Mole season over

[trappa 517]

Well I'll be pulling up my remaining traps at a farm this weekend and thats it, mole season is over for me. Been a decent year, got some good numbers and met some nice people. Heres a few pics. A lot of places dont want gibbets now, they are a bit victorian and i think this may be the last year i do them. Top pic ended up 130 moles, lower pic ended up 300+, i lost count after he took the gibbet down when it reached 200

[trappa 517]

[trappa 517]

[trappa 517]

Pic with barn in background ended up at 119 and the next pic the tally was just shy of 100 i think. Ive a couple more pics somewhere im gonna dig out

[Deker 3,450]

Good going!

Moles are only a small part of my work, I actually have 2 guys I get in to do most of it for me, but we don't seem to get numbers like that round here!

[Pirate 9000 675]

Haven't been asked to hang them on a fence for 10 years at least, common site around me at one time.never minded moles when we had stryc but trapping gets me down, hope you have good season next year,and fingers crossed moles in my area disappear.

[earth-thrower 490]

On 23/03/2019 at 07:55, trappa said:

Well I'll be pulling up my remaining traps at a farm this weekend and thats it, mole season is over for me. Been a decent year, got some good numbers and met some nice people. Heres a few pics. A lot of places dont want gibbets now, they are a bit victorian and i think this may be the last year i do them. Top pic ended up 130 moles, lower pic ended up 300+, i lost count after he took the gibbet down when it reached 200

 

Impressive work, mate. You must certainly make a massive difference to all the affected ground, after that scale of trapping ? ,........another interesting aspect of you finishing off soon, is that youll not be trapping alot of pregnant/lactating sows. This is something that bothers me every season,.....but sadly in most instances, customer demands/expectations dictate that you cant really observe a voluntary 'close season' if your inclined that way ?

[trappa 517]

Cheers lads. thats it, all traps on farmland are up, bring on spring.

[LuckOrJudgement 437]

Good pics. 

Interesting that you observe a season. Do you knock it on the head around the same time every year?

[Nicepix 5,650]

My season is just beginning.   It goes quiet around October until the middle of February then it gets busy.

[trappa 517]

On 25/03/2019 at 13:59, LuckOrJudgement said:

Good pics. 

Interesting that you observe a season. Do you knock it on the head around the same time every year?

yes matey. Spring i stop trapping on farmland. The grass is growing, the moles are mating, the ground can become too hard in the spring/summer months. November - March is mole season for me.

[mole trapper 1,646]

Getting more calls each day down here now. Looks to be a busy one.

[Nicepix 5,650]

Just caught my first youngster from the second brood that usually arrives towards the end of April. 8 moles in 3 new garden jobs. Plus the new terrier we got from the sanctuary in Limoges at Christmas has marked her first trapped mole

She's been coming out with me a few times in the last three weeks and has started taking an interest in what I'm doing. This afternoon she was running off ahead and came across a trap cover. Next thing, the nose was down under the cover and she marked the find. First of many I hope. 

[mole trapper 1,646]

And what a beauty she is Clive !

Hopefully you will have many adventures together.

Its not manic down here, but not slow either.  Enough to keep me in pin money, but without working up a sweat

[Nicepix 5,650]

Thanks Jamie. She is an absolute treasure. 

She is the second dog we were never going to have. The last one, a springer, died two years ago. We got Lily from the local dog sanctuary. She is a 3 year old Fox Terrier x JRT and had been taken from a family who had neglected her. She had never been in a house, had little human contact, no training and basically left to her own devices. When we got her she was shell-shocked after the previous life and oppressive kennel environment. She was skinny, had a gut infection and had just been spayed by the charity so it took a few days before she started to come round. Four months on and it seems like we've had her for ever. Still a few nervous traits to get her over, but nothing as serious as the last dog and she ended up as a shooting, beating, fishing dog so we are confident that she'll adjust. Now she has an interest in the moling it will help overcome her insecurities.

I'll make a ratting dog out of her yet!