davesl708
Elite Member
Same here Mike. The war was total and full time. Death to all moles!:m1helmet:
Getting rid of Moles/Voles
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Same here Mike. The war was total and full time. Death to all moles!:m1helmet:
MossRoad
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My neighbors would laugh at me each spring because at the first sign of moles, I'd grab my 6 traps, setting arms, orange flags and hand trowel and start hunting. We'd call that "Opening Day."
Our township pays $2 a pair for gopher feet. A few years back this guy in his 80's stopped and asked if he could trap my gophers and I said, "sure". I gave him $2 a pair so he made $4 a gopher with what the township pays. As I recall, he took something like 120 gophers at my place that summer!
It was good for a long time after that. But this year it's insane. I mean really, really bad. I got the gopher plow out a few weeks ago and put down poison about every 30 feet. Heaviest I've ever poisoned. I'm hoping its going to help! Oh...and the township pays for the poison, too!
It was good for a long time after that. But this year it's insane. I mean really, really bad. I got the gopher plow out a few weeks ago and put down poison about every 30 feet. Heaviest I've ever poisoned. I'm hoping its going to help! Oh...and the township pays for the poison, too!
dragoneggs
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Our township pays $2 a pair for gopher feet. A few years back this guy in his 80's stopped and asked if he could trap my gophers and I said, "sure". I gave him $2 a pair so he made $4 a gopher with what the township pays. As I recall, he took something like 120 gophers at my place that summer!
It was good for a long time after that. But this year it's insane. I mean really, really bad. I got the gopher plow out a few weeks ago and put down poison about every 30 feet. Heaviest I've ever poisoned. I'm hoping its going to help! Oh...and the township pays for the poison, too!
I would gladly pay a small fee for mole feet!
Good idea... might try that myself :laughing: I spend more time dinking around with the several I have trying different angles of attack setting in the holes.
ullinghair:
MossRoad
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- Go to Home Depot and buy a 100 pack of orange flag stakes for $8.00.
Empire 3.5 in. x 2.5 in Glo Orange Flag Stakes (100-Pack)-78-002 - The Home Depot
- Use your heel to press down the tunnels every 10 feet or so to collapse them (never trap the mounds, it doesn't work well) and mark each indentation with a flag. The next time the mole comes through, it will open the tunnel, pushing your indentation back up.
- Check the indentations every day. If it doesn't pop up in 3-4 days, try somewhere else.
- When you find an active tunnel, make two slices about 5" apart across the tunnel on each side of the pushed up indentation, perpendicular to the direction the tunnel runs.
- Remove the sod between the slices and find out how far down the tunnel is. Surprisingly, it can be almost a foot down and still lift your grass.
- Make the bottom of the hole you removed the sod from even with the bottoms of the tunnels on each end of the hole.
- Remove enough dirt from the bottom of the piece of removed sod so that the piece of sod is now the same thickness as the diameter of the tunnel. This will be your plug.
- Set that piece of sod into the hole.
- Cock your your Victor Out O Sight mole trap, engage the safety, and, using the setting bars, put the trap in the hole so that the opened jaws are straddling each end of the tunnel.
- Push it down until the trigger is resting firmly on the sod plug. While firmly holding the setting bars, push the trap trigger against that sod plug until it trips.
- Now adjust the trigger pan on the trigger rod so its right on the edge of tripping. This is how you get a hair trigger out of these traps.
- Once you have it set for hair trigger and sitting on its own weight on the sod plug, carefully release the safety THEN release the setting bars so that they drop to either side of the trap.
- Remove the setting bars carefully.
The trap is now set. When the mole comes from either direction, it will go through the open jaws, bump its nose against the sod plug, figure the tunnel has collapsed, then push under the sod plug to lift it up. That will trigger the trap and usually get the mole right behind the head, on the neck, and kill it pretty fast. You don't want them to suffer.
For lighter soil where there is no sod to hold it together, the soil may fall out from under the trigger before it trips. Drill a hole through the trigger pan and pop rivet or sheet metal screw a canning jar lid to the trigger pan to increase the surface area of the trigger. It works.
I don't like killing animals. I only do it because they have damaged my pool, sidewalks and driveway. Repellents, chewing gum, car exhaust, etc... don't work. Chemically removing their food source probably causes more environmental damage than just removing the mole. Try to be humane as possible and dispatch the animal as efficiently as possible.
Empire 3.5 in. x 2.5 in Glo Orange Flag Stakes (100-Pack)-78-002 - The Home Depot
- Use your heel to press down the tunnels every 10 feet or so to collapse them (never trap the mounds, it doesn't work well) and mark each indentation with a flag. The next time the mole comes through, it will open the tunnel, pushing your indentation back up.
- Check the indentations every day. If it doesn't pop up in 3-4 days, try somewhere else.
- When you find an active tunnel, make two slices about 5" apart across the tunnel on each side of the pushed up indentation, perpendicular to the direction the tunnel runs.
- Remove the sod between the slices and find out how far down the tunnel is. Surprisingly, it can be almost a foot down and still lift your grass.
- Make the bottom of the hole you removed the sod from even with the bottoms of the tunnels on each end of the hole.
- Remove enough dirt from the bottom of the piece of removed sod so that the piece of sod is now the same thickness as the diameter of the tunnel. This will be your plug.
- Set that piece of sod into the hole.
- Cock your your Victor Out O Sight mole trap, engage the safety, and, using the setting bars, put the trap in the hole so that the opened jaws are straddling each end of the tunnel.
- Push it down until the trigger is resting firmly on the sod plug. While firmly holding the setting bars, push the trap trigger against that sod plug until it trips.
- Now adjust the trigger pan on the trigger rod so its right on the edge of tripping. This is how you get a hair trigger out of these traps.
- Once you have it set for hair trigger and sitting on its own weight on the sod plug, carefully release the safety THEN release the setting bars so that they drop to either side of the trap.
- Remove the setting bars carefully.
The trap is now set. When the mole comes from either direction, it will go through the open jaws, bump its nose against the sod plug, figure the tunnel has collapsed, then push under the sod plug to lift it up. That will trigger the trap and usually get the mole right behind the head, on the neck, and kill it pretty fast. You don't want them to suffer.
For lighter soil where there is no sod to hold it together, the soil may fall out from under the trigger before it trips. Drill a hole through the trigger pan and pop rivet or sheet metal screw a canning jar lid to the trigger pan to increase the surface area of the trigger. It works.
I don't like killing animals. I only do it because they have damaged my pool, sidewalks and driveway. Repellents, chewing gum, car exhaust, etc... don't work. Chemically removing their food source probably causes more environmental damage than just removing the mole. Try to be humane as possible and dispatch the animal as efficiently as possible.
MossRoad
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What I like about the Victor Out O Sight traps is that using the above method, you can set it at any depth that you need. Without digging out a hole or jamming your fingers into the ground, you have no idea how far under the surface the tunnel is. That's why I don't like those traps that you step on to set, or the spike-type impaling traps. Choker loop traps work, but again, only if you set it deep enough so that the tunnel exits through the loops. Plus, the choker loop traps don't kill very fast at all and that's not very humane. :thumbdown:
MossRoad
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I had a nice pictorial of how to set these traps that I did on countrybynet back in 2004, but the pictures are no longer there.
square1
Veteran Member
Most excellent post! Thanks.
MossRoad
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One caution about using those orange flags.... you put 30-40 of those things in your yard and its guaranteed some neighbor will call code enforcement or the building department on you because they think you're building or doing sewer work illegally! :laughing:
dragoneggs
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Or be misconstrued as a UAV landing site.