MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,990
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
<font color="blue"> The moles surrendered and moved on. I guess they give up easily. </font>
Yes, they are smart little dudes, for sure. They are territorial and oportunistic. From what I have read, they mate in the early spring. The female then goes off to some nice dry warm place(like under my above ground pool /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif) to have 4-6 babies. She feeds them for a while, then kicks them out. They then fight over the tunnels the rest of the year. If you kill one, others will use the tunnels... why should they dig new ones if they can use someone else's, right. So, if you make it less habitable for them, the better. However, you can end up compacting your soil and damaging your grass with too much rolling.
Really, I don't mind them diggin up my lawn. They are interesting little creatures. But they have ruined my above ground pool. They popped one liner, causing a blowout. The mole and my poolside landscaping didn't survive. It caused a two foot deep washout and 12,500 gallons of water left in about 5 minutes, right through one of my garages. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I filled and compacted all the mole tunnels and replaced the liner, but the pool wall was eggshaped from the blowout, so the liner wouldn't fit. It was fall, so I removed the liner and stored it in the garage with the intention to fix things in the spring. Well, in the spring I ran into the liner with a spinning weed eater! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Put a huge, unrepairable gash in it! Ouch!!! Bought a third liner and installed it. Several weeks later I had multiple tunnels appear under the liner and that was all I could take. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif The neighbor saw my frustrations and gave me a Nash choker loop trap. He said that he could never catch a mole with it, but I was welcome to try. Well, I didn't catch any moles for several weeks and started searching the internet. I found that moleman site, followed his directions and started nailing them. Sometimes several a day. I've been on their case ever since. I now have it down to perimeter protection. Every time I see new tunnels on the outskirts of our property, I set the traps. I'm usually successful within 24 hours of seeing a new tunnel. Next time I set a trap, I'll take some pictures. It might be helpful.
Yes, they are smart little dudes, for sure. They are territorial and oportunistic. From what I have read, they mate in the early spring. The female then goes off to some nice dry warm place(like under my above ground pool /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif) to have 4-6 babies. She feeds them for a while, then kicks them out. They then fight over the tunnels the rest of the year. If you kill one, others will use the tunnels... why should they dig new ones if they can use someone else's, right. So, if you make it less habitable for them, the better. However, you can end up compacting your soil and damaging your grass with too much rolling.
Really, I don't mind them diggin up my lawn. They are interesting little creatures. But they have ruined my above ground pool. They popped one liner, causing a blowout. The mole and my poolside landscaping didn't survive. It caused a two foot deep washout and 12,500 gallons of water left in about 5 minutes, right through one of my garages. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I filled and compacted all the mole tunnels and replaced the liner, but the pool wall was eggshaped from the blowout, so the liner wouldn't fit. It was fall, so I removed the liner and stored it in the garage with the intention to fix things in the spring. Well, in the spring I ran into the liner with a spinning weed eater! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Put a huge, unrepairable gash in it! Ouch!!! Bought a third liner and installed it. Several weeks later I had multiple tunnels appear under the liner and that was all I could take. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif The neighbor saw my frustrations and gave me a Nash choker loop trap. He said that he could never catch a mole with it, but I was welcome to try. Well, I didn't catch any moles for several weeks and started searching the internet. I found that moleman site, followed his directions and started nailing them. Sometimes several a day. I've been on their case ever since. I now have it down to perimeter protection. Every time I see new tunnels on the outskirts of our property, I set the traps. I'm usually successful within 24 hours of seeing a new tunnel. Next time I set a trap, I'll take some pictures. It might be helpful.
