The Mole Hunter

Jim & I have been battling moles for the past 2 years. We tried grub control for the lawn because everyone said that moles are attracted to grubs. We bought a bait/poison on the Internet and poked it down into the runs. We set the steel "archaic" looking traps. We stomped down their runs & hills. We didn't try the juicy fruit gum or the gas or the human hair but we've been educating ourselves along the way. There was a 1-hour show on the Nature/History/ National Geographic channel a few weeks ago that we happened to surf to. The show was about the "lawnmower man" battling moles and it was quite comical. Basically, we learned that moles are prehistoric, they've never died off so I don't know if that means they're millions or thousands of year old, and although they have no eyes, they're very smart and they're nearly impossible to kill. Jim's latest attempt at mole extermination was to buy 6 poison worms a couple of weeks ago but he hasn't tried "fooling" the moles with them yet.

So yesterday there was a home show at the St. Charles Convention Center with free admission and an informative lecture to be given by Jeff Holper, "The Mole Hunter". Naturally, we were there! Along with hundreds of other people! It gave us a secret jubilation that there were so many others with the same problem. Jeff turned out to be quite the entertainer and he dressed the part with a safari-looking outfit and hat. He's been hunting moles for over 20 years and he's got it down-pat. Turns out, he uses the same archaic traps that we do, but he knows where & how to set them to ensure a kill. Also, he uses 6 traps instead of the 2 that we've been working with. During his performance, we discovered that we not only have moles but we also have voles. Voles don't tunnel like moles but they eat the roots of plants which can be even more damaging in this gardener's eyes. We learned about every rodent, snake and insect along with remedies to kill. Or you can hire Jeff. He'll kill the moles for a hefty price of $600 per year plus $79 per mole killed. He can also be hired to hunt & kill any varmit you might be battling. Needless to say, we didn't want to pay the big bucks so we bought an arsenal of supplies. We got 6 mole traps, 1 vole/chipmunk/mouse trap, 5 lbs poison bate, a Becoming a Mole Hunter CD and The Joy and Celebration of Mole Control book (2nd edition) for the basement bargain price of $117. Actually, I think Jeff & his partner are amazing at exterminating nuisance creatures but may be lacking in the math department as I don't think they charged us enough. We didn't realize the CD & book were in the bag until we got home, and we hadn't ordered them. Could be that since it was the last day of the home show they wanted to get rid of stuff instead of having to pack it up or Jeff thought I was cute. Whatever, we got a deal. We're willing to share so if anyone's interested, you can borrow the book or CD anytime!

Even though our weather turned cold again, Jim got outside & set the vole trap as soon as we got home. He's setting the mole traps as I write this blog. I'll let you know if we are successful and in the meantime, I think I'll return the poison worms to Lowe's...