The advert says "Repel Moles", you just stick this steel tube in your mole hill and they will disappear. No they won't!

          Ever watch a blackbird catching worms on a lawn? They tap on the grass with their feet to cause vibrations which bring worms to the top for them to feed on.

          The ‘Repel Tube’ that sends out a ‘ping’ every 20 seconds, does the same, and the moles home in on the worms, its like a dinner gong. The companies that produce them were asked several years back, to produce evidence that they actually work, to date they have not submitted any proof.

          The moles gets used to them, as they do the toy windmills, plastic ‘whistling bottles’ and all the other DIY methods.

          Pouring liquids of any description,  including boiling water, down molehills is unlawful and could lead to prosecution, (cruelty to animals), it could also kill the unintended. The mole will just block that section and tunnel around the substance. Even when you try to smoke them out, (again unlawful), the mole will just create a fresh tunnel that is deep enough to take its head and shoulders, jam itself in and sit it out. When the smoke clears, it will continue as  normal. However, with any of the above methods, it will create more mole hills, hence more disturbance as it cleans out its tunnel system or makes fresh ones.

          This leads me nicely onto the method of just clearing the mole hills away. You hope, as it has established its tunnel  system it will be happy with its lot. SO WRONG. The tunnels are for worms to drop into which the mole feeds on, plus the odd grub. When these tunnels start to dry up, the mole will start new tunnel systems to keep its food coming! The main thing with mole hills is that they are funnels to bring in oxygen. The hills create and supply a  continuous stream of air throughout the tunnel system, even on the stillest of days, so as you remove them, they have to remake them.

          The only way to be mole hill free is to get rid of the mole for good, the black velvet fellow is a born survivor, they have learnt a lot over the 160 million years they been around!

          Ok! you say “I'll buy some traps and do it myself”, you are going to need a lot of luck and barrow loads of patience.  Anyone can set a trap in a mole tunnel and in time will catch a mole. The skill is in knowing which tunnel system to set the trap in and how it should be covered. The mole has to sense nothing has changed in its tunnel system, and you have to know how to find the tunnel first! Get it wrong the mole will go around or under the trap or even back fill it with soil to set it off, the mole then becomes trap shy and very hard to trap!

          The work of a mole controller is all about knowing the habitat and lifestyle of the mole itself, and how to find the correct tunnel system – and then catch the mole humanely.

          In the next article I'll explain why the amateur should not attempt to catch moles, and the pitfalls of being wrongly charged. Plus the new, destructive and dangerous method of attempted mole control that is being advertised across the UK and should be avoided.

Got a mole problem? please contact a  professional.

Steve Gould.