurant on a very hot or very cold day and wanted a comfortable car. I would never start a car in our garage. That is just foolish. For one thing there is never a reason to do that. Other than maybe for a few seconds, after you replace the battery (which really really sucked on the 2006 Impala) or the starter.

 

[MossRoad]

We used the remote start on the 2013 Impala quite a bit when it would sit outside. It's nice in that no matter what you have the heater/AC settings on, if its cold, it puts it to full heat and defrost and turns on the rear defroster and melts the ice off all the windows in just a few minutes. In summer, again, no matter what the settings are on, it turns on the AC full blast. As soon as you get in and turn the key, it goes back to whatever manual settings you had it on last.

Our garage is detached, so CO isn't a problem to the house. And we don't use the remote start on it in winter if its stored in the garage (no snow and ice on the windows), with the exception of it being really, really cold, like 0F. Then its nice to run from the house to a warm car. :thumbsup:

 

[oosik]

Some of you have moles, I have pocket gophers. Same problem, slightly different animal. Every once in a while I will go on a trapping jag and catch 25-30 of the critters. Things will look better for a little while. Then here come all their relatives from out of the woods and its right back where it was.

I've gotten lazy in the last few years and not trapped anything. Conditions in the yard have stabilized and there are only a few new gopher mounds every year. As long as they don't damage anything - I can learn to live with the status quo. A lazy man's answer to this situation.

 

[jerrybob]

We have a dog who loves to find and kill moles......he has gotten three in the last week. Unfortunately......he tears up the yard worse than the moles. That boy can dig a hole faster than a backhoe.......kinda of funny to watch him pounce, dig and come up with a mole.

 

[bigdeano]

I tried pumping the tunnels full of propane. Don't think I killed even one. Went thru five gallons of propane. I poison them now, which seems to work almost every time. I use my homemade mole poison concoction.

 

[teejk]

I tried pumping the tunnels full of propane. Don't think I killed even one. Went thru five gallons of propane. I poison them now, which seems to work almost every time. I use my homemade mole poison concoction.

Their tunnels are pretty extensive and I've never seen one without an "exit". I guess if you have an active mound you can step down the path and gas would work...otherwise I think it's like "water down a rat hole".

 

[dickfoster]

Would probably only work with older cars. Newer cars have cleaner exhaust.

I think even new cars still make carbon monoxide. The cat doesn't do anything with that stuff. Less smog maybe but I'm not interested in their air quality anyway. If I wanted to make it smell bad for em and sting their eyes, I'd plumb the tractor up and shoot some diesel exhaust their way.

 

[MossRoad]

I tried pumping the tunnels full of propane. Don't think I killed even one. Went thru five gallons of propane. I poison them now, which seems to work almost every time. I use my homemade mole poison concoction.

Unless you have bodies, there is no proof.

 

[dragoneggs]

Well, I'm glad they are working for you... but no body, no homicide! :laughing:

I don't like traps that an animal can pull away, or that wounds animals and lets them escape, or kills them slowly. That's why I won't use Nash choker loop traps or Victor spike/pluger type traps. Having killed well over a bazillion moles with Victor Out O Sight traps, I'm pretty sure you aren't setting them correctly. No offense meant. You just aren't setting them correctly.

Got 29 my first year. Stopped counting at 50 the next 4-5 years after that. Then less than 10 every year for the past 10 years. So, over 300 in our 1 acre yard. Very few misses. Several dig/under/arounds, but that can be solved with a piece of sod or a stick lain under the trigger perpendicular to the tunnel.

I have a couple Victor's or close facsimiles and have varied success. Surely not as much as I yearn so I much need some education. I see on youtube I am probably not doing it right? I clear out a mound and place there. Now thinking you are supposed to put it mid run? Problem is I can see where the 'runs' are... only the mounds.

 

[MossRoad]

Exactly. Trapping the mounds is usually fruitless. Mounds are where moles put excess dirt, so the tunnel under a mound is usually vertical. If you trap a mound, the mole rarely goes under the scissors part of the trap. It comes straight up under the trigger, and the slug of dirt trips the trap well before the mole gets anywhere near it. You want to trap on horizontal runs only.

 

[MossRoad]

And that's the beauty of the Out O Sight trap. Once you've located an active, vertical run, no matter what the depth, you can set the Out O Sight trap parallel to the run so a mole coming from either direction in the tunnel will have to go in between the scissors on either end of the trap, and then trigger the pan, pinching it and killing it.

 

[dragoneggs]

And that's the beauty of the Out O Sight trap. Once you've located an active, vertical run, no matter what the depth, you can set the Out O Sight trap parallel to the run so a mole coming from either direction in the tunnel will have to go in between the scissors on either end of the trap, and then trigger the pan, pinching it and killing it.

I feel I am reinvigorated... can't wait to get at 'em again!

 

[MossRoad]

I find active runs quite often along fences, driveways, sidewalks... anything with an edge. If you find a mound, sometimes its easier to just scoop up the dirt, pack down the area and walk away from it rather than getting frustrated trying to trap the mound. When you do see a run, step on it with your heel to press it closed. If its an active run, the mole will come back within a day or two and re-open the tunnel where your heel pressed it closed. THAT'S where you want to set your trap.

Lay the trap parallel to the tunnel to gauge how wide to make your hole. With a trowel or shovel, cut down across the tunnel on both ends of the trap so the hole is just a spec longer than the trap. Pull out the sod plug between the cuts and set aside. Now dig down on each end of the hole until you find the tunnel holes on each end of your fresh hole. Don't dig down farther than the bottom of the tunnel if you can help it. You want firm dirt at the bottom. So now you should have a rectangular hole the width of your trap, with a tunnel entrance on each end, and a piece of sod that is the exact same size as the hole. Set the sod piece down in the bottom of your hole, so that there is no air space under the sod plug. Then set your trap and push the scissors points into the dirt so that each set of scissors straddles a tunnel entrance on either end, but the top of the scissors gap is not lower than the top of the tunnel entrances. That way the mole won't feel the steel on its head when it comes to going under the scissors. Make sure the trigger pan is set firmly against the sod plug.

So, it works like this... the mole comes down the tunnel and finds it blocked by the sod plug. The mole won't go up, because moles don't like sun. So when it finds a blocked tunnel, it will instinctively push under the blockage, which is your sod plug. As it noses forward, it passes through one of the sets of scissors, while pushing the sod plug up against the bottom of the trigger. If the sod plug is solid, and the dirt under the plug is firm, the trigger will trip the trap and pinch the mole usually right behind its front legs. And that's that.

If your soil is sandy, sometimes this doesn't work, as the sand will fall away from the sod plug. If your sod plug is weak, it may not trip the trigger. You can pop-rivet a canning jar lid to the trigger to increase the surface area of the trigger. That works well. And you can firm up the sand with some sticks or leaves. That works well too.

Good luck. Its a learning process.

 

[k0ua]

Good luck. Its a learning process.

Mole killer...