Stan The Man wrote:
In article , PDES
wrote:

Newly landscaped garden finished two weeks ago, pond, waterfall,
rockery - the works....and a poxy mole!!! Every night we have to
repair the damage where he has travelled under the gravel beds and
matting and emerged somewhere else!

I've heard that the sonic things are useless and I am under
instruction not to kill it so can anyone offer me a solution?
There's a virtual beer in it!!!

The moles in my lawn are dangerous. It's impossible to walk across
the
lawn without the surface giving way with the consequent risk of an
ankle sprain or worse. I put up with them for a long time before
deciding they had to go. The garden is too big to make it worth my
while moving them a few metres. It was them or me. I tried most of
the
known tricks including putting upturned wine bottles in the
molehills,
pouring glass shards into a tunnel and even setting my own trap.
None
worked so I did eventually call in the local molecatcher - a
sensitive
and humane man with a great fondness and respect for moles.

He told me that it was now illegal to gas, poison or otherwise harm
moles inhumanely. The only legal way to dispose of them is to trap
them - and to lay the traps properly to ensure that they are killed
instantly. He surveyed my half acre lawn, riddled with tunnels and
molehills and declared that the damage was all being done by three
young moles whose mother occupies a far corner of the garden. He
advised against killing the mother since her place would simply be
taken by another but he set traps to catch the young moles - in
places
that I would not have considered.

The next day he returned and each trap contained a dead mole.
Price:
£45. Since then, which was three weeks ago, I haven't seen a
molehill
even though it has rained plenty which usually makes them active.

No doubt I will have to do the same thing every year but I will
kill
the young moles early in the season next year so that I can start
to
rebuild my lawn.

I'm not knocking any other gardener's approach to moles. Kill them
off humanely if you want to: they don't have our sense of the future
(which must be part of what pain is about), and they don't play
clock-golf or bowls on the lawn. If you want all that, knock 'em off.
But my own approach is "Hey, what the ****?" Next month, they'll be
gone. Meanwhile, you can congratulate yourself on your skill in
providing a healthy soil. Scoop up the molehills, and put the stuff
in your potting mix, or in the next top-dressing for the lawn.

--
Mike.