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.
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.