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Matt

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Everything posted by Matt

  1. Matt
    You must be right Probuck; I can see dozens of pro molecatchers posting on here about how good the £2 traps on ebay are............ I must remember that your knowledge of the pest control industry far exceeds mine the next time I'm tempted to post anything that doesn't agree 100% with your fine, and highly regarded opinions. Oh, and for the record, I can assure you that the last correspondence between Le Brac and myself was some time ago, and not that friendly. I guess he's just as able to recognise an idiot just as me.
  2. Matt
    The correct answer was 87. Just thought I'd let you know. Who was nearest?
  3. Matt
    I loose between 10 and 20 each year to badgers, but then I work in the counties with the densest populations of badgers in the UK so I suppose it's inevitable. As LeBrac says, I see dozens of second rate cheap traps set in gardens every week. Most are not fit for purpose, and some are (in my opinion) inhumane due to their week springs or poor construction. I've also had various communications with some quite influential people lately, who are desperately trying to get mole traps added to the spring trap approval orders and subjected to the same testing as Fenns etc. I don't support t
  4. Matt
    I don't make any money out of selling traps Probuck. I'm lucky enough to have trade agreements with a couple of trap manufacturers, which allows me to buy traps in bulk and sell off the surplus at a small margin when I need to. It means I get my traps at a wholesale price, and I can also help a few genuine folks out by supplying them at keener prices than they may find from pest control distributors. Do you seriously think that professional molecatchers buy their traps off ebay? No, of course they don't. Ebay is the favourite haunt of that perennial nuisance; the DIYer and part time
  5. Matt
    It's gardeners and householders buying them Probuck. I reckon my Astravan would probably go round the Monaco grand prix circuit, but I wouldn't recommend it to Jenson Button as a feasible option for F1.
  6. Matt
    It's back to winter here. No double catches all week; in fact the first week since last August that I haven't had at least one double. Got a few jobs on; last few moles not playing the game, but lots waiting to be done when the weather improves. I've got a feeling that the phone will go nuts as soon as the sun shines and a few folks get out into their gardens.
  7. Matt
    I'm seriously thinking about commissioning Logun or someone to make some cheap yorkshire pudding dispensers to fit Duffus traps. What puts me off is the lack of decent pudding suppliers. Anyone got any Chinese contacts?
  8. Matt
  9. Matt
    Did they come in a tin, Matt? Come on! I've made the pass ..... Funnily enough, they came in the little plastic containers like the ones you get a Chinese takeaway in............. It could have caused some confusion had I picked up some Chow Mein on the way back!! On a serious note, the bought in worms were never as good as the nice fat juicy ones from behind the plough........
  10. Matt
    I did buy in some worms in desperation at one point. I think they were Dengi worms?? Can't remember to be honest; it was a long time ago.
  11. Matt
    Like most pro molecatchers, I get double catches all year round. Moles are territorial, so they are always trying to take over neighbouring territories. If your traps are getting blocked, the mole knows they are there. The first a mole should know about a trap is when he hits the trigger and sets it off. The other common cause for moles blocking traps is a failure for the trap to fire for reasons including frozen triggers, and faulty or badly tuned triggers.
  12. Matt
    Cymag was actually a very safe product to use. Antidote on hand, and not as toxic as Phosphine. It's a common myth; people think that Phostoxin and Talunex are safer than Cymag - nothing could be further from the truth. I know which I would rather get a wiff of Funny you should say that Dido. I've 'wiffed' both, and I can assure you that the Phosphine was more unpleasant, and took longer to recover from. As I said earlier, you have to remember that Phosphine is much more toxic than Cymag. There was a case quite recently where a pest controller drove himself to a beauty spo
  13. Matt
    Cymag was actually a very safe product to use. Antidote on hand, and not as toxic as Phosphine. It's a common myth; people think that Phostoxin and Talunex are safer than Cymag - nothing could be further from the truth.
  14. Matt
    Same here I think. A farmer once said to me, "what should I do if you poison yourself?" "knock me on the head and bury me; but whatever you do, don't phone an ambulance" was my reply.........
  15. Matt
    Last time I used it myself ('98) I charged £55 for the first hour and £35 per hour thereafter. For every hour spent on a farm using the stuff you had at least another one filling in forms and maps and doing all the other crap that went with it. Good money if you got it right; nothing but hassle if you didn't.
  16. Matt
  17. Matt
    Here ye go Earthy.... does this bring back any memories?
  18. Matt
    Worms in a bucket. In later years it was the only way you were allowed to do it. At one time I employed schoolboys at spring half term to walk behind the plough worm picking for me...... busy, busy days.
  19. Matt
    I was one of the biggest users of Strychnine in the Southwest, and did thousands of acres every year.... BUT... I've always preferred trapping. When I first started using 'snow', there was less regulation of it, and as long as you were sensible, you could use it pretty much anywhere. Then they tightened the rules a little bit (about '90 or '91) and the ministry decreed that you couldn't use it anywhere except agricultural land. I reverted to the traps on everything except agricultural land, and the odd few organic holdings and wise farmers. When I got married, my wife wasn't very keen
  20. Matt
    It was a foregone conclusion Earthy. Without the funding from T&R, and with no patent to protect their investment, it was going nowhere. Cymag on the other hand just needed some new packaging and a company with balls, and it had a chance. Like all Euro legislation, the French seem to ignore it, the Italians do what they have always done, and we bend over and take it. Just look at what is going on with SGAR's now. The NGO are fighting off the ridiculous proposals for tighter controls while the BPCA and NPTA just roll over and criticise others for fighting. How the pest c
  21. Matt
    I was taught how to catch moles by Jeff Nichols, and have not looked back since. This year has been one of the best years so far for catching moles so bring on the wet weather as the moles love it.I have a certain amount of respect for him.He done his bit, as far as the demise of strychnine, was concerned. Jeff Nichols is now known as the leading light within the mole catching ( not killing ) community, he is well known as a knowlegable and respected professional. Who told you that Snakey? Jeff by any chance? Funny you should mention that Earthy; at that time I sat on the Servicing Co
  22. Matt
    He did nothing to help or hinder the withdrawal of Strychnine. It was withdrawn because there was no patent on it, and to put it through the Biocides directive would have cost at least 250,000 Euros. The importer (Thornton & Ross) only sold £20k worth each year, so they decided not to support it as a product. Jeff knows his stuff, but I fail to see what good he's done for the world of molecatching. He's been running off to politicians to get restrictions placed on the job, so in fact, as far as I'm concerned, he's done more harm than good. That and spreading this myth that tr
  23. Matt
    If it's just held on the safety catch it can't really go off. Fenns used to send them out like that themselves at one time.....
  24. Matt
    Thanks for that Earthy. I've ordered a copy.
  25. Matt
    Tell us more Earthy............ The best work I've read on the subject was by Arthur Randal. An expensive book these days, but a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any molecatcher.
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