Mole infestation - what to do?
 

Moles are all over the place on my acreage At least there are nice little mounds of black dirt everywhere. What's the best way of getting rid of the pesky little buggers. Poison is not a good option for me as I have a couple of dogs. Traps I imagine, but some must be better than others?

Moles
 

Buy a couple cats

Definately get a mole trap. They work very well. Find a fresh mound, dig down till you find the hole, set the trap in the hole, and cover with dirt so only the top with the small hole are not covered. There will be a small pinhole of light showing, which the moles do not like, and they will go into it to try to fill it in.

dynamite.. or a large caliber gun..


make sure you get it on camera..

Not sure where you live but chances are they are pocket gophers. Go to your nearest UFA/hardware store and buy a trap called The black Hole...or 2 or 3 and set them similar to this. You might have to put a tire or something over it to keep the dogs from digging it up.....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...r/traps002.jpg

black dirt is what was seen not clay which is what gophers will give you.

Richardson's Ground squirrels/gophers will give you clay. Pocket gophers can and will give you black dirt, not necessarily always....but lots of times....I have trapped hundreds of them.

And I might be mistaken but I don't think we even have true moles in Alberta.

This is what I say you should consider. Get a few of your pals from alberta outdoorsmen , friends with bows, to come out and put arrows th=rew these varmits.

Thanks for the replies, here are mine:

Cats? - those GD useless things, I had them and they crap in the wive's flower beds and destroy the window screens, and kill the song birds. I like gophers better.

Dynamite? - I'm just about there.

Friends with bows? - Come on down BBJ, I'll supply the arrows, heck when the job is done and they're gone, I'll even supply some brewskies.

Seriously though you guys think that they're pocket gophers? I'd never heard of them:(. Like is said, the dirt is a beautiful black color, heck you could package it and sell it for potting soil. The other clue is that we never, ever see them. They seem to go to work at night. You still don't think that they are moles? I'm calling UFA today. Thanks for the tips.

I have tons of them in my area, and it would be awful tough to stick an arrow in them as I have yet to see a live one. Like I say though, get yourself that trap and they are quite simple to trap.

You're correct - no true moles in Alberta. Sounds like pocket gophers to me. My father-in-law used to get lots of them, but after using the Black Hole traps from UFA, he only gets a couple per year on his property.

Pocket gophers they are. Usually only like to work in the dark. I trap the pest in my garden all the time. They can destroy a garden in no time. Get the trap

Do like Bushmaster says, those traps will clean them out in a hurry. And yes, they are pocket gophers.
Good luck and have fun!

SUCCESS - Wow, I'm impressed. Thanks for the help guys. I purchased a couple of "Box Traps" at UFA. They knew of the "black hole" ones but were out, they had two of the aforementioned ones. I followed the instructions and using two traps, four hour laters I had two pocket gophers. You guys are right, the instructions also claim that there are no moles in Alberta or Saskatchewan. .........OK, does this mean I'm a trapper now ;)

Congrats.....in my experience it takes only a couple of gopherrs to make many holes/piles so you can trap them out in a hurry. But others will follow in their runs, even though it might not be till next spring. I took it upon myself a few years ago to try to trap out a 1/2 section of farm land .....and was surprised at how few I actually caught before there were no new holes. But they did eventually come back from the bordering land/pastures. So don't put your traps in your garage sale !! :D

I found this thing at dad's house, doesn't look like a pocket gopher...they had 5 in total last year :confused:

oh wow that is definitely a mole what part of Alberta was this found at????

Its possible that is some type of shrew....maybe...otherwise.......

Thats definately a mole.
In Alberta we have Voles(which are like mice with short tails), and pocket gophers(which look like rats with long claws, big teeth, and stubby tails)
http://www.photosafaris.com/Images/R...cketGopher.jpg

My suggestion would be to live trap a couple of badgers, and lock the dogs in the house:evilgrin:

My uncle swears by this method:
Find a piece of Wrigleys Spearmint gum which is enclosed in tinfoil and white paper (used to be in a green package). Take the white paper off and place the piece of gum in the tinfoil wrapper on top of the mound of black dirt. Within a few days the moles will be gone.
I am not positive on why it works but he swears by it. He tried juicy fruit but with no results, has to be the spearmint.

About 35 minutes east of Red Deer. Now, after reading this thread I am wondering where the heck they come from :(:confused:

What I've got are definitely pocket gophers just as those in SD's picture. The traps are working just fine.....trap some live badgers ?:rolleyes: So I can trade off tiny little holes and mounds for CRATTER size holes? :lol:

not the nicest way of doin her but it works. you take chocolate exlax put it down the hole and they eat it and **** themselves to death.

Mole infestation
 

Not until you learn to skin them in whole.:lol:

Anhydrous Ammonia works pretty good. So does propane and a piezo ignitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrGnW0KLFZk

lmao!!!!!!!!!!!

I never knew anything about pocket gophers until we got a seasoned mouser. Blackjack brought one back to the barn one day. It was huge. Now, we only see the head because Blackjack likes to eat them. More meat than the voles.

All I used to do was take a small leghold trap(not sure of the #) remove the dirt until I found the hole, widen it so the trap would fit, put a small piece of plywood over it, and cover back up with the dirt. I made a killing from the neighbors one summer doing this. I had about a half dozen traps set out.

That is the same way we used to catch them back home in Saskatchewan. Every one I caught looked exactly like 2430M's picture.

JUST ONE MORE SUGGESTION WHICH MAY BE HELPFUL.
Because one pocket gopher/mole will make many mounds, it can sometimes be difficult to identify the currently active one. What I find works pretty well is to flatten all the mounds in a particular area with a shovel and then go back in a day or so, see which ones have fresh dirt piled up on them and concentrate your trapping efforts on those ones.