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MOLES! - not the spies, the burrowing type

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So I have a water well for our water source, been in service some 40+ YRS. Couple yrs ago the service pole finally rotted enough it had to be replaced, so I ask my retired licensed electrician if he'd help me freshen the underground wiring -- being the GOOD friend he is he said , sure! He had a goodly supply of various commercial grade wire and donated what he said was extra good quality stuff - mice, rodents, squirrels --- MOLES! would not touch it!

 

Well, couple weeks ago, no water, go ck and breaker tripped reset and all good for couple days does it again-- and again... Call friend, he does his magic and says its going to ground (not being much lectric smart, I says ... um, OK!) So since the donated wire was multi strand he switched over to another two legs and -- OK! for about 10days and starts tripping breaker again.

 

Yesterday we pulled the wire out of the ground and ---- HOLY SMOKE (literally!) see pictures. Amazing it was functioning at all. He was blown away, said he had used that wire in hundreds of applications and had never seen or heard of anything like it. There was about 35-38 feet of it buried and almost every inch of it was either nibbled on or --- worse, as can be seen at the charred places!!

 

We replaced it with wire in conduit!! The well - and my bride, and me - are much happier now!

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IMG_3550.JPG.03a9eb47053e39d4f8ac48f37a6f580a.JPG

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Ed Kennell

Did you find any crispy critters attached to the wire?

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ebinmaine

Nahsty-lil-bugguhs!!

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953 nut

:text-coolphotos:                Glad I put mine in conduit when I built the house. 

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KC9KAS
15 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

Did you find any crispy critters attached to the wire?

That is what I was thinking!

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Sarge

I've seen craters around areas where moles have gotten into the local Utilty's underground primary, usually right near a transformer. Never much left of them but a horrible odor and sometimes a tooth or two. At the required 24" depth,  lines are a problem with rodents that dig, they should always be in metal conduit. Moles are also known for going after copper and fiber phone lines, lot of splicing around here that has degraded signal quality and cost the utilities a fortune.

 

I enjoy watching the various videos of folks blowing the critters up with flammable gases such as propane,  but it makes a mess of the yard. Had good success with the spike traps here, killed 4 moles last year and I see new ones are coming in from across the street again. Another hunting season when the weather warms up...

 

Sarge

Edited by Sarge
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wallfish

My Grandfather hated those things. I remember him cursing and complaining all the time and he used to build his own guillotine type devices which he put into their tunnels to cut their heads off. Too bad I was so young to remember how they were made.

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pacer

Oddly enough, we did not see any crispy critters. Reason we can strongly suspect moles is the presence of their runs all around the area. When re-digging the trench for the wire/conduit we found there were quite a few grubs, which are a favorite of moles. Its full blown Spring down here and the critters are active!

 

Sarge, I have one of the spike traps (impalers!) and will watch that area for fresh runs and see if I cant get a couple - I never had any lick with the poisons.

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Sarge

I don't like to use any form of poison on rodents. If they are out in the open and an owl gets it after digesting any the owl is dead,  some are protected and being found dead from various rat and mole poisons. The best thing is either blow them up or use the various spike traps. Key is to keep an eye on the furrow they dig, there is almost always a central tunnel they use with branches going various directions. Put your trap on that main tunnel, works every time. Killed 2 in one day last year, rare to find more than one working on a tunnel system. They move around quickly,  can dig about 30ft/hrs easily so just get a chair and quietly watch...then pick your spot.

 

Dad's old neighbor was the ex Fire chief,  he still sits out in his back yard and waits with his trusty fire ax, he's gotten pretty good at killing them.

 

Sarge

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classiccat
14 minutes ago, Sarge said:

I don't like to use any form of poison on rodents. If they are out in the open and an owl gets it after digesting any the owl is dead,  some are protected and being found dead from various rat and mole poisons. The best thing is either blow them up or use the various spike traps. Key is to keep an eye on the furrow they dig, there is almost always a central tunnel they use with branches going various directions. Put your trap on that main tunnel, works every time. Killed 2 in one day last year, rare to find more than one working on a tunnel system. They move around quickly,  can dig about 30ft/hrs easily so just get a chair and quietly watch...then pick your spot.

 

Dad's old neighbor was the ex Fire chief,  he still sits out in his back yard and waits with his trusty fire ax, he's gotten pretty good at killing them.

 

Sarge

 

I deployed 2 sets of No Mole traps last season (the kind you fit into their runs). Very effective!

 

L5UEFap.jpg

 

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pacer

WOW!! is that thing ugly, or what!!

 

One day I was closing up the shop and noticed one justa burrowing, grabbed a garden trowel (it was handy!) and flipped the critter out. Put my #13 boot on it to keep from running away --- That little thing was lifting my whole weight up, I do believe if I could have balanced on him it couldve supported me - amazingly strong!

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Sarge

Those front legs are serious, the rate they can dig is flat amazing too for their size. Don't believe I've seen the No Mole traps, I'll have to look that up. The spikes work well, it's tricky to get them placed in the right spot on the first try. I'm really tempted to try the propane setup, easy enough to build one and plenty of diy videos on YouTube out there. Don't really mind the mess here and it works even better on ground squirrels, which we have a ton of those now as well.

 

Sarge

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r356c

mole.jpg

 

edit, add:  Bill Murray taunted by a mole 36 years after Caddyshack.

Edited by r356c
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WHX??

I've seen that problem before Pacer. Many types of wire have a compound in them that rodents like to chew on. Must be like some kind of vitamin for them. Any underground wire used should be of the UF type which is supposed to be rodent "resistant" for what that means.

 

I use the spike traps with some success. Never tried it but hear tell you take a stick of Juicy Fruit chewing gum and put in in the runways. They are supposed to love it but can't digest it and it kills them. :confusion-shrug:

Best times to get them buggers with the shovel is very early morning as that's when they are most active.

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Ed Kennell

I tried to locate the mole defense post I started several years back, but no luck.   Maybe one of the mods can find it.    I had pictures of my mole killer system....four Wheel Horse tractors pumping the exhaust into the tunnels.    I haven't seen another mole  for years.

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WHX??

Post 15 here Ed

 

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formariz

Years back I also had a problem with moles. I have a rather large lawn area which is always meticulously taken care of. However about 10 years ago I was renovating the whole exterior of the house so that whole summer the lawn got basically abandoned .Next spring I could not believe what I was looking at. The place was basically entirely wrecked with mole tunnels and holes all over. It was so bad that I seriously thought that there was no way it would ever look right again. After doing all kinds of research on what to do, out of desperation I called Lawn Doctor. Guy comes over looks at it and immediately asks me if I took care of the lawn the year before. I tell him the story and he just calmly proceeds to tell me it is not a big problem at all. WHAT???? Would you like us to take care of it he asks. At this point I just want my place back the way it used to be so I give him the contract to take care of that and also do all the fertilizing of the lawn which I did not have a lot of time to do. I ask him how he is going to address the moles. Calmly he says they going to fertilize lawn and apply insect control to take their food source away and that in a couple of weeks they will move down to the neighbor's yard. Sure enough in two weeks problem was solved never to happen again. Merely take their food source away and they will move. In this case they were looking for grubs which infested lawn due to me neglecting it. As he explained everything you do on your lawn has a certain time frame to be done so it is effective and the window of opportunity is not very long so if you neglect it will be a problem.

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Ed Kennell
57 minutes ago, WHX16 said:

Post 15 here Ed

 

Thanks Jim,  this should give @pacer some ideas.

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WHX??

Funny thing is fellas in my search for Ed's pics I was amazed by the stuff in the basement pertaining to moles! Obiviously ther bad bad bad...ther nationwide! :banana-guitar:

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