Talpa europea is the name of the beast, but your are more then likely to be know it by its other name: Mole.

A curious and mysterious creature that lives in darkness and tunnels. Beloved of children stores and picture books the mole is delightful execpt when he is living beneath our gardens.

The mole is the grower’s enemy for several reasons. To stay alive the mole must eat three and a half times their weight of food a day, and this is usually worms, though they will eat cockchafer larvae and wire worms if they meet them underground.

The fact of the matter is that not only do organic gardeners value their worms and because their gardens have more humus then non organic gardens they are likely to have a lot more worms especially if they use an irrigator which will draw worms from neighbours with less friendly soil in a dry summer.

The damage that these little creatures do,can be very disheartening. They tumble seedlings about; eat young beet and carrots as well as consuming large quantities of the worms that we try so hard to attract into our gardens. Moles hills also ruin any lawn that you might have.

Do not use professional mole catchers for they will use strychnine treated worms (and even worse substances) Believe me, strychnine is the one thing that you do not want anywhere near you, your family, your pets or crops in any shape or form.

When you first find that you have moles, you must act fast because your do not want the mole and all his in-laws to become comfortable in your garden.

The first thing that you have to do is find the main runway. You do this by looking for a large molehill near the boundary of your garden through which the moles have arrived. When you find this dig down and clear it out in both directions.

This mole hill will be distinct from the other temporary feeding burrows just under the surface which are used by the mole only once, for it has been dug by the mole revolving on his axis with a screwing action that firms the sides.

Besides the use of strychnine there are a few ways you can deal the mole:

1. If your are able to buy ‘calcium carbide’ do so and thrust as much as possible in each direction of the main mole run and replace the soil. Stamp it down as best as you can. The damp soil will make the calcium carbide produce acetylene gas and force a long lasting smell through every burrow. Because the moles hung by smell, the gas smell will make it impossible and so they will move out.

2. If you are in a country that it is not possible to buy calcium carbide then you can try other methods using the same technique Soak rages in subsistence’s like; creosote, jayes fluid, or some such strong smelling chemically. Anything to provide a lasting stink in the tunnel system.

3. Use a small two-stroke engine (like your mower) that has oil mixed with petrol. Connect a hose; not a plastic one for it will melt, to the exhaust pipe and lead the other end down the tunnel. Then start up the engine and run it slowly for about half an hour. You want the engine to go pop-pop-pop instead of purring. This is known as ‘four-stroking’ that will drive burnt oil fumes and poisonous carbon monoxide down the tunnels in all directions. Best is to wait till it is dusk when the moles are active, for your object is not to kill moles, which carbon monoxide can do, but to drive them far away.

4. Moles do not like vibrations of any kind, so a useful ‘green way’ of chasing the moles out is to buy a few large kids windmills from your local store. What you do is stick the windmill base in the main run and when the wind blows vibrations will go along the tunnels and frighten the moles away.

5. A method that I have been using of late is to buy some outside solar string lights. (the sort you hang on a Christmas tree). Place the line of small lights along the main tunnel, leave the solar bit where it will catch the sun, and leave it alone. The tunnel will be lit up like in the ‘great escape’ and the moles will be off first chance they get.

You can always buy mole traps, but I have never caught any in them. I think it is because no matter how carefully your are not to leave you smell on them the moles smell you and leave well alone.