Flooding / Gassing

These two methods, whilst different, are equally futile. The general idea is to either flood the tunnels or fill them with poisonous gas from a car exhaust. Unfortunately there are some very good reasons why this will not work. In both cases, the far reaching extent of the run, and the porous nature of soil, means that the gas / water will not fill the tunnel system, and will leak out seeping through the soil.

In the case of flooding, moles are in fact very good swimmers and can hold their breath for extended periods. If they are ‘flooded out’ they will simply retreat to higher ground and return when the water subsides. You are more likely to simply make a mess of your garden, turning it into a bog, than remove your moles. Your best bet if trying this is to spot the mole leaving a flooded tunnel section and hit it with a spade while it is above ground. You’ll need to move fast though!

When it comes to exhaust gasses, moles live underground and are extraordinarily well adapted to survive in atmospheres that contain low levels of oxygen – they have a very efficient pulmonary system and high red blood cell counts. Gassing would have to be at a very high concentration to have any effect on them. Given the nature of soil, and the extent of burrows this is not possible to achieve.

Warning: using the gassing idea, connected to your car could cause significant damage to your exhaust and catalytic converter – requiring expensive repairs!