Dufus or Tunnel Mole trap

I bought a new dufus trap, which has proved very effective this month. I must 
admit it appears to be lightly built but I think this means there is less 
resistance for the mole.  It will be interesting to see how long this trap lasts.

It is harder to set than a scissor trap but can catch two moles, however this is 
the trap I catch my fingers in most!

This first photo shows the trap sprung. You can see how difficult it is to see 
in the ground. So you have to mark this trap quite carefully. Though my aged 
father still managed to run over three mole traps with a tractor while cutting 
thistles. And these were marked! So possibly I will have to make large luminous flags when I trap moles for him.

The photo below shows the dufus trap lifted with its catch. 

Finding Mole Runs

The first thing to do when finding mole runs is to stand back and have a good look at what's in front of you.  Ideally you want to find a main run, this will usually be between mole hills going in a straight line. In the picture above you can see them at the top of the picture.

With your heel or a walking stick feel for give in between these mole hills. If there is a run you should be able to feel a slight hollow there.  Dig out a trap size hole and clean out any obstructing soil from the mole run.

 
Having made sure there is no obstructions, carefully insert the trap so that the prongs are either side of the run.

Carefully put clods around the trap and cover with soil so no light gets into the run.  Though Moles do not see well, they do know the difference between light and dark.

One of three things will happen; the mole will ignore your trap, the mole will stuff your trap with soil, or you will catch your mole.  Hopefully the latter.

Happy Trapping.

Dufus or tunnel mole trap

The Dufus or tunnel mole trap is based on the old horse hair traps used in the Victorian era. These mole traps have the advantage of being able to catch two moles on one setting, one on each end.  The trap is laid in the run and soil lightly sprinkled on top.  The disadvantage of these traps are they are hard to find if not properly marked, all it needs is a flock of sheep to charge across the field and you will have a merry time trying to find your trap.  I suppose you could GPS mark it if stock are a problem or if it is close to a foot path and may get disturbed by passer byes.

Dufus Mole trap

Here is the trap in set

Again the art in setting these traps is in making the trigge mechanism as light as possible, so it will go off at the lightest of touches. This is difficult with this trap as the mechanism is basically wire.  If set wrong the mole will find it impossible to set the trap of and will go under and stuff the trap with soil.  This is hard to detect until yo lift the trap.

The picture above shows the trigger mechanism set hard, no mole would be able to set this off!  The art is having as little of the trigger plate wire touching the holding bar as possible.

Before use these traps, like all traps should be buried to reduce the smell on them.

Moles

I have been thinking a lot about moles this week.  Not because I have been reading Wind in the Willows, excellent book though it is, rather I have been chatting with a friend who will be leaving the military soon and is retraining as a mole catcher.

As a youngster I considered this the perfect job, but when I came to an employable age I found I had to do other work to make ends meet and my mole catching, was not catching, but poisoning; at that time using strychnine.  I would buy my little pot of poison from Boots and mix it with earth worms then off to some farm to walk miles baiting mole runs with worms. Could you imagine popping into Boots now and asking for strychnine?

Now of course strychnine is banned, and while we may grumble about the pathetic nanny state we live in, which assumes if a person has a gun he will run amok, or if a mole catcher buys poison he will be using it for nefarious purposes, such a finishing off worthless politicians, the up side is the art of mole trapping has come back.

I learnt the art of mole trapping mostly through trial and error.  My father gave me the basics and then I picked the brains of others and read as much as I could on mole trapping, and there was not a great deal in the public library about trapping moles and certainly no internet

I started with two scissor traps bought from the Farm Store, they were heavy, stiff, and the mole had to be built like Arnie to trip them.  I soon learnt that an hours work with a file would would reshape the trigger part of the tongue so that it moved as soon as touched and caused the trap to snap shut immediately.  Another lesson I quickly learnt was; always mark where your mole traps were set. It was most distressing having to spend hours digging in hopeful places trying to locate the mole trap that had disappeared into the ground because a load of sheep had rioted over it or worse cattle.

My father paid me the princely sum of 20 pence each, I think now the cost is £5.00 a mole.  There is nothing like the promise of pocket money to a kid to motivate, and I soon became very good a catching moles and had added to my small collection of traps a Duffus trap which could catch a mole in both ends. This trap too need the judicious application of the file to make it trip easily, and was even harder to find if buried and not marked.

The runs I found by running my the heel of my wellie between two fresh mole hills, by applying pressure you can usually feel the turf give if you are over a run, unless its really deep.  I used a heavy sheaf knife to cut a trap sized hole in the turf and would try and lift the plug out whole.  By using a knife it was usually easy to see the mole run.

These were the basics of catching moles, but the art took much much longer to learn.