Brian and the Moles

I must preface what follows by saying that I was born and raised in suburban East London, the county of Essex in fact, which is mostly associated with dodgy car dealers, blonde bimbo’s and overpaid city bankers rather than natural wildlife. As a result my knowledge of moles was limited to children’s stories like Wind in the Willows where moles are always depicted as warm cuddly helpful creatures.



And for the ensuing 40 odd years my path was never crossed by a single live mole. I do recall once hearing Jasper Carrot’s “mole sketch” on audio tape, I laughed but never imagined that in future I would be similarly involved.

Japer Carrot Mole Sketch

However having moved to France and acquiring a hectare of land and building a garden railway I’ve become increasingly drawn into battle with the little beasts.
As readers of my other thread on this forum will know, I have recently been tackling the problem with petrol. This was an idea from an English neighbour and involved exposing the holes under the mole hills, pouring in a cupful of petrol, covering the holes with a piece of wood to prevent evaporation, quickly repeating the process along the line of the run before igniting at one end.



I have to say this was great fun and quite a spectacle watching spouts of flame erupting from various points on the lawn and a few impressive bangs. It also showed just how long and twisting mole runs can be, as explosions would erupt from unpredictable areas. Exciting, dodging gouts of flame threatening to unexpectedly engulf your man parts!

Some 50 litres of petrol and many man hours later the little b****gers keep coming back, and the garden looks like the Somme.



So time to engage “the final solution” – meet the DETAUPER



“Taupe” as I’m sure you know is the French for Mole and this device is guaranteed to kill !
It works by firing an explosive charge (banger sized) in the mole run when tripped by a sensing plunger. I set the first one last night and within three hours it was tripped and the first positive mole kill was chalked up on the barn door. I just hope there will be more to follow .....




And the moles don't have the last laugh

PETA Alert!!!!!!

KleineDicke wrote:

PETA Alert!!!!!!

Judging by the huntin' shootin' & fishin' that goes on round here Bill, I don't think PETA holds much sway in France

Something was missing

This is a serious problem and no one would say you are making a mountain out of a ......

Great stuff.

I will go to the cooperative and buy some for the rabbits. They are just as bad here.

I have used these exploders for a few years; they certainly keep the beggars at bay. We recently acquired a few cats (a long story) and this appears to have persuaded the moles to explore the next door neighbour’s land as well, a field that they appeared never to venture into before.

When we arrived here we had loads of moles. I took the advice of a local farmer and poured some red diesel down each 'mole pile'. Result; bit of a pong for several days, but no more moles! Never had them back either!

mikey

Thanks for the idea Mike.

If I'd known that before splashing out on petrol and the Detauper we might have given it a go!

Not sure about spreading diesel in the field with the horses and dogs though?

At least we can fence off the Detauper and use a dustbin or upturned wheelbarrow to stop inquisitive noses

Score to date - Day Three .....

...so much for the myth of the European 'green' lifestyle.

KleineDicke wrote:

...so much for the myth of the European 'green' lifestyle.

It’s the moles that make the ‘GREEN’ fields brown, we are just trying to preserve our green fields………

slightly off thread but yes it is a myth. Living in the middle of farming communities we have nearly as much pollution as living in a city! Tractors spurting out clouds of diesel smoke, Fertilizer smells( especially the 'human' variety which they still insist on spraying on the land), then theres the overspray from the chemicals to combat crop diseases, now its thick woodsmoke from burning woodpiles, not to mention the surroundinng house chimneys, and finally when i fire up a little G scale engine some of the neighbours complain!! Oh yes its a hard life living in the country!!

mikey

Not to mention all the dust and pollution at harvest time, have you seen the back of a combine harvester when it’s working?

Dutch moles are easy to spot... But they need a lot of explosives to kill...



It's actually a statue for a digged railway tunnel through a village centre.

The latest tally .....

5 kills means you're an "Ace" now.

It looks like your doing well……