Did 2 emergency bat grabs tonite and already got almost 50 mole traps set...frost is out of the ground here

We are still a month or more out with our work to open up unless the weather really changes. Still frost in the ground here. We did have a warmer day today but still need more weather like today for a week or more. But this time of year it is back and forth too much. Was 18 degrees over night here but warmed to the fifties by mid day.

Set several mole traps today. Was surprised at how warm and dry the ground felt.

Want to see some frost, come up here, mole's will need a jackhammer. All most skunk time here.

I've been trapping a few moles all winter here in KY. We've had an unusually warm damp winter. Skunks are on the move right now, I'm seeing plenty of them on the road but haven't had any calls yet.

This.... but we've been doing raccoons instead of skunks.

Got 6 moles other day on 4 yards...have several mole traps to check next week as well as set up another 8 yards...was 73 degrees on friday...supposed to be in sixties for next 3-4 days

Got my first mole of the season today.

Going to set a few in my yard shortly. Went out to look around today. Saw some fairly fresh mounds. Got a real warm day today and some areas look workable.

Going to work on beating last years harvest of 164 in my yard. That was off and on trapping when time permitted and when I had spare equipment not needed for work.

Caught 18 moles from one dead end run located just off the corner of my shop last year. The run was coming from some wooded/raspberry patch grown up area. A week when I was working lure formulation all day I was checking that shop corner trap 2-3 times a day. Many days I caught 2 moles a day off and on for a week. Most I have ever caught from one dead end run.

Still amazed bob...i caught 938 moles last season and without the 3 big jobs i have of 40 acres, 236 acres, and 500 acres....the average job was 3-4 moles and damage stopped for weeks to months...i currently have 20 mole stops going right now

Our mole population is quite widespread and endless it seems. I have been trapping my place for 22 years and don't seem to be making a significant dent. They keep progressing and re establishing vacant areas that were just previously occupied.

i know we disagree...so i will agree to disagree on populations of eastern moles and their habits...i really believe you have a different species of the eastern mole...they are not communal here at all. one of us has a sub species. i have noticed on the pics you have posted before that the tails on your moles are much, much longer than moles here. we only have the eastern mole in Iowa

4 moles caught out of a half acre yard, i didn't have to come back for another mole for several months.

one mole did all this damage...caught him and no more activity there until the following year

this is one moles damage

last year on a golf course green...one mole and done

Josh,

Not much to diagree about. LOL, I dont know how communal the Eastern moles are, but I do know there are lots of them in these parts and their numbers are on the rise. Here are a few from the first checks on 4 jobs.

Many properties I have to gang set 30-60 traps or more on some of these jobs to cover all the activity adequately for the 7-10 period I will be there. That is 2 Albano traps per set location. Lots of doubles on the first checks.

Most of our new jobs have never been trapped before. They may have tried poison worms, electronic devices, pellets, juicy fruit gum,moth balls in the runs, gasoline etc. before calling us.

Many of our jobs are so torn up and have such a network of runs it is a bit challenging to decipher a good run from the maze. We will get checks like this for 2-3 trips on some jobs before it slows down.

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Where u are settin 30 traps...15 sets...i am settin 3-4 traps and first check have all the problem moles that are there

Josh you would have full traps every check only setting 3-4 traps and it would take you quite some time to do a good clean out with that method of setting 3-4 traps per job. You don't understand the population and mole tunnel activity we are dealing with here yet.

4-6 moles is a common harvest on the first check. Some of these jobs that were never trapped before we check daily for a few days. Then we go to every other day. If we didn't check frequently we would have a lot of cannibalism on caught animals when we wait 2-3 days to remove catches.

A few jobs a year we get those 1-2 mole catches but they are not very common. The sign during the inspection usually gives you this information many times. But those types of jobs usually have neighboring property that is feeding their lawn so they don't stay mole free long. They are calling us back in a week sometimes or two due to new tunneling activity.

That Drs. job I did last spring I caught 8 on the first check then it was 3-5 a day checking every day for 10 consecutive days. He was located very close to our office so it was convenient. On the first check I knew I had the potential to get a big harvest there. After the 4th day I knew I could possibly hit 50 moles or more before I was done.

I still had some cannibalism with the frequent removal of catches. If I didn't have to pull due to the lawn mowing service pestering me to let them come in to mow, I would have reached my 50 mole goal with a couple more days I am sure. The catch was slowing down but they were still coming 1-2 a check.

That Dr. wanted me to stay a few more days but I had too many other jobs I needed to get too and I needed those 60 or so traps I had set there. I am curious to see how many I get this spring. I will keep you posted if he calls again and I need to go back.

In that same housing plan of that we got a referral from the Drs. wife who was friends with this other woman just a couple of blocks away. She also bought a program. I got 37 moles on her place in 10 days. So you can see the pattern of population that we have in some areas. Great for business....

Bob, you talk about cannibalism on the moles. Is it from other moles or shrews? I get a little, but I think it is shrews.

Jim,I at times will catch shrews in the runs with mole catches and other times I only catch moles. I believe both species are opportunists and will cannibalize if given an opportunity. More times then not I only catch moles in these areas. From the amount of tissue/meat eaten I don't think a shrew can eat that much in a 24 hour period between checks.

Some of these moles are consumed 50-75% when I remove them.

Bob. You got some BA moles over there. Only time I had eating was a shrew

And if I catch five moles there are none left, I would go nuts having to catch that many in yard

They are coming up here now too, so only a matter of time before the calls start

I guess I can also see why a "mole job" would be just a little more in your market than in mine