Grow Your Own Magazine

I'm setting up new veg patch using small raised beds.

It's in the old chickn run & the fencing round it makes it fox,badger,rabbit ,dog,cat proof.Lucky me I thought...no problems.

No sooner do I set up a bed than the moles go through.Not too superficially, but the tell tale mounds & long raised areas are obvious.

Do moles eat tubers/roots etc?
The beds most affected are jerusalem & chinese artichokes,onions ,brassicas.

I normally enjoy sharing my space with the moles but fear they are after my crops.

Any information please.,

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Jane

It's a bit complicated ChickenJane, but you can read what DEFRA has to say.
http://http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildl...s/leaflets.htm

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From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

'Our' moles have eaten my raspberry roots and next door's onions ( well only the odd one)
I say'eaten' but it may be the burrows which killed off the roots??
Just waiting to see whats next!

Oh no Nicos..the 2 onion beds are amongst the ones they've been through.

Just noticed my spelling's getting worse..the title should read BURROW & twitty me wrote BORROW. Ha the new trendy hobby of 'Vegetable Lending'

thanks Alice trying to access yous DEFRA link .

Bit disappointing really as I thought that by using theold hen run with it's 5' fence,gate & fox-proofed wire buried round the bottom (not to mention the poo-enriched soil) I was being clever & defeting most pests all at once.

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Jane

Our mole has had no problem setting up his runs in and out through the buried bunny wire about 6" down.
I wonder if they could squeeze through chicken wire?- anyone know??

thanks for that Nicos I hadn't thought of that.
The wire is 2" chicken wire with double layer for the bottom 2' or 3'.

maybe they could get through even that.Moles aren't v big are they.

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Jane

Thursday: Got home from work, after the rain, moles gone beserk. Molehills all over the garden.Infestation would be an understatement. Too many terriers running round garden digging up molehills, cats have gone on strike. Help!!!

I'd sugest calling in a pest controller. I think it costs around 100 pounds and they will set traps and return a couple of times until they have trapped the critter. Do not, waste money on these ultrasonic spikes, as they just do not work.

£100 for a pest controller!!! Why not just buy the traps and set them yourself? They're dead easy and quite cheap.
I've seen them sold in some hardware shops and also garden centres. You need to identify a tunnel, carefully peel back the soil/turf and place the set trap (spring loaded) then replace the soil/turf causing as little disturbance as possibel, then wait for the traps to spring and have a look - you should have a dead mole trapped between the prongs.

Not pleasant but effective and quick.

I have tried the ultrasonic ones (when my friends had a fit that i was using traps) but they just move the moles around the garden rather than make them go away.

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There's vegetable growing in the family, but I must be adopted
Happy Gardening!

What! Kill the moles? They've all got PET names. 8(

Actually it's not the moles that cause most damage, it's the bl***y terriers digging up the runs. Although moles can be a nuisance in a lawn, last year, my small plot of veg didn't really suffer at all but they can be a problem if they get into the seed beds. I know it sounds daft, but I rather like the little blighters.