How To Humanely Kill a Mole

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Moles are small mammals that live in underground burrows and dig a huge network of tunnels in search of food. They feed on worms, bugs and grubs that destroy lawns. Their tunnels, when reach the ground are becoming the hills of mud and dirt, which not only looks ugly, but also destroy your garden. The destruction of the mole is necessary to prevent that your garden looks like a tunnel and how to protect your garden and its fauna. Below, read some of the common ways of destroying these "annoying" small mammals.



How to Kill a Mole With Traps - The most effective way to solve your problem with moles is a mole trap. Slip on deep, rubber boots and trample all visible piles of mud in your lawn, to flatten the ground. The next morning, check the lawn, to check whether the hills are re-formed. Moles dig tunnels only in places where they need, and you will get an idea about lawn area where these small mammals are most active.

Determine the size of the trap and dig a hole big enough around mud embankments. Tense the mechanism of the trap so that compose the upper ends of the pliers. Then, through them, switch wired fuse and insert it in the hole. Put a mole trap in a hole you dug up, make sure that the spring is parallel to the direction of movement of the mole. After that, put the soil on a trap, but leave the channel passable. The traps for moles operate on the principle that the mole when passing through the channel, the trap snap plate which releases the fuse wire. After that, the pliers are closing and catch a mole into the trap. Make sure to mark the spots where you put the traps. You can do that with the stick. The more traps you set, the chances to catch a mole will be better. Leave the trap for a several hours, preferably all day and night, because it’s really hard to catch a mole quickly, they are cunning little animals. You will find a dead mole in the morning if you’re lucky. If not, be patient and wait for a couple of days. You don’t have to deal with an injured mole because death is certain, quick and painless. When removing a dead mole of trap, be sure to wear gloves.

There is an old-fashion scissor mole trap which was used in England for centuries. The first thing you need to do is to determine which type of tunnel the mole has made, so you can know whether to use scissor trap or the trap mentioned above. When your scissor trap is new, you should probably bury it into the ground for a few days before use. After that is done, make sure to tread down any visible runs, so the next day you could see which ones are being used by the mole. You have to make sure that hole is clear. Check the scissor trap every day for 3 or 4 days and if it’s empty, move it to another place where you noticed the activity of the mole. This trap is effective in 25% cases, so you better set the few of them, just to make sure. You cannot expect a success with only one trap, a minimum of two scissor traps are required for the results. Read more about mole trapping.

You can destroy the mole with a jet of water, so dig a hole around the pit, insert the hose in the hole, and leave the water jet for around 20 minutes. You can make a channel like a barrier so you can catch the mole easily. Dig a channel between 20 to 30 cm wide and depth of 60 to 76 cm around the area of the lawn that you want to protect of the mole. Fill channel with gravel and cover with soil. Mousetrap could also help in the destruction of the mole. Get a trap for mice, moles are about the same size as mice, and indeed they can be destroyed using traps for mice.

The terrier breeds of dogs are very deadly for the moles, so if you have one at your home, great, if you don’t, you better consider to get one feisty little terrier to solve your problem with the mole. Another option is oil. Put the oil in the hole and wait some time to see the results. If the mole is still alive, try a couple of more times.

The moles are really smart and they can avoid your death traps for months. All you have to do is to be consistent and patient, and results will come.

Go back to the main how to get rid of moles page for better information.

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The options you have open to you when it comes to learning how to kill a mole are:
*Shooting *Lethal traps *Poison



Shooting isn't the first thing that should come to mind. Shooting a mole is going ot be hard work, and that's before you look into the legalities of it all. Plus, this animal is one that lives primarily underground. You would need to capture the animal first using a live cage trap, and then you would need to shoot the animal in the trap. Oh, and then you would need to dispose of that body, make sure that you're not using a firearm in a place you can't safely or lawfully do so, and also ensure that you haven't scared the neighbors/kids/people that live down the road from you.

Poison isn't a great option either, because it has the potential to go very wrong. You’re shoving poison underground. All sorts of animals live underground, and sometimes, your domesticated animals have a good dig around there too. Unless you have marked out that area, or made a mental note of exactly where the poison is, there's a good chance that you might lose it forget about it. The poison could saturate into the soil, killing other forms of life, including animals and plants. It could contaminate water sources. It could contaminate a lot of things, in fact, especially when you start delving around in the world of secondary poisoning. That could happen, by the way, if your dog were to dig up the mole that had died underground from your poisoning attempts, and then eaten it. The body will still have poison in it, and it will be transferred to the pooch by way of ingestion. If there is enough poison still there, it could make the dog (or other animal that eats the mole) rather sick, and in some cases, it could even cause death.

That basically leaves you with lethal types of mole traps, which are an effective way of ridding your land of moles. You must do some research before you decide on trap-types, however, as some of them are illegal to use in the pursuit of moles in certain states. If you were in Washington, D.C., you wouldn't be allowed to use traps to kill moles, because killing non-commensal animals is unlawful. A mole is a non-commensal animal. In the State, a law was passed in 2000 that made it unlawful to use certain trap types to kill moles also, such as body grip traps. These worked in the same way as rat and mouse traps, but on a slightly larger scale, and were considered to be incredibly inhumane for everyone involved. It wouldn't be a pleasant task to remove the body from that trap. You can't just use a mouse or rat trap either, because they aren't big enough to do the job they would be intended for.

You would be amazed by how many legalities surrounding wild animal removal, particularly moles, and we would definitely recommend getting an official statement on things before taking any action. You could call your local county or city authorities to find out what the law dictates, or you could give the local wildlife removal experts a call. Many will be happy to offer some advice over the phone, especially as far as humane and lawful methods are concerned.

For more information, you may want to click on one of these guides that I wrote:
How to Get Rid of Moles
how much does mole removal cost?
How to get rid of moles in yard without killing them