How to catch a mole in the garden and plot: the most effective way

We fight moles with our own hands

Unfortunately, home remedies for moles do not always help, or only save for a while.
However, some of them need to be tried before resorting to more serious methods. Over-watered soil can cause moles to dig tunnels close to the surface, so reducing the water in the garden will help alleviate the problem.

Moles feed on worms and insects, so fighting the latter will help drive the animals away from the area.

Castor oil is a very popular ingredient in the fight against moles. You can prepare your own product based on it. To create a concentrate, mix 200 ml of castor oil and 3 tbsp. liquid soap or dishwashing detergent. The resulting mixture should be diluted at the rate of 30 ml per 4 liters of water. Distribute the solution over the surface of the area. It is best to do this after rain or watering.

Protecting your territory from moles and getting rid of them is a very difficult task, especially when there are a large number of “uninvited guests.” However, it is not always necessary to resort to radical measures. Using natural control methods along with home remedies, including reducing soil moisture levels and controlling insects, can simply force moles to change their habitat.

We use scented products

Repelling moles with smells is not much more difficult than with noises - just bury the odorous agent in the animals' passages or near them.

Perhaps the simplest and at the same time popular way to get rid of moles using such means is to place rotten fish in the passages of the animals. In this case, you usually proceed as follows:

1. Any fish can be used, including the most inexpensive ones (in particular, herring and sprat are the most popular);
2. The fish is cut into small pieces (and the same sprat may not be cut at all);
3. Then the pieces of fish are left outside for several days, out of reach of pets;
4. When the fish gives off a characteristic odor, a piece of it will need to be placed in holes dug in the ground in all detected near-surface mole passages.

People who have been helped by this method to get rid of moles in their dachas note that the pests go away within 3-5 days after placing the fish.

In addition, instead of spoiled fish, the following options are sometimes successfully used to get rid of moles in a summer cottage:

1. Calcium carbide (technical carbide always contains impurities of calcium phosphide and arsenide, and when interacting with water, it releases not only acetylene gas, but also specific-smelling phosphine and arsine as impurities);
2. Technical fluids - kerosene, gasoline, turpentine, solvents (646, etc.);
3. Acetic acid;
4. Ammonia;
5. Alphos anti-mole tablets (their active ingredient is aluminum phosphide, which releases a strong-smelling and very poisonous phosphine gas upon contact with moisture);
6. Feces of domestic animals, as well as human;
7. Exhaust gas from a car - a hose is put on the exhaust pipe, the end of which is inserted into the mole's hole, after which the car is started and just waited for about 1 hour;
8. Smoke bombs (sulfur, insecticidal-repellent and even just signal).

More pleasant to use and sometimes show good effectiveness are Detia mole balls with the scent of lavender (a product made in Germany). If you use them according to the instructions, burying them in the ground at a depth of 20-30 cm and at a distance of a meter from each other, then sometimes you can get rid of moles quickly enough and for the entire season (though not in all cases either).

What is useful to keep in mind if you suddenly decide to “go crazy” at the dacha:

• Improper handling of calcium carbide can result in ignition and even a dangerous explosion of the acetylene air mixture. Therefore, it is not recommended to fill mole holes with acetylene and then try to set it on fire;
• Similarly, filling mole holes with kerosene, gasoline and other flammable liquids can pose a fire hazard;
• Ammonia (ammonia dissolved in water), which is sometimes used to scare off moles from an area, is very volatile and quickly disappears from the ground, so its effect will be very short-lived;
• Also, bleach, being a very active substance, decomposes very quickly in the ground, completely losing its repellent activity after just a couple of days;
• When using smoke bombs, it is useful to keep in mind that sulfur bombs burn only with good air access, so they will not burn underground and are unlikely to help get rid of moles. But insecticidal smoke bombs (Quiet Evening, City, etc.), as well as signal bombs, may well smolder even underground, however, when using them, you need to be aware that the mole will not crawl out of the ground to the surface to “get some fresh air,” and with a certain probability he will simply die right in his own moves. That is, this option for getting rid of moles in a summer cottage can hardly be considered humane (just like using car exhaust gases).

If you use several different methods of repelling moles at the same time, you can significantly increase your chances of a positive result. Sometimes it is the combination of different options that allows you to get rid of moles that were not repelled by the same means, but used separately.

But suppose you used a combination of repellents, two weeks passed, and you still couldn’t get rid of the moles in the garden or dacha. In this case, we move on to the next stage - catching moles in the area...

Mole trap made from a plastic bottle

So, the first type of trap is a kind of analogue of the commercially available pipe mole trap, but the “locking” element in it works on a slightly different principle.

The photo below shows a mole trap-pipe for comparison:

The mole easily climbs into such a trap, but cannot get out of it. It is implemented as follows:

1. Take a plastic bottle with a capacity of 1.5 liters - it will be the basis of the design. It is not worth taking smaller or larger bottles, because a liter bottle is too narrow, and it is difficult for the animal to climb into it, and a two-liter bottle, on the contrary, is too wide, and often does not fit into the animal’s path;
2. Either the bottom or the neck of the bottle is cut off - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to make a free entrance on one side, and on the other there should be a dead end;
3. Then take a second bottle of the same size, which, in fact, will clog the mole. The dense part of the neck is cut off (on which the cap is screwed), but a “funnel” is left, and the bottom is also cut off (you can even cut off the bottom half of the bottle);
4. In the second bottle, 10-12 longitudinal cuts are made on the tapering part until it becomes a flat part. The result is a kind of long “petals”;
5. After this, the second plastic bottle is inserted with its narrowed part into the open passage of the first, and the junction of the two bottles is secured with tape.

That's all, the mole trap is ready. If you place it in a mole passage, the animal will make its way into it along the second (entrance) bottle: under its pressure, the petals will easily bend and do not prevent it from crawling along the joint line, thereby ensuring unhindered access to the main bottle.

After the animal passes, the petals close again. Here he reaches a dead end, turns around, tries to move back, but runs into narrowed petals that he can no longer move apart. The mole is caught.

This mole trap made from plastic bottles is easy to make with your own hands in about 10-15 minutes.

On a note! The locking principle described above is called “against the grain.” While the petals “stroke” the animal, it calmly moves forward “along the fur.” But the animal can no longer get back out, because it moves “against the grain” of the valve - the petals rest against its face and do not move apart at all.

Not everyone takes into account that this mole trap can be easily improved, increasing its efficiency by approximately 2 times, if both the bottom and the top of the main bottle are cut off, and then “valves” are installed on both sides, allowing the animal to only pass inside. In this case, you won’t have to guess from which side the mole will approach the mole trap in its underground passage. Moreover, as practice shows, if there are several animals on the site, a “double” trap can catch two moles at once.

The video at the end of the article shows the process of making a mole trap with your own hands. However, it is important not only to make the mole trap correctly, but also to install it correctly on the site, since the final result of its work also largely depends on this.

Planting repellent plants

This method of pest control is not as effective when compared with the use of various traps and baits. In addition, achieving results requires patience. However, the advantages include the opportunity to further improve the garden plot.

Among the “live” mole repellents are:

• Flower crops. These include marigolds, sage, calendula, chrysanthemum, irises, petunia, nasturtium, imperial hazel grouse, and Siberian scilla. It is recommended to plant them near the beds. It is also permissible to use infusions based on these plants.
• Garden crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, onions (including decorative ones), garlic, parsley, caraway seeds, dill. The effectiveness of planting crops is due to the high content of phytoncides in them, which have a repellent effect on moles.
• Insecticides of wild origin, some of which are harmful to humans. Among the safe ones are bird cherry, tobacco, spurge, burdock, mustard, and wormwood.

Lethal means

In the fight for territory, you can also resort to the use of pesticides. However, in this case, it will not be possible to exterminate the animals by poisoning the bait due to the fact that moles feed on insects and bugs.

The best option is to use substances and preparations that are distributed in the air space of the soil and act through evaporation.

• Calcium carbide. The use of a solid substance is due to the calcium phosphide and acetylene contained in the composition, the vapors of which are toxic to living beings (including the owner of the site). To achieve the result, you need to place several weighty pieces of carbide in a plastic bottle and pour in water, and place the container itself with the neck inside the underground passage. As a result of a chemical reaction, accompanied by active seething, gas will be released, which will cause significant damage to the health of the animal.
• "Alphos the mole." The principle of operation is approximately the same as in the case of carbide. The product is a tablet with aluminum phosphide. This poison has a destructive effect on both animals and insects. “Alphos mole” is buried in the ground, and when exposed to humidity, toxic gas is released.

• "Detia". A drug intended not to exterminate living creatures, but to repel them. During the use of granules, it is not a poisonous gas that is released, but evaporation of essential oils, the smell of which is unpleasant to moles.
• "STOP-Mole." A specialized product for exterminating earth-moving animals. Presented in the form of tablets that need to be buried in the mink area. It is best to carry out manipulations in the middle of daylight hours when the pest is hibernating.
• Green house ANTICROT. The chemical has a completely different principle of action. Acts as a bait, which contains food elements that enhance the perception of the drug as a source of nutrition. The damaging substance is bromadiolone, which contributes to the deterioration of the blood clotting of an animal or insect. As a result, after a few days the mole rat dies.
  Read also:  Features and types of spiders in Russia - a review of the most unusual and dangerous specimens

We scare away beautifully...

Not many people know that there is a beautiful method to scare away the pest from your territory. There are decorative plants that are not tolerated by moles and they leave. This:

classic narcissus, marigold

Siberian scilla (one of the types of tulips). It spreads itself across the ground, its location can be adjusted

flowering decorative onions and imperial hazel grouse belong to the lily family, safe for people, but not tolerated by moles. Their bulbs smell like fox

marigolds have a pungent odor that is not palatable to the digger, so they repel all pests in summer cottages

Castor bean has the same property, grows as a bush and becomes a living fence. Caper spurge produces a pungent odor that repels moles. Such plants and their berries are poisonous, so you should be careful if there are children on the site

legumes are a radical solution, but acceptable and easily accessible if you sow the entire perimeter of the site with them. They are an excellent natural barrier.

Such methods are humane, environmentally friendly, and the animals will be alive and avoid these areas.

Sometimes gardeners use castor oil; diggers really don’t like its smell. It is necessary to mix two hundred grams of the specified drug and four tablespoons of detergent. For the solution to work, take thirty milliliters and four liters of water. After rain, it is advisable to pour it over an already defined wet area, which will be quickly and deeply absorbed.

To lure moles out of their moves, it is worth trying the flood option, which gives the desired effect. After filling the large tunnel system with water from the water supply, they will be forced to come to the surface and look for a dry place for themselves. But there are contraindications here too:

The whole garden will be flooded

Some plants will spoil

The soaked soil will have to be compacted, and the animal may return, because flooding will not be maintained constantly

A large number of worms will appear, and they are known to be very attractive to moles

During flooding, an air pocket may form in the passages, and the animal has a high speed of digging tunnels, so until the water is absorbed, it can quickly escape.

If possible, a summer resident can combine the above methods - sow repellent plants, put products with a pungent odor in the holes, train a cat or dog.

If the above methods do not help, and there is no more strength left, they resort to the help of specialized services. Professional people will inform you how to deal with moles in the future and save you from such pests right now by placing appropriate devices on the site. There is also a drawback here - the services are not cheap and not every gardener can afford such a luxury.

Rescue from moles is carried out carefully, especially if it is in the singular. It turns out that they can even bring benefits by destroying: root pests

root pests

insects that eat and damage potatoes with holes right through them

May beetle larvae gnawing on flower and vegetable roots

mole crickets destroying seedlings cherished for several months.

All of them often cause more significant damage than the mole rat. By loosening the soil, it makes it fertile, improves drainage, aeration, and saturates the soil with nitrogen compounds. According to agronomists, the soil thrown to the surface has a special quality and can be used for sowing crops for seedlings.

For your information! In Europe, moles are not killed; they are animals listed in the Red Book.

Benefit or harm?

Moles can not only harm the gardener, but also be beneficial. For example, they actively eat mole crickets - the fierce enemies of gardeners. They can significantly reduce the population of various beetles, wireworms, caterpillars of cabbage butterflies and other pests on your site, which can cause great damage to the crop. These mammals also destroy baby rats and mice. Thanks to their keen sense of smell, they quickly find rodent nests and are able to destroy a brood in one go. Another benefit is soil aeration when digging underground passages: loosened soil is well saturated with moisture and has excellent air permeability, which is beneficial for the root system of all plant crops.

However, entire colonies of moles in the garden are dangerous for plants. The harm from moles on a personal plot is much greater than the benefit. 1-2 individuals will not cause serious damage to the crop, but these predators do not remain alone for long. Where there is a female and a male, a litter of moles will soon appear. Finding moles with babies is very difficult, it is almost impossible in large areas. Some gardeners fill the passages with water, but such measures are useless, since in case of danger the family will quickly find a safe dead end.

Here are a few consequences of moles infesting a garden.

1. In search of food, a female with a male and a grown brood can turn over up to 5 acres of land on a site in a day. As a result, a well-groomed area loses its aesthetics due to the appearance of numerous passages and piles of soil.
2. One adult mole is capable of digging tunnels with a total length of 15-20 m or even more in a day. While making passages, the animals damage various obstacles that they encounter along the way: rhizomes of trees and shrubs, wires, sewer systems, plastic water pipes. Damaged roots of plants planted in the garden quickly dry out and they stop feeding the plantings. As a result, plant crops may become sick (with minor injury to the root system) or even die.
3. Moles are capable of destroying almost all earthworms on the site. This can cause damage to the gardener: the fact is that the worms eat nematodes - microscopic worms that infect the rhizomes of plantings on the site. Due to the lack of “raincoats”, the nematode will actively develop, the soil will become poor, and the plants may soon die.
4. In the process of digging tunnels, predators mix the infertile lower soil layer with the surface nutrient layer. Because of this, the soil becomes poor, and plants may not receive a lot of different fertilizers.

Complex traps

There are also more serious designs of mole traps, the manufacture of which should be approached with great diligence or purchased at a specialized store. Energy and financial costs will be fully compensated by efficiency.

Pinwheel

The use is more aimed at repelling underground pests. To create a pinwheel you will need a metal pin and one or more tin cans.

Choose reinforcement approximately two meters high. It must be firmly stuck into the ground and a makeshift weather vane placed on top. To create it, the tin is cut in three places and the plates are folded back like airplane blades.

Loop trap for mole

You can catch a mole in the garden using this homemade product. There are plenty of drawings and videos of creating a mole trap with your own hands using this principle. They reveal all the intricacies of making the device.

Plunger design

The mole will not be able to survive if such a system is used, and independent production requires certain skills.

The advantages of a purchased device include:

• high power;
• the trigger mechanism is triggered by the movement of the substrate during the restoration of the tunnel by the mole;
• does not require adjustment before installation.

The disadvantages include difficulties during installation and operation on rocky soil, because the mechanism can jam.

How to catch moles with a wire mole trap

It consists of several parts - a guard and a frame made from a single piece of wire with a diameter of 3.2-4 mm. The pressing part is a lever that operates on the principle of a spring. A trap is set in a fresh tunnel, passing through which the mole ends up in a deadly loop. As a result, the animal is nailed to the ground with a force equal to 2 kg.

Press traps

All means of catching moles can be divided into two types:

1. Live traps that allow you to catch an animal without harming it;
2. Lethal traps (traps, snares of various types, fishhooks, etc.), either immediately killing the animal upon capture, or injuring it so severely that the likelihood of its subsequent survival is minimal.

The results of using these types of traps show that the effectiveness of live traps is the same as the effectiveness of means that lead to the death of moles. The question of using one or another type of device ultimately comes down to whether the owner of the property will be too lazy to constantly take the caught animals outside the garden and release them into the wild.

Based on humane considerations, traps and snares are significantly inferior to live traps, and if you can rid the garden of moles without killing the animals, then it is better to choose the gentle option. The use of devices that kill moles is hardly justified killing.

Below, the word “traps” will primarily mean live traps, into which the mole is caught alive and unharmed. However, we will also look at various traps - in order to show with what sadistic methods today some summer residents are trying to fight nature on their plots.

In the case of a competent approach, traps are practically no different from live traps in terms of efficiency and ease of use, however, the use of such lethal means to exterminate moles can be considered to a certain extent senseless cruelty.

Mole crushers

Hunting for moles is quite possible with ordinary mousetraps or rat traps such as crushers. These products are also very inexpensive, sold almost everywhere and very effective.

However, their use is more specific compared to wire traps for two reasons:

1. The guard in standard crushers is triggered when it is pulled, not pushed, and therefore it usually has to be modified with one’s own hands so that it is triggered taking into account the specifics of the mole’s movement in the underground passage;
2. The pressing bracket itself, when thrown, should not cling to the arch of the underground passage or the opaque material that covers the installation site of the trap.

It is also useful to read: Review of the most effective traps for moles

The first problem is solved by filing the loop that secures the guard and onto which the bait is placed. In this case, the guard is triggered when the mole simply tries to remove the loop from its path with its paws. You can also simply put an earthworm or beetle on a loop so that the mole tries to eat it and lowers the guard.

To prevent the bracket from catching on the arch of the passage, the installation site of the crusher is usually covered with a bucket or pan - as a result, the space above the trap is more than enough for it to work normally.

Like wire traps, it is better to place such devices two side by side, with guards pointing them in different directions. In this case, they will almost certainly allow you to catch the mole if it passes along this path.

Description of the mole, habitat, nutrition and reproduction

A black, black-brown or dark gray fur-bearing animal with a rounded body, short hair, no ears, a tail three centimeters long, small barely noticeable eyes, an elongated nose, inverted, shovel-like front paws with sharp claws - this is there is a mole. The length of its body can reach 23 centimeters.

Loose, moist soil, saturated with worms and insect larvae, is a favorable environment for its habitat and reproduction. Moles are predators; they belong to the family of insectivorous mammals. They eat a large amount of food per day. The daily portion is equal to their body weight. The animal is constantly in the process of work, so it must replenish the energy spent.

The mole's "house" is a system of underground tunnels, similar to a labyrinth. Tunnels connect the so-called chambers in which it stores its nutritional reserves. Mice, frogs, mole crickets, lizards, ants, and small snakes can get caught in the traps that the mole creates underground. It comes across earthworms especially actively in winter; in cold times they penetrate deeper layers of the soil in search of warmth, ending up in its passages. The cunning animal just moves through its tunnels and collects food; thanks to its excellent sense of smell, it can eat well.

If a mole has chosen a certain piece of land, this means that its hole occupies several meters in width and depth. Moles live in whole families. Mice can live next to them. It is often possible to identify burrows of moles and shrews in one area.

This animal does not feed on plants or root crops, as many farmers mistakenly believe. Its lifespan is five years. A female mole gives birth to one litter per year.

Prevention measures

To prevent moles from infesting your garden, you need to listen to the advice of experienced gardeners and protect the area on your own.

It is important to take a responsible approach to preventive measures if work is planned ahead to improve soil fertility:

• construction of a compost heap;
• preparing a manure pit;
• mulching with cut grass.

Such organic fertilizers are loved by earthworms, which moles love to eat.

It needs to be dug into the ground to a depth of 50-60 cm, and the fence should protrude above the surface of the ground by about 40-50 cm (since in exceptional cases moles can go to the ground to overcome a deep obstacle). As a fence, you can use slate sheets, thick linoleum or other materials, the main thing is that they are durable and can withstand the powerful claws of moles.

If such protection has been thought out on a land plot, but moles still appear, you should immediately begin to scare them away to minimize the damage from their activities. For better results, it is recommended to use several types of repellers at once, for example, ultrasonic and aromatic. You can also attract a cat - moles can sense a domestic predator and leave the garden.

The design and principle of operation of a mole trap in the shape of a pipe

The essence of the work of a mole trap-pipe is that a mole can very easily, almost effortlessly, climb inside it, but is no longer able to get out. This effect is ensured by a special door design that operates in the “entrance” only mode.

An important point (in case you decide to make the device yourself): the doors should be located at both ends of the pipe, because it is not known in advance from which side of the underground passage the animal will enter the trap. In addition, the length of the pipe should not be too short - this is necessary so that, on occasion, several moles can fit into it at once.

An important advantage of an industrially produced mole trap-pipe is the ability to disassemble it: such a mole trap consists of two parts of the same length, which are joined to each other and latched with a special lock. This is very convenient when releasing a captured animal into the wild: the lock opens, the two parts of the pipe are disconnected, and the mole is carefully shaken out onto the ground.

Although it may seem that a one-piece pipe is somewhat more reliable compared to a collapsible structure (since there is no lock that could break), however, in practice, in this regard, in general, there is not much difference, since it would take to break the lock – we still need to try harder. Thus, perhaps the only significant advantage of a one-piece trap is approximately half the price.

You can see how the mole trap-pipe works and how a mole gets caught in it in the video given at the end of this article.

The mole trap is made with your own hands from a piece of plastic or metal pipe with a diameter of 9-12 cm and a length of 40-50 cm. Two holes are made along the edges, onto which the doors will be attached with hinges.

It is advisable to observe the indicated dimensions, since a large individual will not fit into a pipe that is too narrow, a short pipe will not accommodate several animals at once, and a pipe that is too wide is inconvenient for installation, since it will not correspond to the average diameter of the mole passage.

Further:

1. Two oval-shaped doors are cut from a sheet of aluminum or from the bottom of tin cans. The major axis should be slightly larger than the inner diameter of the pipe, the minor axis should be slightly smaller;
2. At the top, in the narrow part of each door, two holes are drilled;
3. Wire loops are inserted into the holes, the door is inserted into the pipe at an angle of the lower part inward, the loop is put on the hole in the pipe;
4. The same thing is repeated with the second door.

There is also an option in which not loops are used, but a nail inserted transversely into the upper part of the pipe. The door is hung on it using a special bend, which is made after cutting out the door, for example, using pliers.

In both cases, it is useful to make several holes with a diameter of about 1.5 cm in the upper part of the pipe - this will allow you to install the trap once and not constantly remove it for checking - the caught mole will be visible through the holes.

Also very popular is the option of a mole trap made from plastic bottles. In this case, not doors are used, but two necks from other bottles. They make 10-12 longitudinal cuts, first cutting off the hard part onto which the lid is screwed. The resulting “petals” operate as a door that allows access only in one direction—the mole climbs inside by simply pressing on them with his body, and cannot push them apart to get out.

The effectiveness of all these types of traps is approximately the same if they are installed correctly.

Today you can easily buy a pipe mole trap in online stores. Many particularly enterprising citizens have mastered making them with their own hands on a semi-industrial scale, and today there are both imported high-quality traps on sale for 400-500 rubles apiece, dismountable and very convenient, as well as handicraft products, somewhat clumsy and not so pleasant to handle, but they cost almost twice as much.

To cities far from Moscow, some online stores deliver such devices by mail or transport company.

For one plot of up to 10 acres, it is often enough to buy one mole trap-pipe. With the right approach, all the “local” moles are caught in it quite quickly, and in a few days you can catch all the pests on the site (while not forgetting that they may be replaced by new moles after some time).

A quick and inexpensive way to make homemade mole traps is a bottle trap. The fishing object resembles a small piece of pipe, designed to fit the size of the animal, with doors at the ends that open only inward.

To make such a trap, you will need 2 or 3 1.5 liter plastic bottles. For a one-sided model you will need 2 containers, for a double-sided one - 3. The difference between these options is that when making a one-sided trap, the bottom of the main bottle is not cut off, leaving a dead end. Do-it-yourself double-sided plastic mole trap - basic manufacturing steps (for one-sided the principle is similar):

1. Cut off the bottom and neck of one bottle, you will get a small pipe - this is the base.
2. From the other two, cut off the neck, leaving a small funnel, and the upper part, 5-7 cm below the beginning of the narrowing of the bottle upward.
3. On the resulting workpiece, cut the tapering part into ribbons, the length of the expanding part of the bottle.
4. After this, the cut pieces are inserted into the main part with the sharp end in the middle.
5. The animal, crawling along the way, will spread the “ribbons” and fall into a trap from which it will no longer be able to get out.

To quickly catch a mole in the garden using a bottle trap, you need to follow certain recommendations when installing it:

• You will never be able to catch a mole with a trap set in a pile of loose earth. It is recommended to install the mole trap in a fresh horizontal near-surface tunnel.
• When excavating a passage, you need to act extremely carefully so that the damage is minimal.
• After digging a hole, it is recommended to restore the adjacent areas of the mole tunnel.
• The installed trap must be covered with an opaque dark-colored material, and additionally sprinkled with earth on top. Even a small ray of light penetrating into the pit reduces the effectiveness of the device several times.
• To lure the animal, you can put several earthworms inside the trap, because... their smell attracts underground animals.
• After installation, it is recommended to check the trap every 5-7 hours. Due to their fast metabolism, moles can only live for 18-24 hours without food, so this trap can turn into a torture chamber, guaranteeing a painful death for the animal.

How to determine that there are moles on the site

Moles are not the only animals that dig holes in the ground. Mice and gophers do this, but it is not at all difficult to distinguish the life activities of one from the other. You can identify them by the results of their “work,” which are earthen mounds up to 10 cm high if a mole is working underground. In addition, this mound can move, growing in height, which indicates the active phase of its life. In gophers, such mounds have the shape of a horseshoe, and mice dig holes almost at the very surface and their width is about 5 cm. These holes are especially noticeable in the spring, when the snow has melted. In addition, mice feed on the roots and stems of plants, while the mole feeds exclusively on animal food and does not leave such barbaric traces behind.

The most effective way to fight moles.

Watch this video on YouTube

Signs of a mole

The appearance of fresh mounds of earth on the site, which are located at some distance from each other and the soil between them collapses, is the main sign that an uninvited guest has settled. It can ruin a planted lawn, move under the roots of a tree or shrub, or walk through vegetable beds.

The mole is small and harmful.

Harm from a rodent

Although the rodent eats plant foods on rare occasions, it causes a lot of harm. It makes its moves in an area under a layer of soil, damaging roots and bulbs. Moreover, the scale of damage can be great - even trees die.

You can read this article about how to fight moles in a greenhouse. Here is the experience of a gardener with extensive experience.

Effective ways and methods of control

It is very difficult to remove moles from the garden. There are many methods of struggle, but most of them cannot radically solve the problem. And if some method helps some gardeners, it may not be effective for others.

The following methods of fighting moles can be distinguished:

• scaring;
• traps, bait;
• catching by hand, hunting;
• mole beaters.

Moles usually attack an area in families. And in a short time they can quickly dig up many tunnels and cause great damage to the crop. Therefore, the fight needs to start as early as possible.

Repellent

Moles do not like different sounds and noises. They leave the noisy area tens of meters away. As repellers, you can take a variety of homemade or purchased noisemakers and rattles. You can take tin cans and thread them onto a rope. Place around the perimeter of the garden or near holes. They will begin to make noise from the vibrations of the wind. You can use plastic bottles.

It is very difficult to cover a large area with all the homemade scarecrow noisemakers. And if the garden is large, then these control methods will be ineffective. In addition, the neighbors may not like the constant noise.

To prevent sounds and noise from disturbing people, you can purchase ultrasonic repellers. But, as practice shows, they can also turn out to be wasted money. Moles are very smart and careful. They adapt over time to different sounds and do not allow themselves to be deceived. Using the same repelling methods, over time they learn to avoid the danger.

It must be remembered that moles do not hibernate in winter. Therefore, repellers will have to be used all year round. From time to time it is worth changing the sound content so that the animal does not have time to get used to it.

Plants against pests

This is an alternative method of mole control that is not as reliable as other methods. But it can be used as an additional measure. Some plants can repel moles and other pests with their pungent aroma; it is recommended to plant them in the garden next to vegetable crops.

Plants that repel moles:

• Imperial hazel grouse;
• Narcissus;
• Decorative flowering onion (Allium);
• Marigold;
• Euphorbia caper;
• Castor bean.

Important! The fruits of castor beans and euphorbia contain toxic substances and should not be planted where there are children.

Poisons and poison

Since this animal is a predator, various baits with poisons simply may not have an effect on it. Therefore, in order for the fight against moles in this way to be successful, you need to place the bait correctly. First you need to establish the main path of movement of the animal. A metal rod is used for this. Make a hole by turning the dipstick. Dip 1 teaspoon of poison into it so that it falls to the bottom of the passage. Cover the hole with soil. Do this in 4 different places.

Before using any toxic substance, you must carefully study the instructions. Some poisons can have a detrimental effect on plantings. Therefore, it is better to use safer methods in the garden and garden.

Traps and traps

You can try to catch the mole in a trap. There are several models of such traps of the same type. A very effective Solomon's trap. This is a metal pipe about 40 cm long. The diameter should correspond to the diameter of the hole. There are hanging doors on both sides. They can only open inwards. The trap is placed in a tunnel and covered with soil.

Traps are considered an inhumane way to eliminate moles. The result can be achieved if you purchase a trap of the correct design. It is placed in the mole shaft and covered with earth. Theoretically, the mole should touch the valve or spring and the trap will work. But this animal is very smart, it can sense danger and simply avoid it. In addition, the valve may work when the soil collapses or may not work at all.

Mole beaters

These are special electrical devices, of which there are many options. They kill the mole in the hole when it passes a certain area.

Catching with a shovel

Excavate the mound to the hole in the mine and wait for the animal to begin to restore order there. The location of a mole can be determined by its movement in the soil. You need to dig it up with a shovel and throw it in a bucket.

Flooding the hole

This is the most inhumane way to fight. They throw carbide into the hole, run a hose there and turn on the water. Animals suffocate and drown.

Other mole traps, their advantages and disadvantages

No less often than pipe-shaped live traps, slightly less convenient methods of catching moles are used: in buckets, deep pans, glass jars or wide plastic bottles with a cut neck. They are buried in the gap in the mole's passage, the edges are covered with a roller of compacted earth, and the opened passage is covered on top with boards so that sunlight does not enter it.

Moving along the way, the mole simply falls into such a trap “pit” and cannot get out of it. When checking, the animal is taken out with a gloved hand and taken away from the site. This method is also quite effective, although it is more labor-intensive to implement than using a good pipe mole trap.

Unfortunately, moles are also often killed with special traps (crushes, crossbows, snares...) Their designs are varied, but their main disadvantage is the inhumane destruction of animals, which are only to blame for the fact that they turned out to be a person’s neighbors in the area.

But various methods of repelling moles are for the most part less effective than traps. Many of them do not always work (for example, noise, as well as rotten fish, perfume, ammonia, carbide), others are harmful to the soil and its inhabitants (pouring kerosene, gasoline into holes, pouring Alphos tablets, fumigating with insecticidal and sulfur bombs). But the effectiveness of other methods is initially questionable: sticking reeds into the ground, burying feces in underground passages, etc.

In some cases, special mole repellers (not all models on the market) provide a good repellent effect. However, read more about repellers in other articles on our website. And before that, do not forget to leave a review about your personal experience of using a mole trap-pipe, if you have such experience (to leave a review, just write it in the comment field at the bottom of this page).

Another effective, but inhumane method is to catch a mole like a fish on an improvised “donka”.

Too much water can kill plants.

Catching moles using fish hooks

And another barbaric method of catching moles, which is not, in fact, a trap, but allows you to catch and mutilate the animal: a fishing line with fishing hooks (usually triple ones) is used, the end of which is brought out and tied to a pin stuck in the ground or simply to a lying one on the ground with a stick. The mole, moving along, runs into hooks that cling to its body and pierce the skin, and begins to jerk the line, trying to free itself. These jerks can be seen by the movement of the fishing line and the pin, and if you hang a bell on the pin itself, it will also ring at the same time.

When an animal is caught, it is simply pulled out of the hole by the fishing line (who cares if the hooks go deeper into the body or even tear the skin and muscles).

It is clear that the hook can only be removed from the mole’s body by tearing the muscle fibers, or even with a piece of meat. However, people who prefer to catch animals in this way do not really think about how to deal more carefully with the animal, and at best they will not mock it before killing it...

As a result, we can conclude that for successful, efficient and fairly quick catching of moles, it is quite enough to use mole traps in the form of a pipe or pit. Their effectiveness is approximately the same as that of traps (and sometimes even higher), and with their help you can get rid of pests without having to kill, in general, innocent animals.

It is also important to keep in mind that removing moles from a site once does not mean forgetting about them forever. If they entered the garden once, they will be able to do so in the future.

To eliminate the possibility of moles reappearing, the area should ideally be fenced around the entire perimeter with a net or other barrier dug into the ground. This will help prevent a conflict of interests between the gardener and the mole in the future.

If you have your own experience fighting moles using any type of trap, be sure to leave your review at the bottom of this page - perhaps it will help someone draw useful conclusions.

Several practice-tested ways to combat moles on the site

• How to quickly catch a mole in the garden using simple means
• Using a mole trap-pipe to combat moles on the site
• Effective traps for catching moles in the area

Remedies for moles:

Reliable design, can be installed instantly, operates in the tunnel on both sides, and is safe for pets.

A simple, inexpensive and yet very effective mole trap.

Highly effective sound-vibration mole repeller, coverage area up to 750 sq. m.

Features of mole hunting

Only a madman or someone who has no idea what this activity is like would go after this animal with a gun. It may seem to a novice hunter that hunting moles is a pointless and boring undertaking, but this is far from the case. If you taste all the delights of mole hunting just once, you will be captivated by this activity forever and will recommend it to all your friends and acquaintances. Perhaps if every skeptic tried this “strange” activity at least once, his opinion about mole catchers would change significantly.

Material dividends are not all that hunting animals can bring. From an emotional point of view, this type of hunting will allow a new look at nature even for those individuals who “see” it quite rarely. As a rule, moles begin to be hunted when the fields bloom with different colors, the smell of black currants is fragrant in the air, and young mushrooms begin to attract with their recognizable caps. This is the time when the aroma of freshly cut hay and meadowsweet is in the air.

However, despite all the above-mentioned romance, catching moles will not be easy. Like any other craft, this activity requires great dexterity and certain skills. It is worth knowing a lot about the biology of the animal, especially where exactly it lives.

Homemade mole traps

Lovers of all things homemade can build mole traps with their own hands. You won't need a lot of money for this.

Shovel

Catching an animal with a shovel is the easiest and cheapest way to catch, but it requires certain skills and patience.

At the moment the animal moves, and this can be seen from the mounds of earth that appear, you need to stick a bayonet shovel behind the movement and throw the mole out along with the earth.

Two disadvantages of this method:

• It is likely that you will have to wait a long time.
• You may simply not be able to keep up with the mole, as they move underground at a decent speed.

Data:

• The speed of moles moving through their earth tunnels reaches 25 meters per second.
• In one day they can dig up to 30 meters of soil.
• The length of each hole reaches 200 meters.

Hooks

Considering that moles love worms, just like fish. Then you can try the fishing method - with a hook. Thread a thicker worm and run the line into the molehill. All you have to do is wait and react. The method is cheap, but tedious. It will be just right for those who like to meditate while fishing.

Alternatively, the fishing line is dug in and a bell is tied to the other end. If a mole rat is hooked, there will be a signal.

Plastic bottle

The notorious plastic bottle can serve faithfully. This is a humane way to rein in rampant moles. And given the cheapness of the “building materials”, several of them can be built, thereby increasing the catch several times.

ActionsExplanations

1. Take a 1.5 liter plastic bottle. You shouldn’t take less, as a large mole will get stuck. More is also not recommended - on the contrary, there is too much room for maneuver. 2

The throat or bottom should be cut off. It doesn’t matter which side is cut; it is important that the other side forms a dead end. 3. You will need another plastic bottle of the same volume

She will be a “blockage” for the mole. The bottom and the hard part on which the lid is screwed are cut off. Important! The neck remains. 4. The former neck of the second bottle is cut into “petals”. To do this, 10 longitudinal cuts are made, 3–4 cm long, right up to the transition from the funnel to the flat part of the bottle. 5. Both bottles are connected using tape. The narrow part of the second plastic bottle is placed in the open passage of the first.

Krotolovka

Have you thought about how to get rid of moles in your garden? A standard mole trap is perfect for this purpose. Just a few decades ago they were quite primitive, but with the development of technology these devices have improved significantly, becoming even more effective. You can buy such a thing at most hardware stores that sell mousetraps. By the way, these two designs are quite similar in appearance and functionality, however, the mole trap is slightly larger in size.

Looking for a way to get rid of moles? Self-made traps can help you with this. To do this, you don’t have to resort to various tricks, and the material you can use is ordinary wire, which just needs to be twisted correctly. An analogue is a plastic trap, which is made from an ordinary bottle:

• First, we make the “body” of the pipe by cutting off the bottom and top of the bottle.
• The other two containers will require the tops to be cut off.
• The neck itself must also be cut off.
• In the remaining part we cut ribbons that are tightly driven into the pipe.

Such a mole trap is installed in holes through which animals move. Crawling through such a trap, the animal will easily push the ribbons apart, but will not be able to get back out.

Wearing a mole trap

It is recommended to wear mole traps in a bent ring made of thin wire. This is much more convenient than using some kind of bag where they will constantly cling to each other. In addition, you will have your hands free if you hang the wire, for example, from a belt. In this way, you can set traps and at the same time remove prey from old mole traps.

Additional equipment

To install mole traps, a regular hunting knife is best suited. It should have a long and wide blade, as well as a wooden handle and a rounded end. Such equipment is perfect not only for cutting out excess vegetation, but also for digging the ground. A wooden handle will serve you well for pressing installed mole traps into the soil.

Best time to hunt

You can start hunting moles as early as June 20, when the young animals have grown a little and begin to go hunting. The season ends in late autumn, when the first night frosts strike and the animal goes into hibernation. You can resume hunting immediately after snow falls, but most moles appear in the summer.

During the entire hunting season, you will need to place a large number of traps over a fairly large area, which must be divided into small areas. After the moles stop falling into traps, you can safely move to another place.

What are the benefits and harms

The attitude towards animals is twofold. There are ardent defenders of the animal, but there are no fewer opponents. In nature, it is a useful animal that improves the structure of the soil. Thanks to the large number of moves made by the animal, the soil breathes and moisture penetrates into the deep layers. The special smell that moles have attracts numerous worms and other underground insects. The mole eats them in huge quantities, in addition, destroys harmful insects and their larvae, and fertilizes the soil with excrement.

If a mole appears at the dacha, you can forget about the previous merits of the land reclamation worker, since its natural need to search for food leads to the destruction of part of the crop or damage to the lawn. Not everyone can withstand such a neighborhood, so many ways have been invented to get rid of moles in a summer cottage.

Mole at the dacha

Another dangerous thing about moles that appear on a personal plot is that they are carriers of tularemia, suffer from piroplasmosis, and are affected by ticks and other parasites. Therefore, you should not pick up the animal.

How to catch a live mole?

As a rule, getting rid of an annoying animal is not easy. He is so unpretentious that he easily puts up with the proximity of both humans and pets. He is not afraid of either poisoned baits or most of those primitive means that are used to scare him away. Loose soil full of earthworms (read what moles eat in the garden) is an ideal habitat where he will always strive to return. Therefore, catching a mole in the garden is the most reliable way to part with it forever.

Those who have ever wondered how to catch a mole probably know the simplest folk remedies:

The method that allows you to catch a mole in your summer cottage with the help of two shovels is more reminiscent of a gambling hunt, requiring not only skill, but also patience. To implement it, you must first track the movement of the animal through the tunnel - when it is even possible to notice it. Having determined the location of the object, two shovels are quickly stuck across the tunnel so as to block the passage on either side of the animal. After this, the hole is dug up, removing the troublemaker.

It is made using an ordinary bucket or a large glass jar. It is installed in an already inhabited mole tunnel, or rather, under it. Naturally, this requires first excavating the tunnel and then covering it again.

Such traps are the cheapest and easiest to manufacture. In addition to moles, they allow you to catch small rodents, which often use ready-made tunnels for their purposes.

mole pit trap from a 3-liter jar

To catch a mole in a jar, it is placed under the tunnel so that the upper rim of the neck is at the same level as the lower edge of the mole passage. Moving along its corridors, the blind animal, of course, does not look at its feet. And an unexpected failure, most often, is fatal for him.

Having fallen into the substituted container, the mole will no longer be able to get out. All that remains is to regularly check the traps, removing the animals stuck in them. Unfortunately, shrews and other useful inhabitants of summer cottages often get caught in such devices, or earth is simply poured in.

Made from scraps of ordinary water pipes or plastic bottles. In the first case, doors are attached to a workpiece of suitable diameter on both sides, held on special hinges and opening only inward.

In the second, several bottles are inserted with their necks into one another. The necks are pre-cut to obtain peculiar petals that easily move apart when pressed in a certain direction.

What to do with a caught animal?

A mole caught in a mole trap must be taken out of the area, carried away to a distance of about 1 km and released.

When freeing a captive, you need to be careful: moles have very sharp, albeit small, teeth, with which they can bite quite painfully (after all, moles are, first of all, predators). The epidemiological danger of moles has been poorly studied, and it is never possible to guarantee for sure that when an animal bites it it will not give a person some kind of bacterial “joy”.

The smartest thing to do is to take the mole out of the area directly in the mole trap, and at the place of release, simply open it and carefully shake the animal onto the ground. It is better to release the mole among thick grass or in the forest, where it has a better chance of remaining unnoticed by predators.

The release operation itself should be carried out immediately after discovery of the capture. As noted above, an extra few hours of hunger can be fatal for a mole.

Sources

• https://klopkan.ru/kroty/kak-poymat-krota-prostye-nadezhnye-i-effektivnye-sposoby/
• https://truehunter.ru/415893a-ohota-na-krota-izgotovlenie-lovushek-vyibor-primanki-sovetyi-opyitnyih-ohotnikov
• https://peschanoepans.ru/samostrel-krota-chertezh/
• https://krot911.ru/kroty/kak-izbavitsya-ot-krotov/kak-pojmat-krota-v-ogorode.html
• https://pxim.ru/krotolovka-svoimi-rukami/
• https://krot911.ru/kroty/kak-izbavitsya-ot-krotov/krotolovka-iz-plastikovyx-butylok-svoimi-rukami.html
• https://krot911.ru/kroty/kak-izbavitsya-ot-krotov/krotolovka-truba.html

Habitat specifics of moles

A mole is an insectivorous, mammal that lives underground, a harmless animal. It is found in loose soil, which is constantly dug up and moistened. Does not like clay and crushed stone. It moves forward and backward, helping itself with strong shovel-shaped forelimbs. Due to small ears and blind eyes, it orients itself in space using the sense of touch and smell, thanks to which it avoids set traps.

He constantly moves in search of a good area with a large population of worms and insects. His lair is located in the center of a system of complex passages. Their mole digs very quickly, and pushes the undermined soil to the surface. During this process, the shrew unintentionally damages the roots of plants and crops planted in the garden or lawn. He makes his personal space soft, comfortable and lives not alone, but always with his family. The animal's diet consists of mice, frogs, woodlice, earthworms, insect larvae and other pests living in the soil. He is not interested in plants, neither the roots nor the above-ground parts.

The mole is intelligent, cautious, an excellent swimmer, and, sensing danger, can get around it in advance. To drink, he has to dig a hole vertically. In winter, the animal does not hibernate, but goes deep into the ground. If it senses danger, it defends itself with bites and scratches.

The underground “worker” checks his progress hourly, and immediately repairs the damage with an additional tunnel from below. The speed of movement is up to six kilometers per hour, it almost never appears outside. He also has enemies, a raccoon dog and a fox.

Moles are not the only inhabitants of our land; similar mounds can be dug by field mice or gophers. You can determine who is infested on the site by the shape of the dug up earth. Hills that look like volcanoes are left by moles, voles leave slightly visible piles of earth with many small traces and remains of grass stems. The mounds of gophers look like a horseshoe.