[shokkyy]

Now I've always followed a no harm policy toward the wildlife in my garden. I'm the intruder here, not them. And even when my lawns started looking like something out of WW2, with explosions of earth peppered all over them, I decided I could live with that. After all, it's fab compost for the containers and I wasn't planning to enter my garden for any Home and Garden awards. I even felt some small admiration for them, given their ability to survive head butting the concrete path and even the bottom of the skip sitting on one lawn. But this is the last straw, the little b*rs have started coming up in my spud plot now.

Okay, how can I ask these moles nicely to get the hell out of Dodge without actually doing them any harm? There's acres of rough pasture land round my house with not a single mole hill in sight. All I want to do is convince them that's a better home than my garden.

[Trikidiki]

Empathy and sympathy!

I get visits from the hordes of moles in the neighbouring fields. It has been interesting to see my smaller leeks have horizontal roots where a mole has obviously burrowed underneath.

My neighbour with a house and garden on another side of the plot has had the mole-man in for three years and killed many but not making much of a dent in the community from the field.

I quite like moles as they seem so benign so do not want to go down the killing route but thay can devastate the garden or plot.

I am tring the electronic approach with a solar powered (what sun?) scarer.

A friend had a big problem with moles and the electronic scarer has worked a treat.

[shokkyy]

I am tring the electronic approach with a solar powered (what sun?) scarer.

A friend had a big problem with moles and the electronic scarer has worked a treat.

Yes, I tried the sonic/electromagnetic scarer things for the mice in the house. In the summertime they worked brilliantly, first time in I don't  know how long that my kitchen was 100% mouse free. But sadly, once the winter weather started coming in, they moved straight back in again. Whether they'll leave again in the summer or not, I don't know. But I guess even a nerve shredding home is better than a freezing one.

[lacewing]

Bits of elder stuck down the mole run, they hate the smell!
If you have an elder tree nearby, break off a branch, cut it into section about a foot long, scratch the bark with a sharp knife to release the smell and poke down the mole run. They will scamper wrinkling their noses.
I got this tip from a 80year old gardener and it works for me.

[cob nut]

Interesting reading this Lacewing, we were told by an old timer to use lengths of bramble in the runs he said that the moles don't like to get their fur caught on it.

[Trikidiki]

I've got an old elder in the garden. I'll get the pruning saw out tomorrow and try some sticks in their runs as well as the electronic buzzer. Belt and braces.

[lacewing]

Interesting reading this Lacewing, we were told by an old timer to use lengths of bramble in the runs he said that the moles don't like to get their fur caught on it.

Yes, and they are probably put out of action if their digging implements (huge paws) get scratched.... Pesky little bliters.

[binner]

just take his blooming spade off him then





sorry some one had to

[arugula]

There have been many threads in here on the topic of moles - they seem to be quite an emotive subject! You could maybe find out more by doing a search....

Moles will always want to come into your garden, rather than stay in the field, because your soil is likely to be much richer and full of juicy worms for them.

We have one of the solar-powered electronic scarers and it did work a treat for a while, but now they use it as a homing/locator beacon, as going back to instinct they have to pass by it to use two of their main routes in/out of our garden.  , however this means we can set traps near it we know they will have to go past it.

Garlic in the runs is also said to deter them as they don't like the smell.

I question your ability to continue to live with the molehills as you find the surface of your lawn rapidly deteriorating into a lumpy ankle-turning mess and your young vegetables get turned head over heel and left to parch in the sun until you see their plight.    

[lacewing]

just take his blooming spade off him then





sorry some one had to

They look more like shovels actually!

[davethespread]

theres only one way to get rid of a mole,thats blow his bl**dy ed arf

[lacewing]

theres only one way to get rid of a mole,thats blow his bl**dy ed arf

You cruel person

[davethespread]

that was a joke lacewing an old jasper carrot sketch.

[lacewing]

Oh! I've got one growing in my garden

[shokkyy]

Moles will always want to come into your garden, rather than stay in the field, because your soil is likely to be much richer and full of juicy worms for them.

I question your ability to continue to live with the molehills as you find the surface of your lawn rapidly deteriorating into a lumpy ankle-turning mess and your young vegetables get turned head over heel and left to parch in the sun until you see their plight.   

We've actually lived in this same house, surrounded by fields, for 15 or 16 years now.  Up until the last year we've never had any problem with moles, the occasional one or two mole hills but no more than that. Why they've suddenly decided to move in from the pastureland around us is beyond me.

Most of the vegetables are in raised and completely self-contained beds that the moles could not get into. It's only the spud plot they can access because it's basically a bit I dug out of the middle of one of the lawns. And as for the lawns, it's really not the sort of garden that's ever had or will have manicured lawns. It's what I'd call a rugged country sort of garden, lots of trees and shrubbery and wildlife but much too big to be manicured. If you tried to get rid of all the rabbit holes and mole hills, I suspect you'd have to dedicate your life to it I'll be quite happy if I can just keep them out of the spud plot, so I guess I'll give the sonic scarers a go. And I'll also try one of the scent-based deterrents like the elder twigs mentioned here. If that doesn't work, maybe some kind of buried barrier around the spud plot might do it.