My eyes hurt from reading the Internet too much on this! I’m finding all kinds of contradicting evidence and technics. I can’t find the page now, but a professional mole catcher in the U.K. said the vibrating stakes, poisons, gas, etc. are all fun and games and a waste of time. The moles migrate giving the illusion of having been chased off, just to come back later. He said the only effective way is to trap and kill them.
Here’s another site;
http://www.walcotefarm.co.uk/molecatching/mole_catching.htm
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At least it chases them off my property.
It may depend on the species of voles. I’ve had them repeating burrowing within inches of a vibrating stake.
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Maybe they like the vibrations. That is odd though. Every place is different. Sorry for the mess you have there.
This topic has me confused. The words voles and moles seem to be used interchangeably even though they are very different species. What are we talking about?
There are even two distinct species of voles that I contend with. Pine and meadow. Pine eats the roots and meadow girdles trunks right around the graft union. Both can be equally lethal but pine are more insidious and difficult to control because they are primarily subterranean.
I don’t believe moles ever pose a serious threat to fruit trees in my region. Sometimes they make the earth too loose for establishing annuals when they mine for worms in my rich soil. During drought they also eat certain root vegetables and maybe some tree roots- I don’t know about that.
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You could also try planting certain plants that repel rodents around your trees and garden beds, like Daffodils, Crown Imperials, etc. Not sure exactly how much of an effect these will actually have…but at the very least, you will have a much prettier yard!
The mole kingsnake (Lampropeltis rhombomaculata or occipitolineata) will also follow through vole tunnels to catch voles. But, they are hard enough just to find out in the wild (due to being underground most of the time), much less in any retail stores, lol…
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Pine voles eat my fritillaria.
Well, I have confirmed that moles have killed two male kiwi vines (anyone who grows them knows what a pain in the ass that is), and caused a lot of my other trees and vegetables to lean or even tip over. There’s also random health issues from roots getting torn to shreds on sensitive plants at sensitive times.
I have three scissor traps I’m setting continually, hundreds of times over the last couple of years. But I’ve only caught one. Any idea what I can do to improve my technique With these traps?
Around here, moles eat worms and grubs, etc., but seldom eat roots…they’re essentially carnivores. The consuming of plants above and below ground that involves tunneling creatures is done by gophers (bigger tunnels, distinctive dirt mounds, below ground damage, and will pull a plant down into the ground), and voles (smaller tunnels, trails in the grass, no mounds, above ground girdling, as well as root eating.) We don’t have the thing called ground squirrels.
Different critters require different techniques. I trapped all the gophers out of here a few years ago and just now have found signs of a new one. Pulled a tiny new wild plum tree right into the ground and left a little hole. Unfortunately, the old tunnels still work so there is very little evidence of the exact whereabouts of the new renter. Quick action is paramount: they can make 10 new gophers in a year.
I would bet 25¢ that you are chasing gophers. I use these traps and have caught many. It took a while before I caught any but once I did I started to see what was required. One thing that I think is essential is: use two traps, one each facing both directions. The depth of your tunnel suggests it’s an arterial, not a main thoroughfare…but it should still work. The main tunnels are even deeper.
It’s OK to dig a bigger hole; give yourself and the traps some room to operate. Try to make the cinch arms pretty flush with the tunnel walls, and you may need to stabilize the traps so they won’t be pushed backwards by the gopher, whether purposefully or accidentally. I use a chunk of dirt between the two butt ends.
It seems that the gophers run along the tunnel ‘blindly’ whether there is some light or not (less is better, though) and they are fast…so they just run into the trap. Make it an easy target to run right up to the trigger. No need to tightly seal up the top. I think the air coming into the tunnel signals to them that something is wrong…not positive, but air flow is not a deterrent. Check it every day; don’t let a deceased one stay there long; and if the trap has been sprung, remove the dirt and reset it; they seem to look at it as a persistent problem more than a danger zone. Also, if possible cover the hole with something that doesn’t smell too foreign. I use an old, weathered piece of plywood or something that’s been outside for a while.
I’m pretty sure these are moles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taZVI239aXc&feature=youtu.be
Couple of things:
They tend to favor rootball areas around sensitive trees. I’m guessing this is because there’s a lot of bugs there from being continually watered and good quality soil. This is why they are a problem in the first place. Also, if I start digging around in there to set traps I’m ripping more rootes out and causing even more damage.
Most of the garden is quite shallow. For example, the video I initially linked, the soil hits solid rock after about a foot. That makes a lot of the more holes fairly close to the surface.
Yep they do kill small trees. Many years ago I lost two 4 foot apples to mole tunnels. The trees started dying and on further investigation they had hardly any root system, just a bunch of mole runs.
This spring I lost 2 small apples in my nursery orchard to moles. The tunnels went right under the trees. I caught them in one of those black hole traps, but they were wily, it took a couple of tries.
You’re exactly right.
What a coincidence, I just checked the traps tonight, and the example hole I took the video of caught one.
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Agree on all points. I’ve had the same issues with moles but not nearly as often or as severe as with gophers, but moles are indeed drawn to the worm fests that happen near the watered plants. Those are some pretty sizeable moles which is one reason I assumed gophers, looking at the tunnels. Ours are small and essentially black-furred.
Well, it took me a while to really figure out the trick to catching gophers, but then I got many in a short time and cleaned them out. I hope some pattern becomes evident re: your moles. One down side is that moles are beneficial predators along with their destructive side. Good luck.
Castor oil spray…or granular with 20% castor oil…will chase them away for around 90 days. Or, you can go with poisons or traps.
been noticing an increased amount of mole activity in my yard…so much so that I almost tripped in one of the holes…In addition to creating pathways for the water to erode the soil when it rains, they’ve kill patches of grass by tunneling out underneath it…so, yesterday I got out my victor out of site traps and within in a couple of hours had my first victim…
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was never quite able to get the hang of this trap, but I finally did…very effective…victim #2, I’m not sure how many others there are in the yard, but I found some other runs and reset my traps…will see what happens.
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I need to get a few scissor traps. The ground vibrators do a great job but now they are way out on my orchard area in a different acreage area. The scissor traps seem to do a great job. Looks like there is a trick to planting and using them though.
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took me some time to get good with the scissor style trap but once I figured it out they work great…the key is to find their travel tunnel and that’s where you want to set. the moles go with the path of least resistance so packing the sides of the tunnel down good is important…there are some really good videos on youtube that walk through the process. check them out and you’ll be trapping moles in no time.
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TY, they are ruining my yard this fall.