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We recently had one of our lovely customers, who in utter frustration, said he was going to sell his house and move because the moles were ruining his lawn!

He had returned the trap that he had purchased from us 'because it didn't work'. Actually, it did work and there was nothing wrong with the trap, so I thought I had better call him and try and resolve the problem.

It transpired that he has been plagued with moles for the past seven years ruining his front lawn and despite using all sorts of traps and professional mole catchers the moles are breeding at a faster rate than he could catch them.

So as a last resort, having seen our advertisement, he bought a Beagle EasySet Mole Trap.

He followed the instructions carefully, placed it in the run and then NOTHING! Not tripped. Not blocked. Not pushed out of the ground. NOTHING!

You see the moles are actually not there at the moment and the reason is that it has been extremely dry in his area for sometime and the ground is as hard as concrete and the moles sustenance has descended to more humid depths and the moles have followed them down.

However, our customer looks out of the window at his front lawn and can see the bare patches where he has flattened the mole hills and knows he can find the runs. You can understand his frustration.

So I advised him to be patient and await the rain and new activity before trying again because surely they will return.

 We returned the trap to him along with his cheque as a gesture of goodwill and we wish him all the best in his mole catching quest!

I suppose there will always some clever dick who will brag about their ability to bend standing and set a mole trap. Certainly not me! I don't think I have seen my toes since I was about ten! So for the majority of us we will have to get down on our knees to excavate and prepare a mole run and then set and place the trap.

Now the probing and cutting the initial divot and perhaps lifting the first spadeful with your Beagle Folding Spade and can probably be done reasonably comfortably from the standing position and without too much bending.

But then it's down on your knees and get at the run with your specially designed, ergonomic, Beagle run clearing Trowel to prepare the excavation ready to receive the trap.

You need to land on your knees safely and comfortably, protect your clothing and keep them clean so you need a nice padded kneeler. Which is exactly what you get when you purchase the Beagle Super Padded Kneeler.

Light weight, well padded, durable and washable and it stows away very conveniently in The Beagle Kit Bag with all the other kit. The kneeler is made for us by Bosmere Products who make a wide range of excellent garden and outdoor products.

Needless to say but these kneelers are versatile for domestic or religious purposes! In fact it would be a welcome idea if some religious establishments replaced their old moth eaten kneelers with some new ones and if local worthies wish to cover them with tapestry in the hope of getting a better position at the gates, then God bless them!

You could be excused for feeling that I have been padding (ha ha!) this blog out. You are right I have; there is a limited amount you can eulogise on the subject of Kneelers! Let us pray!

The very careful preparation of the hole you have excavated into which you are going to place your Beagle EasySet Mole Trap is essential for a successful trapping.

It is inevitable that when cutting your divot and digging out the spoil, some will fall into the run and back up the tunnel either side of the excavated hole.

Whilst you might be able to get most of it out with the Beagle spade, you will need a trowel or scoop to clean out the approaches and the base of the excavated hole of loose soil and you also need a trowel to finish the excavation and maybe dig out a stone or two.

Secateurs are also useful from time to time to cut out an obstructive root. You also need to tamp down the base of the run to ensure a clear run. Too much soil left in the tunnel and beneath the set trap and it is highly likely that a mole will push it forward and block the trap.

Many trowels are too long or too wide or too flat to do this effectively, so at Beagle we have designed a special trowel for this purpose.

Firstly the blade and handle of our trowel have been shortened so that you can get into the excavation and poke it up the tunnel either side. Also it is of optimum width (5 cms) so that it will poke up the average mole tunnel and can be used to draw back loose soil. The leading edge is slightly pointed to ease this process; it has also been reasonably sharpened to remove obstacles or trim the sides of the excavation so that the trap will fit snugly and be set in proper alignment.

It has a nice deep scoop for soil removal and a superb ergonomically designed handle. Moreover, turn it upside down and the top of the handle can be used for tamping down the base of the excavation prior to placing the trap!

In short, Perfect!

Although especially designed for the Beagle Kit it is also a damned good general purpose trowel and as the ergonomically designed handle implies, extremely comfortable to use. 

To trap a mole you have to access its tunnel network and the extent depends upon the trap you propose to use.

One way or another the mole has to trigger the trap. For most traps you have to excavate the ground with a spade and expose the tunnel and then place the trap, cover it in to exclude the light, and try and deceive the mole that there is nothing amiss with its tunnel network! So the less you disturb the tunnel and the tighter the fit for the trap the better.

At Beagle we have developed a special spade for this purpose and it is collapsible! Now you might think that is a total contradiction and useless. Not so!

The blade of the spade can be folded out or up to the handle and is locked in place either way by a ring screw nut known as a collet.

Folded it is 50 cms long and assembled 70 cms long, this makes it easier to transport in a bag and when assembled of a reasonable length whether you are handling it standing or kneeling. In short it is ideal for preparing ground for placing mole traps.

The blade is one centimetre in width more than the length of the Beagle Easyset Mole Trap. So you are not cutting a divot or excavating a hole that is too long and thus you ensure a tight fit.

The blade is also flat (not curved like most spades) so that it will cut a straight divot the length of the trap again ensuring a tight fit with little back fill to exclude light.

The cutting edge is square (unlike the collapsible snow shovels) and ground down to an acceptable level of sharpness so it will slice through small roots.There is good stout wooden T handle.

All in all an essential part of the Beagle Kit! It fits very snugly into Beagles new bag (more about that later). What is more it’s just as useful as a border spade and (especially for the decrepit writer of this blog) a very useful aid to help you up from your knees!

You wake up to an mole invasion on your hitherto beautifully manicured lawn! So out with the traps and on the attack!

You know that you have got to place your traps between a couple of mole hills (you would be amazed as to how many people think you should place a trap in the mole hill which in reality is only a spoil heap on a cul de sac!) but what you soon realise is that two hills are not necessarily joined by a tunnel between them, running on a straight line. You must appreciate that when a mole is tunnelling it is actually foraging randomly for sustenance, usually worms, so it can be all over the place between two hills. Therefore locating the precise direction of the tunnel is of primary importance.

So you need a probe. 

Now I will admit that in the past I have used anything that comes to hand, a bamboo cane or stick that in hard ground usually breaks. A long screwdriver, or a straightened out coat hanger or even my late grandmothers knitting needles. Or even just a piece of straight metal rod of reasonable diameter. But there is nothing like a decent piece of kit designed and made for the job, Let me explain.

You need probe of the right length and strength so that it is not back breaking and is not going to bend or break under pressure.

A decent comfortable wooden handle and a metal shaft 65cms and 50mm thick is ideal for most purposes.

But here is the key to it..

The bullet head: Literally it looks like one. Pointed at the tip of 7mm diameter and 50 mm length welded to the end of the 50 mm shaft. When pushed into the ground when it locates the run it gives instantly and is not restrained by the friction of a single shaft.

 

Our Beagle probe is a cracker and very popular. We don’t believe there is another on the market that compares!

Let me disillusion (dissuade) you, so called ‘humane’ traps are nothing of the sort.

Quite the opposite in fact.

In a humane trap the mole enters the trap and pushes forward in a tight fitting narrow tube towards the flap closing off the far end. It might be fortunate and get the flap up and escape, but more often it will find itself trapped in a confined space where it can't turn around and even if it could, it would be blocked in by the flap closing behind it.

It doesn't have the option either of digging it's way out. The mole will panic. It will spend a phenomenal amount of its very considerable strength and energy struggling to escape. It is terrified. It wets itself and it gets cold in the tube. Moles have a high metabolic rate and need food. It is not long that with its energy expended, cold and hungry it just gives up and dies. I can assure you it doesn't take long. So unless you visit this type of trap at very frequent intervals you will find a dead mole that has suffered.

So maybe you can get to the trap in time and find a live mole, break the trap and release the mole far from the area in which you trapped it. It will still be traumatised and weakened and released into an area far from its established area and nest in potentially hostile country. They are territorial and do fight. Its chances of survival are greatly reduced.

Makes you think!?

 

..from his daughters dog!

The email exchange between David, the inventor of The Beagle EasySet Mole Trap, and his daughter Polly went something like this..

Polly: "look what I caught mummy. Must tell Grandpa!" Biddy, the Mole Catcher!

David: Grrrrr!I can do without this competition!

Polly: Michael (son in law) thinks you should change the name from BEAGLE to MONGREL!

And then just a couple of days later...

Polly: Mole no.2! I can rent her out if you like?

David: Bloody hound! She will put me out of business!

Polly: Sorry about that! Mole catching runs in the family! You can swap notes when you next see her. She may have a tip or two she can share with you!