Moles

[Palustris]

They are ruining my garden and I cannot even find the tunnel to put the traps in. Pity none of you live close, or I would invite you all to come and help yourselves to the plants and then I will turn the garden back to pasture and sell up.

[ideasguy]

That's a bit extreme Eric. I hope you can find some way to deal with them. Are they all over the garden?

[Palustris]

They have utterly destroyed the Iris Garden, the Water Metre Slate bed, the Boulder, the part we call Alison's Arches and much of the grass paths around the top end of the garden. They have now moved into the big central bed. This is in addition to the ones down in the Yellow border and the Pear tree bed.
If anything drives me out it will be them.

[roiphil]

30 odd years ago my mates parents had trouble with moles, and this particular year the parents went on holiday and he thought he would get rid of the moles and he had this great idea of putting some petrol down the entrance of each run and lighting it think it would only go a bit into the run, so he put some petrol down each run and lit the first one whoosh flames out of each run and no eyebrows later    on reflection not a good idea but it was funny at the time 

Phil

[Eric Hardy]

They are ruining my garden and I cannot even find the tunnel to put the traps in.

That's terrible, Eric. For some reason all our moles have vanished. We haven't had a mole hill in the garden for years. There was a time when mole hills were plentiful on the common outside at the front but they seem to have disappeared too. Fingers truly crossed 
Eric H

[NightHawk]

As you all know - we had to deal with that problem at our old house so we can sympathise.

We tried all sorts of different methods to get rid of them and each one failed miserably 

Luckily we moved and left them all behind and don't have a mole problem here (touching wood  )

[Eric Hardy]

I have a friend and neighbour who is a keen gardener who came and had coffee with us after lunch. I raised the subject of moles to see what advice he could give. He said that on all the allotments they have put noisy windmills not solely to scare the birds, but if they are not too smooth and efficient they produce a vibration which deters the moles too. How effective this is I have no idea.
Eric H

[Palustris]

Absolutely totally and completely useless.
We have tried every and I mean EVERY crackpot idea out forward on the interwebthingy, from windmills to jam jars on sticks to rose prunings down the runs to battery operated humming devices to bulbs which are supposed to drive them away. All useless.
As I said I am just going to return the garden to grass and let them get on with it. Anyone want about £20,000 of plants?

[Eric Hardy]

That is absolutely dreadful, Eric, it seems such a terribly drastic solution. I feel very sad for you 
Eric H

[NightHawk]

I have to agree with Eric (Palustris) regarding the deterrents.

We also tried several different methods, including sonic devices with no success.  I actually got a full refund on the 'humming' (sonic) types that we purchased as they did not perform as described by the manufacturer.

I have seen several molehills beside very busy roads in different locations around the UK, which seems to dispel the claim that sonic devices are a deterrent.  They just get used to noise and vibrations from traffic, making this method a non-starter as far as I'm concerned.

I never got a definite answer to solve our mole problem, so unless something has been produced since then or another solution discovered, I'm afraid they remain a big problem to gardeners keeping their lawns in pristine condition.

[Palustris]

I am not that bothered about the lawns , it is the incredible damage they have done to the borders. There is not one Iris left alive in the Iris garden now.They have all been heaved out or buried or undermined so badly that the roots have dried up. We have rescued as many as we could, but even here we are running out of places to move plants to.