Today I had a run in with a mole. In the 3 years I have lived here, its the first time we have had a mole hill. I noticed it this afternoon and scraped the soil away, 20 minutres later, the soil was volcanoing again, so I got a garden fork and waited for it to come up with another load, and killed it. BUT what was unusual was as I was waiting for the right moment, no word of a lie an earthworm shot up out the ground right next to the mole hill, in a perfect straight line as if it was being pulled out by an invisible string, came up in like 2 or 3 seconds. Has anyone else seen anything like that before?
moles and earth worms, unusual activity?
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Yes. The earthworm senses the mole coming, and gets out of the way.
Grab a worm, clean it. Have a close look. See those tiny hairs?
They feel vibes with them.
Grab a worm, clean it. Have a close look. See those tiny hairs?
They feel vibes with them.
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Grab a mole. Clean it. See his whiskers?
He feels the worms moving with them.
It is a wonderful world!
He feels the worms moving with them.
It is a wonderful world!
It is just earth from below the surface being moved and pushed up?
Then after a while, if you kill the mole, the tunnels collapse, and your prize awarded lawn needs fixing.
Then after a while, if you kill the mole, the tunnels collapse, and your prize awarded lawn needs fixing.
I wouldnt say my lawn is "prize awarded" i just dont want the hassle of fresh lots of soil heaped up every morning. If I nip it in the bud now, there wont be any "coillapsed tunnels" in the future, know what I mean?
Have to say though, first time I ever saw an earth worm in a perfectly straight line.
It's perfectly tilled soil though, the texture makes it perfect for potting. Mix it with some leaf mould, some well rotted manure and maybe some homemade compost and you end up with a really premuim growing media. Then you can rip up your boring lawn and grow some proper plants.
There are abandoned sites of fur tradiing posts scattered all over western Canada.
Protected now, we used to scan a few with WW II mine detectors for square nails, etc. Nothing ever too wonderful.
The artifact layer was always and uniformly about 3" below the grassy surface. Everywhere.
Dust? Activity from gophers ( native rodents = Richardson's Ground Squirrels)?
I think they must occupy an ecological niche somewhat similar to your moles.
No. It was learned that out top soil turnover, all over western Canada, is done by all the various species of ants.
Protected now, we used to scan a few with WW II mine detectors for square nails, etc. Nothing ever too wonderful.
The artifact layer was always and uniformly about 3" below the grassy surface. Everywhere.
Dust? Activity from gophers ( native rodents = Richardson's Ground Squirrels)?
I think they must occupy an ecological niche somewhat similar to your moles.
No. It was learned that out top soil turnover, all over western Canada, is done by all the various species of ants.
As much I as l am fascinated by moles and use the mole hill soil for compost and to help break up the clay soil we have here, I would love to find a way to deter them from causing so much damage to our vegetable beds, so far this year their vegetable kill rate has been high, cabbage patch ruined, early broccoli area destroyed, aubergine plants forget them and that is just a few examples! We trace their tunnel systems, collapse them and keep replanting but nothing deters them and they return to cause even more havoc as we are virtually self sufficient with growing all our own fruit and vegetables and reliant on what we produce these events are a nightmare, besides investing in a shotgun and adopting Jasper Carrot's style of mole warfare we are really struggling to get rid of them. This year the furry blighters population seems to have exploded.
Big BANG or no noise at all. Can you use toxic bait such as Warfarin?
We have legal pyrotechnic devices, about finger-size, called gopher bombs.
Simply little smoke generators to light, stuff down a hole and stomp in a shovel of dirt.
A decade ago? The winner of the annual gopher-trophy for rodent extermination had shot more than 3,000 of them and had the tails to prove it.
We have legal pyrotechnic devices, about finger-size, called gopher bombs.
Simply little smoke generators to light, stuff down a hole and stomp in a shovel of dirt.
A decade ago? The winner of the annual gopher-trophy for rodent extermination had shot more than 3,000 of them and had the tails to prove it.
3000! That is almost enough to make a real pair of moleskin trousers!
I think they are cute and formidable monsters but i don't have them in my garden. My uncle has them in his garden and its all our war.
Canadian prairie durum wheat (mostly from Saskatchewan) makes the world's very best durum pasta. Many countries use it.
Unico and Primo are Cdn, that's what I buy and why. Even making my own pasta, I use Unico Semolina.
A single rat turd or gopher turd in a 100kg sample of grain and your prize crop is now #4 cattle feed.
You can't even pay for the fuel to harvest your crop.
The rodents chew their way into grain storage structures for good reason.
So it is all out war by any means possible. Bombs and guns and nobody blinks.
Carbon Monoxide car exhaust piped under the grain storage tanks (works really well). What ever it takes.
Question: If moles are such a nuisance in home gardens, how do the veg farms cope with this?
Unico and Primo are Cdn, that's what I buy and why. Even making my own pasta, I use Unico Semolina.
A single rat turd or gopher turd in a 100kg sample of grain and your prize crop is now #4 cattle feed.
You can't even pay for the fuel to harvest your crop.
The rodents chew their way into grain storage structures for good reason.
So it is all out war by any means possible. Bombs and guns and nobody blinks.
Carbon Monoxide car exhaust piped under the grain storage tanks (works really well). What ever it takes.
Question: If moles are such a nuisance in home gardens, how do the veg farms cope with this?
This is why I want to nip it in the bud and not let them get settled. Guy across the road had literally dozens of mole hills, 2 or 3 coming up each night. So far, no more mole activity on our patch
They do a lot of damage, specially if you have one of those fantastically well kept English Gardens.
I used to have them poisoned, then took care of them with a shotgun once I got a shotgun.
I used to have them poisoned, then took care of them with a shotgun once I got a shotgun.
question: are the moles solitary or do they live in a colonial style as a group?
Have you got individual tunnels or a whole web?
Those smoke bombs, the "gopher bombs," are really fun to play with.
All you need is a Bic lighter and a shovel for an afternoon's entertaiment
and, best of all, nobody will stop you.
this space was used for household equivalent devices.
First of all, get a bomb going, stuff it down a hole with the shovel handle and fill that in with dirt.
After maybe 5 minutes, you see the smoke coming out of other holes. Really spooky to watch.
So one by one, you fill them all in. Many times, a derelict field will have holes 5 feet apart.
It's considered very bad form here to blast gophers with a shotgun in any residential area.
You have to be a little more discrete.
Every kid's dream is 1/2 a mile of garden hose, linked to somebody's house.
Have you got individual tunnels or a whole web?
Those smoke bombs, the "gopher bombs," are really fun to play with.
All you need is a Bic lighter and a shovel for an afternoon's entertaiment
and, best of all, nobody will stop you.
this space was used for household equivalent devices.
First of all, get a bomb going, stuff it down a hole with the shovel handle and fill that in with dirt.
After maybe 5 minutes, you see the smoke coming out of other holes. Really spooky to watch.
So one by one, you fill them all in. Many times, a derelict field will have holes 5 feet apart.
It's considered very bad form here to blast gophers with a shotgun in any residential area.
You have to be a little more discrete.
Every kid's dream is 1/2 a mile of garden hose, linked to somebody's house.
The farmers destroy their tunnels by ploughing the land. So the moles settle over a few metres beside, if they aren't killed, and avoid the area. May be because the new earth structure is unpleasant to them.
In Germany they are protected. We are allowed to catch them, but not to hunt and kill them. So if we have one in the garden he is officially allowed to transfer it into a battle field!
Impossible in a country, where the lawn is a holy national monument, off course!
But here it is the same with rabbits: Snares are forbidden, because to cruel, shooting them is forbidden in towns, because it is to dangerous for the neighbourhood. In outer parts of Berlin even the pigs are doing in the gardens what they want to.
So pay a bit attention, if you should visit Germany! Even a wolf nobody would shoot down. Of course it would be to dangerous for the neighbours!
;0)
In Germany they are protected. We are allowed to catch them, but not to hunt and kill them. So if we have one in the garden he is officially allowed to transfer it into a battle field!
Impossible in a country, where the lawn is a holy national monument, off course!
But here it is the same with rabbits: Snares are forbidden, because to cruel, shooting them is forbidden in towns, because it is to dangerous for the neighbourhood. In outer parts of Berlin even the pigs are doing in the gardens what they want to.
So pay a bit attention, if you should visit Germany! Even a wolf nobody would shoot down. Of course it would be to dangerous for the neighbours!
;0)
I've never seen one come out vertically like you describe but, for collecting lots of worms, pour a bucket of warm water on the ground, with a bit of washing up liquid in it. They worms squirt up out of their holes like linguine from a pasta maker
