Hi Sam,
Sorry about your mole problem. There are some things you can do about it.
The shotgun approach is only for people who've "lost it" though.
First, you have to realize that the critters are tunneling in order to find
food. I believe their preferred delicacies are grubs.... the larval stages
of beetles as well as worms and other insects. Your antenna field is
probably an infestation zone. When you get rid of their food sources
they'll go elsewhere.
I'd recommend that you visit a lawn and garden center and ask for their most
effective grub treatment chemicals... most likely Diazinon and others.
Please note that these chemicals, in order to work, need to be heavily
watered into the ground after they have been evenly distributed using a
broadcast or drop type of garden chemical spreader.
I've tried other various means to rid my lawn of these menaces with varying
degrees of success. I purchased a mechanical mole killer that's about as
gory a spring-loaded contraption as you'll ever find. (It skewers the little
buggers as they activate the trigger mechanism while restoring their stomped
on tunnels). Sometimes it works... most of the time not.
I've also heard of "pinwheels" on sticks creating vibrations and noises that
"drives moles crazy." I think they were recommended by lawnowners who had
already "lost it." I would imagine that a hungry mole would ignore a noisy
pinwheel.
Mole "pellets," which are poison bait, I've found to be a waste of money.
Poison gas pellets, car exhaust via a hose as well as jets of water directed
into their tunnels are totally ineffective solutions which are more for the
amusement of the neighbors than anything else.
Recently I've discovered the most efficient mole eliminating scheme yet.
It's called "my neighbors cat." Sassy is a real godsend. Somehow she has
turned out to be a "mouser"- first class! From Psych 101 we learn that cats
don't normally kill mice (or moles) unless they see their mothers doing so.
It's a learned behavior. Anyway, Sassy sits on the lawn and watches the
tunneling and dirt piling up at the exit holes, runs over and puts her paw
down the hole and retrieves the mole with her claws. A quick kill with a
bite to the neck and she brings it home as a "present," bless her little heart.
Because Sassy is free to roam the area we also have no more squirrels,
rabbits, groundhogs and other vermin. While she does attack an occasional
bird, we've really seen an increase in the songbird population.
Oh! I forgot to mention that should you ever catch a mole... please note
that it's fur has no nap, being just as easily rubbed from any direction.
This is no doubt an evolutionary adaptation to it's tunneling lifestyle
which has been likened to "swimming in the soil."
This is no doubt more than anyone really wants to know about moles. However,
it may someday save your ankles from a nasty break as you walk in the
vicinity or your TOWER... (Yes! I did manage to get in the magic word).
Additionally, you may yet thank me (or better, Dr. Zigfried Helfenschmaltz,
formerly of the Liechtenstein Mole Extermination and Tower Lighting Project,
who has done pioneering research into mole behavior), for all you have
learned here on the TowerTalk reflector. Additional kudos go to Steve,
K7LXC, our reflector manager and all around nice guy, who tolerates these
kinds of posts... but just barely.
Good luck with your mole problem and please, don't listen to anyone who
tells you to use Cling Free, Noalox, Plastic Owls, Scotch 33 / 88, "monkey
shit" or glow-in-the-dark kids cereal toys in your quest for a solution to a
real-life problem. We all commiserate with you.
-73-
Roger, K2JAS
"Mole-haters of the world.... UNITE!"...... now let's see... Hmmmm... a few
bags of fertilizer, some gasoline....some primer.... aw.... forget it!
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At 06:53 PM 6/16/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I am looking for any good ideas to rid my antenna field of Moles...The
>little
>buggers are every where...I got some poision pellets but I would need a
>bushel
>basket and 6 months to kill the pesky critters ...
>
>Some folks say they are active in the afternoon so just get a chair and
>a
>shot gun and when you see the ground move blast away...This is tempting
>but
>my neighbors think I am strange anyway so sitting on a chair with a
>shootum-up gun in my lap just won't help my image at all..
>If you got any ideas let me know...
>
>Thanks 73/Sam K9SD
>gun in my lap won't play too well...
>Sam Effinger
>SIET- Utilities
>
>
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