Voles/Moles a heavy burden

[Janderso]

Hi @Janderso

I started using a steel trap for moles when my Dad showed one to me. I was a teenager then. No poison peanuts or gases .... that you have to worry about who or what might get into them. I have a couple of the steel traps I have picked up at garage sales over the years. Anyway, they work for the moles, and last for ever! I never tried them on voles. Because they are old mine look a little different. They have handle at the top for pulling on the spring and they seem to have a slightly different trip lever. You simply step on the dirt tunnel a little, where you want to set the trap. Push the side strong/wide trap tines into the ground, straddling the tunnel so that the sharp pointed tines are just at the surface of the ground and the trip lever rests on the depressed soil. The next time the mole goes through, the soil rises and trips the trap.... it gets him. Very effective. Just keep resetting it. You will get them all if you stay at it.

Victor® Mole Trap

The Victor mole Trap is the solution to your yard’s many holes from devious moles. This trap features weather-resistant spears on the plunger-style trap body.

www.victorpest.com

Dave L.

I tried these when I lived in Paradise. I think the soil was too hard. It is red clay. They wouldn't work.
They might work in our soil.

 

[Janderso]

A hose on the exhaust of any ICE equipment or vehicle.

Hey, what about carbon dioxide from my welding tank?? Well, 75% CO2 and 25% Argon.

 

[Provincial]

Hey, what about carbon dioxide from my welding tank?? Well, 75% CO2 and 25% Argon.

That would be an expensive proposition!

 

[Provincial]

I was able to follow my grandfather's method of killing gophers years ago when I lived in Lake Tahoe.
I used three of the green gopher traps, the ones with the L shaped sears that collapse on the varmint.
I dug out an intersection, placed the traps in their tunnels, tied a piece of string to each trap, put a fresh cut carrot in the middle of the traps and put a piece of plywood over the hole.
Three hours later I pulled out two dead gophers!!!
Maybe I could try this method on Voles/Moles??

Voles live underground, but don't burrow like gophers and voles. They emerge and forage aboveground. If using exhaust from an ICE, use one with low compression, because the newer engines are designed to reduce the CO emissions.

 

[durableoreo]

We had gophers chew through the insulation on the feeder between the transformer and our house. The unbalanced condition was difficult to diagnose and expensive to repair.

To drive the gophers out, I had to learn to spot the architecture of their burrows. There were a few moles but their tunnels and habits are different. The traps don't work unless you know how the animals use the tunnels. As soon as I figured it out, it took about a month of setting 5 traps 2x per week.

 

[RJSakowski]

The one method I really like is a vacuum. Out in the prairie, the was a guy that rigged up a large mobile vacuum with what looked like 4" hose. He would insert the end of the hose in a prairie dog burrow and suck them up.

This Giant Vacuum Sucks Prairie Dogs Right Out of Their Holes

For years, prairie dogs have been the bane of cattle ranchers, whose livestock are routinely injured when stepping in prairie dog holes. In response, ranchers have gassed, poisoned, drowned, or buried entire colonies alive. But one enterprising pest control company has devised a more humane...

gizmodo.com

 

[Provincial]

The vacuum guy had to pad the inside of the tank because there was concern that the dogs would be injured when they reached the tank.

 

[RJSakowski]

The vacuum guy had to pad the inside of the tank because there was concern that the dogs would be injured when they reached the tank.

I wouldn't be so considerate.

 

[B2]

started using a steel trap for moles when my Dad showed one to me. I was a teenager then. No poison peanuts or gases .... that you have to worry about who or what might get into them. I have a couple of the steel traps I have picked up at garage sales over the years. Anyway, they work for the moles, and last for ever! I never tried them on voles. Because they are old mine look a little different. They have handle at the top for pulling on the spring and they seem to have a slightly different trip lever. You simply step on the dirt tunnel a little, where you want to set the trap. Push the side strong/wide trap tines into the ground, straddling the tunnel so that the sharp pointed tines are just at the surface of the ground and the trip lever rests on the depressed soil. The next time the mole goes through, the soil rises and trips the trap.... it gets him. Very effective. Just keep resetting it. You will get them all if you stay at it.

One other trick I forgot to mention about how to use this trap. If you set the trap up and then spring it a couple of times by hand it will make the spearing tine hole in the dirt a head to time. This way the tines go in faster and with no real resistance by the dirt. Then reset the trap and wait, usually just over night or less.

 

[Forty Niner]

Gophers are rodents that mostly eat roots. They push out dirt from the mouth of their tunnels in a way different from moles. The tunnel mouth is angled to the ground surface, and the expelled dirt it pushed out of the mouth to the side, instead of mounded straight up. The tunnel mouth is closed up with dirt when not in use, so an open hole with fresh dirt spread out from it is an indication that the gopher is active and nearby.

It took me 8 months and a totally destroyed yard before I could convince my wife to turn her head and let me set traps. I caught her sticking a water hose in the ground hoping it would make them go away. Traps work, but it is a constant battle. I use Gophinator gopher traps made by Trapline Products. I have two sizes. I rigged up a 6 foot flexible exhaust pipe to my riding lawnmower and tried that a few times with mixed results.

Today, this gopher built two mounds in less that 2 hours right in my yard when I went inside to eat. Put the trap in the tunnel and caught it within a couple of hours.