Garden Mole Removal and Control
The Garden Mole - Talpa europaea
The garden mole and their constant digging and excavating causes serious damage to lawns, football pitches, rugby pitches, cricket grounds, school fields, golf courses, gardens, agricultural meadows and grazing fields, lawn bowling greens, croquet lawns, horse racing courses the list goes on and on. iQ Pest Control Professional Humane Mole Trapping services can deal with your mole issues and get rid of moles causing problems, call iQ Pest Control on 01280 811198 to book for a professional mole catcher to visit you today.
Garden Mole Facts
Moles are small mammals perfectly evolved and adapted to a subterranean life. They have cylindrical bodies measuring between 11 and 15cm long weighing on average 110 grams. Moles have a velvety greyish brown fur, although not common you occasionally find ginger or even white moles. Moles have very small ears and eyes as these are not two of the senses that moles rely on. The moles hindlimbs are much smaller than their short powerful forelimbs which have large paws superbly adapted for digging. Moles have what are known as polydactyl forepaws, which means they have an extra thumb (also known as a prepollex) next to the regular thumb, this makes their spade like front paws even more effective for tunnelling.
Moles are omnivores with their main food source are earthworms which make up 80% of their diet, the remaining 20% being mostly insects but also a small number of nuts. A little known mole fact, moles have toxin in their saliva that can paralyse its prey making eating its target a lot easier, it also allows moles in times a plenty to store their paralysed food in a specially excavated larder. A mole larder has been discovered with over 1000 cached earthworms in it, this mole must have had an incredibly rich territory.
Unlike most mammals’ moles do not rely on their eyesight instead they use their extremely acute sense of smell and touch as they can feel the smallest of vibrations. This is especially useful when worms and insects fall into their tunnels as they can detect from the vibrations and then deal with their unlucky prey before they manage to escape.
In a moles territory which is anywhere from 300 to 15000 square metres they have a complex network of tunnels and chambers and employ a few different tunnelling techniques.
Travelling tunnels that are used for travelling to their feeding and hunting grounds, these are usually deep below the surface on average about 24cm below ground level.
Feeding tunnels are found between 4 and 18cm beneath the ground when they are primarily interested in earthworms, it is this activity that causes them to create the dreaded mole hills.
Surface tunnels which are literally just beneath the surface which are their feeding tunnels when in search of invertebrates, this activity leaves visible ridges.
In favourable soil type moles can extend their network of tunnels at an alarming rate which could be as much as 3 to 4 metres per hour. Moles are active throughout most of the day so over a 24 hour period they could excavate as many as 20 metres of tunnels causing as many as 6 mole hills in the process.
Moles are predominantly solitary animals only coming together during the breeding season which is between February and June. Throughout the breeding season the male moles (boars) will extend their tunnels even further than at other times of year in search of females (sows), boar moles let out a high-pitched scream whilst they are tunnelling so the female can locate them. The sows give birth to 3 or 4 furless babies called pups which are usually born in the spring. 14 days after birth the helpless pups fur starts to grow and their eyes open roughly a week later at around 22 days. They are fully weaned by 4 to 5 weeks. The pups are completely self sufficient at 5 weeks of age when they are promptly driven by their mother away from her territory. The juvenile moles then leave their parents territories and are likely to either take over existing old or unused tunnelling systems or establish brand new ones.
The Problems and Issues Moles Cause
As well as mole hills being unsightly they can also be dangerous to humans causing potential trips and falls. There have been a number of cases in the UK where a member of the public has successfully won a court battle against the landowner that has done nothing about their mole problem. Ignorance is not bliss, to show due diligence it is important to get a professional mole catcher in to get rid of moles on your property to prevent any injury to you, your customers or guests.
Mole hills also cause damage to machinery, as the mole hills are often laden with stones and rocks which can cause damage to lawn mowers and other garden machinery, the repair bills could be a very costly experience.
Young plants and trees can also be seriously damaged by the moles tunnelling activity as they will damage the roots often killing them, this will cause you an unnecessary expense by having to replace them whilst also maybe having an unattractive garden in the meantime.
In agricultural scenarios if a mole litters the field with lots of hills it can reduce the available grazing for livestock. Mole hills may even cause injury to your expensive flocks of sheep, or herds of cattle, mole hills are especially damaging to horses and their hooves. Mole hills contaminate silage during the bailing as the baler will inevitably pick up the soil and other contaminants from the mole hill, which commonly causes listeria when the sileage is fed to livestock.
As soon as you spot that first mole hill pop up that is the time to call iQ Pest Control so we can get rid of moles immediately. Call 01280 811198
How do I get rid of garden moles?
Most other pest species prevention is better than cure, but with garden moles prevention is nearly impossible as moles will move in from adjacent land in search of new hunting and or breeding grounds. As moles favoured food are earthworms it is very difficult to remove the moles food source, it is possible but expensive and labour intensive to remove moss and lichen that the earthworm will feed on which in turn may or maybe not reduce the earthworm numbers. But remember earthworms do a lot more good than they do harm, one of the greatest services a good earthworm population provides is the aeration of the soil beneath your flowerbeds or lawn.
Professional Garden Mole Removal
We hear all the time of people attempting to deal with moles using methods that have are proven to have little to no effect, one of the most common is flooding the moles tunnels by shoving hosepipes into one of their hills, the person involved may stand back hand on hips and think this will deter or kill the troublesome mole, but in reality the majority of the water sill soak into the soil almost immediately beneath where the hosepipe has been stuffed into the ground.
Your only real option to get rid of moles is to use the services of a professional mole catcher, iQ Pest Control will get rid of moles. Call us on 01280 811198
iQ Pest Control – Expert Mole Catcher
iQ Pest Control know the habits of the mole, we know where they rest and sleep versus where they feed and excavate tunnels. Due to our expert knowledge iQ Pest Control will deal with your mole issues with minimal disruption to you or your customers and business.
The humane methods to catch moles that iQ Pest Control use are tailored depending on how the moles are causing issues. There are a number of different approved mole traps that can be used depending upon soil type and the type of tunnels that moles are excavating, iQ Pest Control will use the best mole trap for the given scenario.
If you have an issue with moles at your home of business call iQ Pest Control on 01280 811198
iQ Pest Control Provide Pest Control Services in Aylesbury, Banbury, Bedford, Bicester, Brackley, Buckingham, Coventry, Daventry, Kettering, Leamington Spa, Leighton Buzzard, Lutterworth, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Oxford, Rugby, Southam, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Wellingborough, Woodford Halse and their respective surrounding areas. Even if you are outside of this area please still pick up the phone and call us as we are rapidly expanding our service area - wherever you are and whatever pest issue you are having iQ Pest Control will keep your premises pest free!