All There Is To Know About Moles (Talpa Europaea)
Moles are a member of a group of mammals in the Insectivore Order, in other words, they eat insects. They really love to eat insects, but also earthworms and slugs form a large part of their diet. In fact they LOVE TO EAT!!! Moles weigh around 100 grams, but eat around 40-50 grams of insects every single day! So half their body weight in food!
Moles measure around 10 - 15 cm in length and are covered in a dark, velvety, fur. This fur coat has evolved to set in any direction. This means a mole can go as fast in reverse as it can go forward in its tunnels!
Its front feet (sometimes called 'Shovels') are large compared to its tiny back feet. The forefeet are always turned outwards for digging, and my how they can dig! A solitary mole can dig a tunnel system between 100 and 1000 sq/m, the size of the tunnel system depends on the availability of food, so if there's plenty insect larvae and worms in the soil, they will dig a smaller tunnel system, less fertile soil will mean a larger system is needed to be excavated.
Moles rely mainly on their senses of touch and hearing to find food. Their eyes are tiny and are only useful to tell between light or no light, in other words, to tell them if they are above ground or below ground.
Moles are abundant on the U.K. mainland, but interestingly not on the island of Ireland!
A moles tunnel system isn't just a way of travelling subterranean it's also a trap for their food sources as worms fall into the tunnel and the moles sense their presence, they scuttle down the tunnel to eat their prey.
They say you can set your watch by the regularity of their feeding, 4 hours feeding, 4 hours resting, 4 hours feeding, 4 hours resting, and so on around the clock.
Breeding season for moles is from February until June, they have a 4 week gestation period and they develop quickly after birth and leave the nest when they are 5 weeks old. The mole's life is then solitary unless it is mating or looking for a mate. This is one of the reasons that moles can't be caught alive and released somewhere else!!! If you were to do this, not only would you be committing a criminal offence, you would probably end up killing 2 moles instead of 1. This is because, other than mating, they are extremely protective of their tunnel system and will fight to the death to protect it.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE A MOLE?
If you have Mole Hills, then you probably have a Mole. The best way to tell if its an active mole is to flatten the old hills. If a new Mole Hill appears, then its time to give us a call, or attempt to trap it yourself.
HOW DO I GET RID OF A MOLE INFESTATION?
You can try trapping the mole yourself, it's just a matter of finding the correct trap for the situation, finding the moles' tunnels (sometimes called its 'Run'), and putting the trap in the right place, being careful to make sure the mole cant detect any surface light and that the soil covering the trap isn't preventing the trap from working efficiently. OR, you could call in the professionals, the Pest Interceptors!
Our process usually has success in a week. We come out to your mole infested land, put in our traps, come back a week later to check the traps. Usually, at this point, we have the mole or moles, but if we don't, we keep coming back until we have got rid of your mole problem. Once we have gotten rid of the moles, we give you a two-week guarantee, if a molehill pops up in this period, you just let us know and we will return for free. After the two weeks are up you are back on your own, and hopefully, you won't need us again.
In some situations, for example, you may be surrounded by moles in neighbouring gardens or fields. This means you may be re-infested, especially after breeding season, when the new moles are looking for their own area. Moles, much the same as us, would rather walk into a new house than build a new one, so if there's no mole to protect the tunnels, the young mole will move in!
For this reason, we also offer a year-round cover. We can only really quote for this on-site, as we have to put the area, soil type, etc., into the equation. We give you the one-time clearance price over the phone, come out to put the traps in, survey the area whilst we are there and give you a price for unlimited call-outs for the year. You don't have to decide on which option, or pay until we have got rid of your mole problem though, so no pressure on you.
MOLES CAN BE LETHAL TO ROYALTY!!!
Yes, it's true!!!
William III of Orange and of England was thrown to his death from his horse when a mole started to push up (erupting) one of its molehills. This startled the horse and threw its royal rider! Other accounts of the time say that his horse stumbled when its hoof went into a mole tunnel. Either story had the same result, one dead monarch in 1702!
Are you having pest problems? If you have recently found moles in your garden and you are looking for a team of professionals to deal with the situation, contact our team of professionals today to find out more about Pest Interceptors! We offer pest control services, West Midlands, our team have years of experience and will work hard to remove your pest infestation, get in touch today if you have a pest control problem!