Moles.

So I have been using OOS mole traps for about 3 years now. I have never had any major trouble catching moles or completing jobs, until recently. I opened up a year contract for a conservation agent( ironic I know ) the job is on his personal property and he has a little over 15 acres of manicured land. Moles EVERYWHERE . He was aware that this would be an on-going issue. The land is near a spring fed pond and cow pasture on the other side and wheat fields to the south . I don't think he ever intended for me to catch almost 25 moles in the first 3 checks(1 a week) been working every Saturday on this dang thing, only time my schedule will allow me to go play in the dirt for 4 hours. So anyways back to my question. I charge per animal removed , obviously he is getting a little concerned. Happy we are catching , but still lots of other tunnels to set and new stuff popping up. At this point im still trying to distinguish who was doing what damage , tunnels are crossing everywhere and intersecting with different runs. So for his benefit and mine as well. (I am spending a lot of time out there, getting paid good but I want to get this off my mind). Are there any poisons that work well against moles in cases like this where we could apply at the perimeter of fields, or something along those lines? My goal is to get the population under control, and then have them monitor the yard the rest of the summer / fall. And if anything pops up we get on the ball asap. Anyone have any luck with this sort of thing? I am a one truck operation this stuff really takes away from the better paying jobs

Trapping is the only way I have found in my 30 plus years trapping them that is effective. Mole work is maintenance where ever the job is done. Most customers require annual or semi annual maintenance with trapping.

That is one of the first things that you must discuss with a perspective client prior to making a sale for mole service. They must clearly understand this. There are a few occasions that you may not have mole migration re occurring on a frequent basis however they are not often found in this part of the country.

That is why we never charge by the animal charge. We bid by the job and scope of work for set up and maintenance to compensate us for our time on site for a designated period of time. If you always keep in mind the value of your time per hour, degree of difficulty, travel expense and any labor expense beyond your own that must be factored in you will always make a good dollar.

You will find that on larger jobs particularly that flat rate pricing is a better way to bid work. Then once you have satisfied your contract time period you are done until the next treatment period.

Per animal pricing will reach around and bite you one way or another, however time served will teach you this if you pay attention.

The way I work it is a yearly contract flat rate. And then no additional fees to reset for new activity. Folks around here only want to pay for what you actually catch. Which is why we trap and do not poison. In this case I am catching to many lol. I would have probably already exceeded my flat rate lol. I never have caught this many in such close proximity i was hoping someone has experience with poison just to get the population under control. And once we knocked them off it would save me A LOT of time save him SOME money. I still want to trap out there , I have just never seen anything like this and was hoping for an alternative. As far as the money goes i have exceeded the 100hr price range so I am good on that aspect . . Just really want to speed this up. It's out of my way , so not one of those jobs I can swing by and monitor throughout the week . So I have to use Saturday. I greatly appreciate your input. And I may try some flat rate pricing next year. But moles are not my niche , I don't have much trouble with them but I am no expert. Luckily we have been getting plenty of rain.*knocks on wood. Makes things a little easier.

Pez77
Where are you located?

There is no speeding it up besides setting more traps and spending more time on clean out work. Mole poison baits ( Talprid and Victor/Woodstream worms to name a couple ) which we are licensed to use if so desired. I have found through use and experimentation that they are not a very effective means of mole control in our experience.

For one of many such examples in the last several years.

In the last month we were contacted to inspect a residential mole problem for a consumer. They had another company called in 3 weeks prior for the same problem. This companies technician had inserted poison baits into the lawn runs with a popular name brand worm mole control product.

The damage continued ( Mounds and Run extensions ) to spread through out the lawn which prompted them to call someone else in to assess the problem.

Long story short we sold them a trapping program harvesting 18 moles in 4 check days. Just one of many such follow up jobs after poison bait treatments. Our bid pricing was several times the amount that they paid for the initial poison bait service that was done. However, their trapping program results was significantly more effective. As it is with many things you usually get what you pay for.

Did the previous poison bait treatment work to any degree? Possibly, no way to really evaluate the effects without more information. However, if there was some control gained it didn't seem to impact the resident population to any significant degree. At least in the short time frame between the baiting and a trapping program.

GettingThere,
I am born, raised, work,and hope to retire in the Show Me State

Bob thanks again for your info. I have a few boxes of the talprid stuff in the shop,and I have heard , seen , and experienced the same things as you. No real results. A couple of runs dried up, could have been predator, poison could have worked, could have moved on! That's why I trap them. Just was hoping there was something newer or some different results. I may just have to suggest getting the lawn rolled in a couple weeks to see where we are at.

A couple reasons I don't use poison on moles:
1) I like to know that I've caught them. (I.e. seeing them in a trap).
2) I don't know what may eat that mole once it's poisoned, and whether it could harm that animal.

But mainly I like to see 'em in the trap as evidence I got 'em.

Pez77, I get the sentiment of wanting to speed up results. However, if switching from trapping to poison was effective, then there would be little motivation to utilize trapping. Trapping is more labor intensive, requires heavier and bulkier gear, and has a much deeper learning curve.

The beauty of this is that there are relatively few of us out there that possess the knowledge and skill to effectively resolve mole issues. From a supply/demand perspective, we as experts are in low supply, and in many areas the demand is high. TRapper was talking about having 85 mole job sites in operation. So take heart and double down in your resolve to master the skill and efficiency of trapping, knowing that you will continue to build a knowledge gap with any others in your area who think they have an easy fix to stop moles.

Yes, there is a trick to it. It is learnable and is not rocket science. Practice. Try more and different tricks, read (tMan), etc. Plus it is more fun trapping them than sticking poison down a hole.

We all have our go to traps, but every once in a while you have to change your game plan. We all have had that mole once in a while will drive you crazy!!
The more you learn about the mole and how they live, feed, move and breed along with the difference in the weather and ground condition the better you will get at catching them.. JMO

I saw the strangest thing yesterday. I was headed into town and I saw a small critter slowly crossing the highway at 8 am Saturday. I backed up to see what it was, and a car came behind me and ran it over. It was a mole crossing from 1 field to another. 1st I've ever seen that.

Moles migrate all the time as needed for food or to look for new DNA moles as driven by instinct.

I have never seen a mole on top of the ground either.