Hello I’m new to this mole trapping. I’m not really having any problems catching them when I can identify the main runs. I’m wondering what you look for when your trapping in a very small area(say 20x30) and it’s completely tore up. No noticeable main runs, it’s just a scrabbled mess. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks

There is some place they are coming in or going out. I hate these places. In most cases I catch them some other place. It is odd, most lawns will have a spot like that.

Thanks for the reply. The area is against a wooded area. I’ll look a little harder.

That's a feeding area. Sometimes that's what you have to work with. If they come back to your are, make sure they find a trap!

Thanks. That’s kinda what I did. I set 5 traps yesterday in the spots I thought looked best. Had 4 moles out of the 5 today so I got lucky. I’m new to this and have a lot to learn.

Sounds like we could learn from you.

I think you have lots of hairy tail moles in Indiana as I caught several when I trapped out there in the early fall years back. Gave me something to do after handling animals each day and kept me sharp with trapping them.

Right now in my area it is cold and wet. I have lived here for all my life and the water has never been this high. The ground is cold down 4-6 inches.

I haven’t caught any hairy tailed moles yet but I’m just starting out. Do any of you keep track of your catch/traps set ratio? I’d like to know if I’m setting more than I need too. I guess it doesn’t hurt anything to set heavy if you have the traps to do it.

I never have but it has gotten better over the years. Had problems with the OOS. I guess there is enough thing to take care of as it is.
LOL

When you are in the earlier phase of learning to trap moles, by all means go heavy on the number of traps you set. It is really good practice. That is how I started.

Now that I have deeper experience in mole trapping I work from a goal of setting two traps in each area where I think a mole is active. I mostly use the OOS traps. The first trap is to get the catch, and the second is there for redundancy if the first fails. Each trap placed in the ground should be done with enough care to ensure you won’t hit a root or rock with the jaws, and that the mole will slide up to the trap without having a clue what lies ahead. The first trap should knock him out. But sometimes something goes wrong, such as an undetected root, the mole rolls a rock and sets it off, or a deer (or lawnmower) hits the trap from up top. The second trap, the one for redundancy, gets the kill.

Of course, I do break this rule at times. Everyone hates mulch, so sometimes I add extras. Sometimes there are multiple forks in the pathways, and more traps are needed to cover the routes. I rarely have a job where I set only two traps total, even with light activity, as I don’t want to pay a second visit and find out something happened (like a deer steps on two traps) and I had none left for the catch. All said and done, the “two-per” goal has efficiency in mind and is something I strive towards.

Our area has so many moles per acre it is unreal at times. I have taken 49 moles from a single family home lawn in 10 days. Most of our mole work we catch 6 to 8 moles avg. per job min. Many catch totals are in the teens.

It seems we are the exception with these high mole numbers compared to so many others that comment here. It isn't uncommon for us to set 20>40 traps per lawn that has a lot of runs. We use strictly the trapline mole traps so we set 2 traps per location. We catch doubles almost daily on most any random job so the activity is high.

Thank you for the responses.

My area has much fewer moles. Our average call has 1-3 moles.


We run into a slightly different issue than most here. Customers see all of the damage a mole can do and want to see lots of traps. Good trap placement and you can probably clear it out in a single set of 2 traps.

We put 6-8, or 3 -4 sets in each lawn to start, and set less as trapping goes on and we know there arent any more moles.

That is cause bob has a diff species of mole...his are hairy tailed and they are communal unlike the Eastern which is solitary

Right now, in my area, moles are largely unsolitary, many juveniles caught close together, and many adults within 6 feet of each other

In Washington the only legal Mole trap is a live trap (cage of some type). ALL grip type traps were banned years back. Also your moles are solitary types, Townsend and Coast mole. Townsend and Coast mole look like each other except for size. Both are black and if one counted have 44 teeth (most other species of mole have 38). The "juveniles" are most likely full size Coast mole. Townsend are about one third larger on average closer in size to an Eastern mole(average larger by a few grams). It might seem like they get along due to the fact ALL good mole traps cannot be used so the populations expand untethered. It is amazing to drive in western Washington and see the mass of mounds that abound there.
We have both Moles here also but not near the problem as good mole traps, Trapline and OOS, are legal.

If all else fails, check down along the foundation behind the mulch bed !

I hate trapping in mulch beds!