Did a job a year ago I caught 63 in two programs running about 10 days each. About a month apart.

15 to 20 is very common in our area for a harvest with folks that have had a problem for a few years. Those with new activity in the last few months can be 6-10. We get a lot of re inhabitation of previously occupied runs going on here when conditions are conducive.

We have a very healthy mole population. As long as it stays moist we get steady calls. Once it gets warm and the soil dehydrates a lot they stay in the landscape and tree canopy areas.

New Setters
Easier, Safer, Less stress on Trap and Trapper!
One Hand Setters
Dave

How large are these properties? Your soil must be extremely high in organic matter in order to support so many worms! I do a lot of trapping in sandy areas.

Mostly all our jobs are loamy top soil sod areas, some surrounded by fields, woods or other residential lots are connected at the hip. Most properties range from 1-3 lots or 1/2 or so acres and more at times.

Steve Albano's

I catch 1-3 on average in a lawn, and honestly set four traps, but really only want to set 2. The most I caught out of one property was 9 from a baseball field, then I went back later and caught one more.

Gophers on the other hand, I have caught over 40 from a soccer field and they still have a few.

A lot also depends on the soil type, time of the year, etc. where you will be trapping moles. In softer, sandier soils, moles tend to "dig under" Steve's traps when trapping the feeding/travel runs on the surface. Steve's traps are more suitable then when trapping in the deeper runs where the tunnels and soil are more firm. Moles usually forage in these deeper tunnels in my area during extreme drought and during our meek winters when earthworms, larvae, and other insects go deeper in the soil.

The majority of my mole trapping is conducted on surface/feeding runs in sandy soils. My go to traps are the modified OOS (Elite Mole Upgrade) and the Genuine Talpex trap available only in the UK. The Talpex is a more docile scissor trap than the OOS and can be set by hand. I still use Steve's traps when moles are throwing mounds and foraging in deeper tunnels.

I set on ideal first, they start looking for other spots. I've had yards where it was all sponge and you couldn't tell where the tunnels were, because it was all tunnel. Then I look for sidewalks and anything that might guide them. After that it's guessing and dumb luck, but lots of traps puts the numbers in your favor.

I love yards with all tunnels...i will hook those moles within a couple hours...the travel tunnel is always there just have to find it

I got a dozen of Steve's traps and actually caught a couple of moles, first time out. Got one today, which made my day. Fun catching something new. Starting to get a little confidence.

Am I the only one that's experiencing more dig unders this year? It seems like the moles have gotten larger. I normally use the regular size of Steve's trap, but they just aren't big enough for the tunnels I'm finding this year. I've caught a few by just laying the trap in the tunnel upside down, but the catches aren't good and have a lot of misses that way. I only had a few OoS before, but have been buying more of them as the season is going on. Any using the large size of Steve's trap to catch Eastern Moles?

All I run are steves traps anymore, love em!

One method is to set the traps upside down in the runs when dig unders are frequent.

Typically this occurs when the trap isn't seated / bedded well enough or you haven't centered the jaws to the middle of the tunnel. I believe the mole encounters the rigid end base of the jaw jointure part of the frame or the face of one of the jaws and interprets it as somewhat of an obstruction and chooses to navigate under the object. They do it all the time with rocks and roots.

By pushing down firmly on the front end of the main base frame with my tool end just behind the jaws
of the trap I get the front end of the frame below the soil grade in the tunnel. I wiggle the trap side to side at first with the front of my tool to establish the tunnel width to get it centered the best I can before seating the trap into the final seated position

(I use a dandelion tool for this as it makes the bedding of the front part of the trap jaws much easier due to its length).

With a little practice and technique the bedding comes pretty quick. Make sure you hold the push bar forward with a finger of your other hand and press down and forward with the tool all in one motion with both hands. This will get you good insertion and bedding all in one. If you get sloppy with the bedding they will dig under you a lot with Steves style traps.

Great trap though, you just need to adjust your technique a bit to deal with the moles behavior in reaction to what you do with setting your traps. I rarely use any other traps because his traps are so efficient.

I get a few dig unders occasionally however it is usually due to me being sloppy with my technique. Once I correct the problem it is there the next check.

I have done some sod cut outs from the selected tunnel area just large enough to set two traps back to back without them having a misfire due to a catch coming from one direction and disturbing the other trap. Then by imprinting the top side of the tunnel using my tool handle which is round to reform the tunnel that may have been disturbed during the cut out. This allows you to reposition the cut out with not much disturbance to the run at all. Just fit the cut out sod back into place and pinch the edges enough to keep the light and air flow out.

For those having severe problems with dig unders setting your traps where you can see exactly where the trap jaws just meet the opening of the intact tunnel and centering your trap well and press the trap frame down below grade you will mostly likely fix all your trap refusal issues by doing this if needed.

Bob, I like the dandelion puller idea. I use one, but for probing for tunnels.
I've been working on bedding, but I don't think that's the problem this year. It seems this year the majority of the tunnels you can stick your whole hand in. I've always found tunnels this big at jobs but even at those jobs most of the tunnels were small. This year it seems that all of the tunnels at the job sites are that big.

I was having it with Steve's traps. Last year I wasn't. Going back and re examining what I might be doing different led to me using the back of my trowel instead of my fingers to get the hole large enough to get the trap in. I'll retry next year using my fingers to enlarge the hole as I'd done previously.

The trowel handle works perfectly for my other style, which doesn't have a bottom so bedding doesn't matter.

I would like to say thanks to all who gave opinions and ideas. I have had a lot of fun the last couple of weeks trapping the moles in my test yards [my farm]. Learning something new is always fun and it is made easier with the info that can be obtained from this site.

I use Steve Albano trap and they work great. Picture of my buddy with the Mole problem. Here in NB, Canada we have the star nose mole.

They have always seemed more wary, and harder to catch than the easterns. They also have a different habitat. Wetlands vs uplands.