Grow Your Own Magazine

HELP please,

Can anyone tell what moles really dislike. I have used the 'bottle in the run' method which worked in Devon but French moles just don't seem to understand I have bought some commercial mole repellant which works up to a point but they come back after a while.

I have been told that Ferret phoo stuffed down the runs works but I can't get any.

There must be something that they really detest. I just want to encourage them to go and dig elsewhere. After all I am surrounded by fields so why do they have to push up hills in my grass It has taken me ages just to get it to a state where I can mow it.

I don't want a 'Lawn' just grass without huge lumps and bumps

Any suggestions????????????????????????/

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

You can buy mole bulbs which you plant - I assume that they give off a smell that the moles don't like from www.kenmuir.co.uk

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Some advise using jeyes fluid to deter them and 'move them on' to a desired area - such as the field next door.
Have a look at the bottom of the page on this website for details

http://www.gardenadvice.co.uk/howto/...les/index.html

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Regards, Jane
What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy? The creative adult is the child who has survived.
Ursula LeGuin
http://www.etribes.com/madderbat

Thanks LJ and MB,

I will try the Jeyes fluid method first as I imported a can from the UK. Can'tget it out here

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Don't the french use some sort of miniature landmine?

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Always thank people who have helped you immediately, as they may not be around to thank later.
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Yes Peter, the garden centres are full of them but I don't want to kill them unless that is the last resort. Anyway Jeyes is cheaper

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Move to Ireland- we don't have any here. The local B and Q still stocks mole repellers though. They must wonder why they don't ever sell any :-)

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply to this thread. I have the same problem as you Roitelet. A friend of mine told me that moth balls down the run is worth a try. I have had a go at this and it seems to work. Hard to believe but I am beginning to think that they have moved on. we also have about 7 mole repellers in our "garden" but the little bu**!rs just seem to be attracted to them rather than being repelled. OH did try the mini land mine thing but he ended up blowing most of them up BEFORE he got them into the mole runs and ended up rather deaf for a while :

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

Saw an article in the paper today (no, letter, I think) which reckoned that a siamese cat weeing on (in?) in mole hill repelled them - yet another use for that versatile product, male wee???

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

Don't want to kill them? I do, but Scarey55 won't let me.

12 bore.....

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An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.
Will Rogers

Tried all methods of discouraging the Moles and have finally had to give in to mole traps as they are now not just a pest but are really doing some damage.

So, I went and bought 4 mole traps of the scissor type and the necessary plier things to set them with and some of the little square things that hold the jaws open. I set them on Friday and checked them today.

Result - One educated mole had dug round the trap without springing it , one trap had sprung but a stone had got caught in the jaws so it didn't close properly , one hadn't gone off and the last one had lost the marker I put in so I couldn't find the trap .

Reset the remaining three traps and will leave them for the nest week with BIG markers and see what happens. However there are still lots of mole hills appearing anywhere but where I have set the traps (really).

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

A friend's parents whose garden I help out with have had the mole man out 4 times result... Tunnels under the lawn like the London tube & NO MOLE KILLED

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

Thanks BW, cleared about 50 mole hills yesterday so think that I have the London Underground system AND the Paris Metro under the grass but as yet no dead moles. Will just have to wait and see

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Just an update.

Having given up on Mole traps I have resorted to Mole Fuses which I put in yesterday in the hope that if the gas doesn't actually kill them then the smell will send them elsewhere.

I attacked three patches and this morning there is no evidence of activity in two of them .

Could I be winning??????????????????

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Good luck getting rid of your moles.

Can I ask is there anything special about the soil they leave above ground ? Reason is that a friends mum asked for a wheelbarrow full of mole hills for her birthday, me I thought it was just ordinary soil.

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Bren

Maybe one of these could be useful???

Hi Bren in Pots, the soil that the moles throw up in the mole hills is usually very fine and can be used as a base for potting compost but it needs to be mixed with leaf mould and some sand to stop it compacting. I use it but it needs to be sifted first.

Thanks Nicos, where do I find one?????????????????????????

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

Keep rolling your lawn,moles like peace and quiet and will soon move next door!!

It's not really a lawn Polly, just an enormous area of mown weeds and grass, all 2,500 sq metres of it and I had got it into a mowable condition. However the fuses seem to be having some sucess at the moment. Where I have put them the moles aren't digging and they are moving away so I am just hitting them where the new activity is and although I don't think that I am killing them they seem to be put off by the smell

As soon as the grass/weeds are dry enough I shall put the mower over it and disturb them even more.

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

The fuses are working

Although the activity has not stopped completely it is drastically reduced

Still getting the odd hill but nothing like before.

Just going back to the most recient thread on moles, you could try wine bottles burried in the runs. They seem to have some effect and are much cheaper than the thumpers and much more pleasurable 'cos you have to empty the bottle first.

As the moles are in the flower beds I am going to sink some, hic, in them. It's not practical in grass!

A point of interest - it seems that if you kill one mole then another will take up residence in the runs. So it would seem that the best option is to make the area as unatractive to moles as possible.

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

I can always send you some ferret poooo or a baby ferret when she has them..........

Oh I'd love a ferret, one of our friend walks her (rescued) ferret in the park next door on a lead. Don't think our chickens would be keen though!

Roitelet have you tried lion poo? You can buy it from zoos and it's smelly enough to keep most things away!