QUICK PEST MANAGEMENT
"Protecting you and your environment"
European Mole (Talpa Europaea)
Size : 110-160mm Weight 70-130g
Features : No external ear flaps, but does have a very good sense of hearing elongated cylindrical body, dark/black very dense velvety fur (although slight colour variations do occur from time to time). Their fur is so dense it traps air very well which helps to make moles very good swimmers. Broad shovel shaped front paws with five outward pointing sharp claws, muzzle area covered with ultra sensitive hairs for detecting movement.
Behaviour : Moles spend the vast majority of their lives underground in tunnels excavated by themselves. They patrol these tunnels searching for worms and small invertebrates that they feed on.
Breeding takes place anywhere between Feb to June, depending on the weather conditions. The female gives birth to between 2-7 young but 3-4 is the average litter size. Both the male and female mole are highly territorial and use a scent gland connected to the urinary tract to mark out their territory. When food (worms) are very plentiful moles will bite the heads off of worms and store them for consumption later. The molehills we see are the soil excavated as the moles either digs new tunnels or maintains current ones.
The young are suckled for around a month and then leave/are driven off by the mother. This is the period of a moles life where it spends the most time above ground and as a result the time when most mortality occurs from predation by foxes, birds of prey, stoats, weasels, cats.
Damage caused.
The main damage moles cause is by their digging and the subsequent “hills” they create, this not only causes an eye sore and trip hazards on lawns, golf courses, football fields, bowling greens etc it also causes serious problems on fields that farmers are growing to cut for silage because if the soil gets into the bales it creates the ideal conditions for Listeria to breed rendering the silage unsuitable as cattle feed. Damage caused by molehills causes damage to agricultural machinery and grass cutting equipment as stones in the soil blunt the cutting blades. The hills and shallow tunnels that mole creates also cause a trip hazard.
Control : The two most effective methods of control are trapping and gassing.
Gassing, involves probing for the moles tunnels and placing aluminium phosphide tablets in and sealing over. This method does have a place in mole control but can only be used at a designated distance from a building or watercourse. There are strict regulations for the use and transportation of Aluminium Phosphide and a certificate of competence is required by anyone wishing to use or buy the product. The legislation around the use of this product due to the risks it presents are getting tighter all the time.
There are a number of different traps that can be used for mole control. Experience tells us which trap to use where to achieve the desired result. All of the various types of mole traps we use are all placed in the moles tunnels and are covered over. This ensures an absolute minimum risk to any non target species and poses no risk at all to the surrounding environment. For these reasons trapping of moles is our most common and preferred method of controlling them while remaining highly effective. We offer a no mole, no fee guarantee giving you complete assurance we will get your mole issues solved.
