Perhaps an odd topic for DIYAudio, but I really need to drive out this little critter!
- Tried flooding his hole / tunnels with water. Nope
- Tried spring traps from ebay - the mole just goes around them, eats off the bait w/o springing it.
- Tried poisoned peanut butter. Adams, the good stuff - I cant stop eating it. Just ignores them.
- Tried a couple of crap drivers (after reading success on the 'net: How to remove moles from your yard) wrapped in plastic, playing very distorted FM pop 24 hours. He just seals up his tunnels around the speaker - and makes new mounds within a meter of it.
Goodwill isnt taking donations, so I gave up getting rid of a Velodyne 12" sub I picked up there. (I'd use it, but it has a habit of coming on full blast with some kinda crackling noise at 3AM...) Maybe using a bigger gun?
He wont be able to just seal off the sound from that - hopefully. Trying the most obnoxious sound I could get from my FG, settling on a square wave sweep from 5 -> maybe 20 Hz - hopefully sounds like a stampede up there to the mole.
I've got the level set to a decent, hopefully non-destructive level. Heatsink gets hot, so I put a fan over it. The Velodyne immediately got covered in dirt and dust on first exploration of the idea, so I put down a piece of plastic and then a piece of rubber foam to get a bit better seal - to the ground. We'll see what happens.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
- Tried flooding his hole / tunnels with water. Nope
- Tried spring traps from ebay - the mole just goes around them, eats off the bait w/o springing it.
- Tried poisoned peanut butter. Adams, the good stuff - I cant stop eating it. Just ignores them.
- Tried a couple of crap drivers (after reading success on the 'net: How to remove moles from your yard) wrapped in plastic, playing very distorted FM pop 24 hours. He just seals up his tunnels around the speaker - and makes new mounds within a meter of it.
Goodwill isnt taking donations, so I gave up getting rid of a Velodyne 12" sub I picked up there. (I'd use it, but it has a habit of coming on full blast with some kinda crackling noise at 3AM...) Maybe using a bigger gun?
He wont be able to just seal off the sound from that - hopefully. Trying the most obnoxious sound I could get from my FG, settling on a square wave sweep from 5 -> maybe 20 Hz - hopefully sounds like a stampede up there to the mole.
I've got the level set to a decent, hopefully non-destructive level. Heatsink gets hot, so I put a fan over it. The Velodyne immediately got covered in dirt and dust on first exploration of the idea, so I put down a piece of plastic and then a piece of rubber foam to get a bit better seal - to the ground. We'll see what happens.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Most of the "good old ways" are banned now - farmers used to use phosgene, or strychnine....
I found soaking a rag in petrol or diesel, stuff it down the mole run, and backfill with soil and stones works - after a while they go elsewhere...
I found soaking a rag in petrol or diesel, stuff it down the mole run, and backfill with soil and stones works - after a while they go elsewhere...
I tend to live and let live with moles. I had a stage where I would fill two barrows with soil before I could mow.
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These are the traps that do work.
TRAPGALLIER Lot 10 Pieges Taupe Putange + 10 Tendilles Fabrication Francaise
None of the other many means work.
TRAPGALLIER Lot 10 Pieges Taupe Putange + 10 Tendilles Fabrication Francaise
None of the other many means work.
We have lots of moles when the weather first warms up. Those in my yard are usually well managed by "Kitty, the attack cat." However, Kitty is about 10 years old now and she isn't the "natural born killer" that she used to be. It's a sad day when I see Kitty being chased out of my yard by some birds.
We have a road along one side of a half mile strip of grass land, and a creek on the other side with the woods on the far side of the creek. This keeps the moles to a manageable number.
Others in this heavily wooded area are not so lucky. I have seen a few manners of "redneck ingenuity" used to eradicate the little annoying critters. The simple solutions involve sticking a road flare in one of the mole holes and covering some of the others with old carpet. The flare either makes toxic gas, or simply uses up the oxygen, I don't know, but the moles are dead and buried at the same time. The few that escape are met with a .22 pistol. I have also heard of gassing them with lawnmower or car exhaust.
Best Way to Eliminate moles and gophers in your yard - $2 solution in 2 minutes. Please Subscribe - YouTube
For those with a bigger mole problem there are some fun commercial tools, like the Rodenator. DIY versions exist too. This thing injects a mixture of propane and air into the mole tunnel, then ignites it with an ignition coil.
Simple redneck DIY version, and oxy-acetylene torch and a stun gun.
These blast the little critters into the next world and fill in much of the tunnel too:
Pocket Gophers being blown away by the Rodenator Pro - YouTube
Easy mole removal. - YouTube
We have a road along one side of a half mile strip of grass land, and a creek on the other side with the woods on the far side of the creek. This keeps the moles to a manageable number.
Others in this heavily wooded area are not so lucky. I have seen a few manners of "redneck ingenuity" used to eradicate the little annoying critters. The simple solutions involve sticking a road flare in one of the mole holes and covering some of the others with old carpet. The flare either makes toxic gas, or simply uses up the oxygen, I don't know, but the moles are dead and buried at the same time. The few that escape are met with a .22 pistol. I have also heard of gassing them with lawnmower or car exhaust.
Best Way to Eliminate moles and gophers in your yard - $2 solution in 2 minutes. Please Subscribe - YouTube
For those with a bigger mole problem there are some fun commercial tools, like the Rodenator. DIY versions exist too. This thing injects a mixture of propane and air into the mole tunnel, then ignites it with an ignition coil.
Simple redneck DIY version, and oxy-acetylene torch and a stun gun.
These blast the little critters into the next world and fill in much of the tunnel too:
Pocket Gophers being blown away by the Rodenator Pro - YouTube
Easy mole removal. - YouTube
I’ve used castor beans effectively, poke a few into active holes, they love to eat them.....then it kills them.
It’s a little on the dangerous side so be careful if you do it.....they are toxic to anything else that might happen to eat them.
Edit.....probably less dangerous than some of George’s methods! 😀
It’s a little on the dangerous side so be careful if you do it.....they are toxic to anything else that might happen to eat them.
Edit.....probably less dangerous than some of George’s methods! 😀
I can say that I have never used any of these methods myself. I have seen the torch and road flare methods used by some of the locals. Some people say that certain kinds of candy or chewing gum will kill them.
I have resorted to gasoline and matches for those "yellow jacket" hornets that live in holes in the ground.
As for the moles, "Watch Kitty" turns into "Hunt Kitty" then "Attack Kitty" works for me.
She was born under the abandoned trailer that was on the property when we bought it. She had kittens under the house we had torn down. I destroyed the knotweed jungle where she used to hunt for her food, so Joe, the 80 year old next door started feeding her. He was the only human she had any use for, and she still brings him dead moles, mice, and birds.
Now Kitty will come to me when I call her even though I do not feed her. She still brings her "kills" to Joe
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I like to read that.
I have, stray cats hunting regularly in my yard.
They belong to nobody, but are in good health, they have plenty to feed on rodents and from frendly neighbors.
They are pretty efficient hunters.
I received a killed mole present on my porch.
A typical cat behavior.
Square wave, frequency modulated by a bit of sweep with some LPF provided by the sub crossover has it sounding like someone parked their idling Harley in my back yard.
We'll see if the mole gives up before the Velodyne does - I'm sure the driver is taking a beating being run continuously like that.
Thanks for all the replies! I showed my wife the Rodenator and she frowns on the idea of blowing up the backyard...
We'll see if the mole gives up before the Velodyne does - I'm sure the driver is taking a beating being run continuously like that.
Thanks for all the replies! I showed my wife the Rodenator and she frowns on the idea of blowing up the backyard...
My Grandfather was pretty good at catching moles. They are VERY able to detect human smells on traps, so the handling and setting of them is very critical.
My cleaning lady has a husband who is a pest controller. He told me the other day that there is an explosion of moles this year - all of his 60+ traps are in use right now.
Back in the 70's we had an infestation that was hard to clear. My Dad took the nuclear option and had a spray applied to the orchard that killed all the worms. The Moles soon go somewhere else then. We had a 9 acre field at the rear boundary - plenty of room for them there!
My cleaning lady has a husband who is a pest controller. He told me the other day that there is an explosion of moles this year - all of his 60+ traps are in use right now.
Back in the 70's we had an infestation that was hard to clear. My Dad took the nuclear option and had a spray applied to the orchard that killed all the worms. The Moles soon go somewhere else then. We had a 9 acre field at the rear boundary - plenty of room for them there!
Apparantly some golf courses in UK employ people who can catch moles by hand as you can't leave traps out. example of dowsing for moles here Catching a live mole bare handed - YouTube
I found tunnel traps to work, but only the 'barrel' variety. The scissor traps were next to useless. It helps to weather the traps by burying them for a couple of weeks. Moles live by their noses
The trick is to get them as far as possible into the tunnel by probing the ground with a thin stick to track the tunnel away from the exit. When you've got to the limit of your ability to follow it, dig down and open a hole big enough to take the trap.
Place the trap, and wedge it in place with a small stick across the middle. Cover the hole using black woven plastic that's normally used to prevent weed growth. Double layer to ensure no light gets through and weight it down around the edge of the hole.
You'll need to set multiple traps. Generally I'd set half a dozen or more in various locations. Check them at least daily and be prepared to finish the job a trap may not have completed. Though I only had to do this once in about 10 years.
It's slow work to catch moles and, frankly, unpleasant too. I hated it. But we had a real problem with them, they can shift an astonishing quantity of dirt. The only plus side was that because I'd not poisoned them it was possible to leave them out for the local foxes, crows to eat. Generally, the corpses were gone within a couple of hours...
The Royal Horticultural Society looked at humane control methods and found that treating the ground with plenty of high nitrogen feed worked over time because it drove the worms deeper and the moles went elsewhere for their feed. Nothing else worked at all. So it's nitrogen or murder...
But, once you have the tunnels, the moles will always return.
IIRC the professionals use pellets that react with the moisture in the soil to produce phosgene gas. WW1 mustard gas. Not pleasant, and it needs doing at least once a year. More often if the weather is very wet.
HTH
The trick is to get them as far as possible into the tunnel by probing the ground with a thin stick to track the tunnel away from the exit. When you've got to the limit of your ability to follow it, dig down and open a hole big enough to take the trap.
Place the trap, and wedge it in place with a small stick across the middle. Cover the hole using black woven plastic that's normally used to prevent weed growth. Double layer to ensure no light gets through and weight it down around the edge of the hole.
You'll need to set multiple traps. Generally I'd set half a dozen or more in various locations. Check them at least daily and be prepared to finish the job a trap may not have completed. Though I only had to do this once in about 10 years.
It's slow work to catch moles and, frankly, unpleasant too. I hated it. But we had a real problem with them, they can shift an astonishing quantity of dirt. The only plus side was that because I'd not poisoned them it was possible to leave them out for the local foxes, crows to eat. Generally, the corpses were gone within a couple of hours...
The Royal Horticultural Society looked at humane control methods and found that treating the ground with plenty of high nitrogen feed worked over time because it drove the worms deeper and the moles went elsewhere for their feed. Nothing else worked at all. So it's nitrogen or murder...
But, once you have the tunnels, the moles will always return.
IIRC the professionals use pellets that react with the moisture in the soil to produce phosgene gas. WW1 mustard gas. Not pleasant, and it needs doing at least once a year. More often if the weather is very wet.
HTH
Easy and profitable solution:
1) install one of these in your yard, just over infested area
2) remove plastic moles and internal machinery so those appearing at the holes are the real ones.
3) install around it drink stalls, ice cream ones, sell memorabilia, posters, T shirts, popcorn, etc. , plus charging for admission and playing tickets of course.
4) enjoy and get rich quick.
1) install one of these in your yard, just over infested area
2) remove plastic moles and internal machinery so those appearing at the holes are the real ones.
3) install around it drink stalls, ice cream ones, sell memorabilia, posters, T shirts, popcorn, etc. , plus charging for admission and playing tickets of course.
4) enjoy and get rich quick.
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