Moles! How to find the runs?

[MossRoad]

We just ignore them up North. They dig up the lawn in Spring for a bit after the thaw, then we see no further signs of them.

I used to ignore them too. They are actually benificial, in that they aerate the soil.

However, they undermined our swimming pool, the liner broke, and 12,500 gallons of water went through our garage in about 4 minutes.... :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Here's the write-up of how I set the Victor Out O Sight mole trap.... been successful with this method well over 300 times.

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.

 

[tonyq60]

Get some road flares and stick one in a tunnel then light it and cover the hole.

That can Gas them

 

[teejk]

Moles don't hibernate. They just go down as deep as the worms and bugs do in winter.

Don't try and trap the mounds. Mole traps are designed to go vertically across a tunnel, catching the mole as it moves from one side of the trap towards another, not UP towards the trap. A mole mound or mole hill (mountain out of a mole hill) is formed by the mole pushing dirt UP and out of its tunnels. It will trigger the trap well before the mole gets anywhere near it.

So, if you see mounds, but no tunnels, that means the tunnels are deep and the only way to find them is to dig down. You CAN trap the mound areas, but it takes some digging.

First, scrape the mound off and into a bucket.

Then, take a spade and dig a cone out around the tunnel, kind of a hole like a tree spade would dig. Pop the whole plug out in one piece if you can. Make sense?

With any luck, you should see a tunnel or two coming UP somewhere around the edge of the hole you just dug. If not, gently probe around till you find it.

Once you find it, think vertical...

Get yourself a Victor Out O Sight mole trap.

These things are meant to be set horizontally over a tunnel so that if the mole comes from either direction, it will pass through the open scissors, push a dirt plug UP under the trigger pan, trigger the pan and catch itself between one of the two scissor jaws. But they can be set vertically if you're careful, and think about how it would look if the tunnel were vertical, and use a sod plug under the trigger pan.

If you're not familiar with this type of trap, you can search TBN and there's a write-up I did on how to set these traps.

I've trapped several hundred moles on our one (yes 1) acre.

Another good source of information is Mole control, biology and trapping help, 1986, professional, author, tom schmidt | The Mole Man
LOTS of good information.

Around here the mole mounds are pretty big this year...guessing 12" or more in diameter and maybe 10" high. Tells me they are running deep for some reason...maybe because we had a wet fall and spring and the food went deeper.

 

[mapper]

Moles aren't protected, but certain traps are illegal.

How do I get rid of moles on my property? | WDFW Help

Bruce

But amazingly it is not illegal to sell or own body gripping mole traps in Washington!
And it is really really unlikely that your neighbors are going to complain or turn you in, in fact if your any good at using them they will be asking you to show them how!
Got a neighbor who gives lessons, her body count is in the hundreds now!

 

[mapper]

There is only ONE way to deal with em:

Rodenator :3 Spot 29 - YouTube

A former coworker had one of those, I asked how well it worked. He said "it was a lot of fun". "OK, I'm sure it is, but how well does it get rid of the moles?" I asked. "It's really a lot of fun" he replied.
He unfortunately passed away a year or so later after a long battle with cancer. At his memorial service his next door neighbour reflected on the fact that he would no longer have dirt and gravel raining down on the neighborhood from his efforts to control the moles in his back yard.:laughing:

 

[ultrarunner]

But amazingly it is not illegal to sell or own body gripping mole traps in Washington!
And it is really really unlikely that your neighbors are going to complain or turn you in, in fact if your any good at using them they will be asking you to show them how!
Got a neighbor who gives lessons, her body count is in the hundreds now!

I was looking at a Washington home for sale the agent said the owner had a recent gopher survey/study... sometimes I wonder where this is all going... but it could just be I remember a simpler time.

 

[oldballs]

^^^^^:laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[Egon]

If you see a mound of dirt you have located the run.

 

[pmsmechanic]

When I ran a backhoe we used to use a 2' long piece of half inch rod to find wire lines, gas pipes etc. It had a "T" handle welded on top so it was easy enough to push into the ground. The end was flat so you didn't poke through anything. I'll bet it would be easy to find mole runs with a similar tool.