Over the last several weeks my front and back yards have been dotted with mounds of dirt, in winding trails in the middle of the yard, in straight lines along the driveway, in the middle of a flower bed.
An opportunistic creature, the mole showed up whilst we were vacationing. No pitter patter of little feet overhead! Worms galore! Glorious! No doubt the mole thought he himself was vacationing. The problem was, he never left after we came back. So every day, fresh mounds of dirt. At one point the position of dirt mounds looked like he was moving next door, but alas, something about our dirt and worms drew him back.
Garden Guru Ed Hume suggests a castor oil formula to drive them away, and we dutifully purchased some...but the network was too vast to even begin. In the end it was good ol' fashioned trapping that took care of him. Supposedly this is illegal in Washington state. So if I end up blogging only sporadically from jail, you'll know why. Maybe I'll have to wear a scarlet M on my shirt or something.
Now the kids are excited --we'll have another mole skin to put on the Christmas tree this year!
Background story: our friends the N's have a huge mole problem (they also have a huge amount of acreage) - well, some years back Bob gave A. a dead mole that his cat had caught. A. thought the fur was cool (their fur is so soft!) - Rebecca thought the feet were cool-- so between the two of them, the mole was dispatched. And since that time, every year we've put the mole skin on our Christmas tree. Why? BECAUSE... we are demented and strange. Don't ask stupid questions! :)
Knock-knock
3 weeks ago
7 comments:
a guy at my last job made this mole "trap"... more like a mole disintegrater... It involved a piece of 2"x12"x1/4" bar steel with a hole drilled in it and a tube welded to it. also included is a trap arm from a rat trap with a firing pin... what you do is put a 12 ga shotgun shell in the tube. a plate below the bar is the trigger. you push one of the mounds back into the tunnel which irratates the mole... as it digs back up, WHAM... mole mush.
it seems the equivalent of using a nuclear bomb to blow up a barn, but it is effective.
Ok...EWWW to a mole skin on your Christmas tree! LOL That's just gross...
We had a vole in our back yard last winter who had a hey day while the snow stayed piled up on our lawn for over a month. It wasn't a pretty sight when the snow melted. Thankfully the grass grew back in and the critter hasn't been around (that we can tell). (Well, I just looked up "vole" and according to Wikipedia, they only live 3-6 months. Maybe THAT'S why we haven't had trouble with them this summer!!!)
you're right you are demented and strange to put a mole skin on your tree. yuck!
But i think rebecca is even stranger for keeping a dead mole's foot!
Girls, girls. Never fear. It's a tanned hide of moleskin. Like, you know, leather? Only this still has the fur on it. Think sheepskin, only on a much more minute scale. It's not like we put a hacked and bloody piece of meat on the tree to bask in the pretty lights! :)
Does that make either of you feel a little better?
If not, oh well. I'll let you pet the moleskin next Christmas if you all are in town!
yes, but its like puting a rat skin on your tree, big yuck!
(even if that was tanned!)
but like I said, that is better than a mole foot.
hmmm, I think I need to see a picture of your tree this year.
I still have those feet...all four of them. mwhaahhahhhaaaa.
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