Moles!

boxer234

Thanks everyone lots to look into.  This thread may document my descent into madness as I try and find this mole. 

John_the_Boy

I am sure I read somewhere that you can put a hose pipe into the mole hill and flood the tunnels. Someone may have mentioned this in previous posts but I haven't read from the beginning.

Madmel

We get them periodically in our garden too (yes, we're in Devon). We tried one of those sonic scarer things but It seemed only to attract them. My dad likes plunging a heavy garden fork into the piles of soil and that does deter them, so he asked our neighbour to sharpen up a steel rod and put a wooden handle on it which he now wields whenever a molehill appears. We haven't had one for ages (probably spoke/wrote too soon...)

GDB2222

John_the_Boy said:

I am sure I read somewhere that you can put a hose pipe into the mole hill and flood the tunnels. Someone may have mentioned this in previous posts but I haven't read from the beginning.

I've only seen moles in pretty sandy soil, and the water would just soak away faster than the hose can deliver it.  Maybe, in heavy clay your suggestion would work, but do you get moles in heavy clay?

boxer234

John_the_Boy said:

I am sure I read somewhere that you can put a hose pipe into the mole hill and flood the tunnels. Someone may have mentioned this in previous posts but I haven't read from the beginning.

I tried that ran the hose for ages but it’s still here.  I probably just loosened the soil for it lol. 

GDB2222

boxer234 said:

John_the_Boy said:

I am sure I read somewhere that you can put a hose pipe into the mole hill and flood the tunnels. Someone may have mentioned this in previous posts but I haven't read from the beginning.

I tried that ran the hose for ages but it’s still here.  I probably just loosened the soil for it lol. 

If you water the flower bed, does the water pool on the surface or just sink in? If it sinks into the flowerbed, it will do the same in the mole tunnels and won't flood them.

badger09

Murphybear said:

boxer234 said:

LippyDoodle said:

Yeah sounds like moles. Rat holes can be dug anywhere. In the lawn, borders, especially going under a fence. Rats usually run the same route so that tends to leave a track leading to a hole. If they have been using the same runs for a while or if there is lots of them you can usually smell their urine too. They also leave very wet area's in long grass, bushes etc where they use urinate. You can sometimes see the poo pellets too, but no always. 

I’m not sure how much more I can take rats will be one step to far.  This is the first time I’ve lived in the countryside.  The house is old and poorly insulated so far we have had; wood lice, wasps, giant spiders, a fox that poops in the garden, slugs in the living room 😱

One of the worst things is flies.  We lived in a house on a rural Devon farm.  We could put up with any wildlife apart from the hundreds of flies 

Earlier this year we moved from outskirts of small Shropshire market town, with farmed fields opposite. We used to be plagued by cluster flies, especially at this time of year when they would get in through the some of the ill fitting windows, in search of somewhere to hybernate I guess. Absolute worst was coming home from 3 weeks in HK visiting my son for Xmas/New Year, to find the bathroom, hall stairs & landing, & our bedroom covered in a carpet of dead flies, ala Stephen King

Now on the outskirts of a village (still in Shropshire), with farmed fields opposite, we've been plagued by what I think are flea beetles. Which are just as unpleasant as they sound.

Maybe I should move somewhere more urban. 

Murphybear

badger09 said:

Murphybear said:

boxer234 said:

LippyDoodle said:

Yeah sounds like moles. Rat holes can be dug anywhere. In the lawn, borders, especially going under a fence. Rats usually run the same route so that tends to leave a track leading to a hole. If they have been using the same runs for a while or if there is lots of them you can usually smell their urine too. They also leave very wet area's in long grass, bushes etc where they use urinate. You can sometimes see the poo pellets too, but no always. 

I’m not sure how much more I can take rats will be one step to far.  This is the first time I’ve lived in the countryside.  The house is old and poorly insulated so far we have had; wood lice, wasps, giant spiders, a fox that poops in the garden, slugs in the living room 😱

One of the worst things is flies.  We lived in a house on a rural Devon farm.  We could put up with any wildlife apart from the hundreds of flies 

Earlier this year we moved from outskirts of small Shropshire market town, with farmed fields opposite. We used to be plagued by cluster flies, especially at this time of year when they would get in through the some of the ill fitting windows, in search of somewhere to hybernate I guess. Absolute worst was coming home from 3 weeks in HK visiting my son for Xmas/New Year, to find the bathroom, hall stairs & landing, & our bedroom covered in a carpet of dead flies, ala Stephen King

Now on the outskirts of a village (still in Shropshire), with farmed fields opposite, we've been plagued by what I think are flea beetles. Which are just as unpleasant as they sound.

Maybe I should move somewhere more urban. 

I quite like watching Escape to the Country as many of the properties are in areas I’m very familiar with.  What they never talk about is the smell, the mooooos and baaaaas, the moles and the flies. 

boxer234

An update.  The estate agents have called and the landlord would line to try and get rid of them so is sending a mole man.  He will set traps but it does me the dogs can’t use the garden for a while which is a pain but what can you do. 

boxer234

Murphybear said:

badger09 said:

Murphybear said:

boxer234 said:

LippyDoodle said:

Yeah sounds like moles. Rat holes can be dug anywhere. In the lawn, borders, especially going under a fence. Rats usually run the same route so that tends to leave a track leading to a hole. If they have been using the same runs for a while or if there is lots of them you can usually smell their urine too. They also leave very wet area's in long grass, bushes etc where they use urinate. You can sometimes see the poo pellets too, but no always. 

I’m not sure how much more I can take rats will be one step to far.  This is the first time I’ve lived in the countryside.  The house is old and poorly insulated so far we have had; wood lice, wasps, giant spiders, a fox that poops in the garden, slugs in the living room 😱

One of the worst things is flies.  We lived in a house on a rural Devon farm.  We could put up with any wildlife apart from the hundreds of flies 

Earlier this year we moved from outskirts of small Shropshire market town, with farmed fields opposite. We used to be plagued by cluster flies, especially at this time of year when they would get in through the some of the ill fitting windows, in search of somewhere to hybernate I guess. Absolute worst was coming home from 3 weeks in HK visiting my son for Xmas/New Year, to find the bathroom, hall stairs & landing, & our bedroom covered in a carpet of dead flies, ala Stephen King

Now on the outskirts of a village (still in Shropshire), with farmed fields opposite, we've been plagued by what I think are flea beetles. Which are just as unpleasant as they sound.

Maybe I should move somewhere more urban. 

I quite like watching Escape to the Country as many of the properties are in areas I’m very familiar with.  What they never talk about is the smell, the mooooos and baaaaas, the moles and the flies. 

The flies are terrible.  The spiders are life sized, no one talks about the true country living.