| Pests
DIY Mole Control? Forget it!
Iain Turner (National Pest Technicians Association)
ot so long ago, controlling
moles was a doddle. You went
along to Boots and bought a
small pot of strychnine (signing
the Poison Book of course!) for
a few pounds, then you caught
a few earth worms, dipped them in the
strychnine and put them into the mole run. Job
done.
But when the Biocides Directive came along
and Boots didn’t want to invest the millions of
Euros that would have been needed to
somehow prove that strychnine was ‘safe,
effective and humane’, (which it wasn’t of
course). So that particular biocide
disappeared.
Which meant, if you had moles, you had to
pop along to the farm store to buy a £30 flask
of ‘gas’ to do the job. You dropped a couple of
pellets of aluminium phosphide into the mole
run and Bob was indeed your uncle! It was
useful if you had rabbits or rats as well.
But then the Home Office got worried about
terrorists getting hold of the stuff, so things had
to be tightened up.
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18 | Farming Monthly | January 2018
Firstly, you had to get properly trained and
assessed in using aluminium phosphide and
be issued with a certificate if you wanted to buy
the stuff. That’s about £250.
Then you had to be kitted up with a proper
applicator (£120 + VAT) and a full face
respirator with the right cartridges. That’s
another £150 or so + VAT!
And now, you’ll also have to buy a special
gas meter to show that there’s no gas left at the
end of the treatment – another £500 + VAT!
And you can’t use it against rats any more!
So a job that you could equip yourself for
just a few quid now needs an initial outlay of
well over £1,000, plus a day off work for
training, plus all the paperwork that needs to be
filled in for each job, plus the time, effort and
cost of dealing with the disposal of empty gas
flasks.
I think it’s fair to say that DIY mole control is
a thing of the past.
Of course you could try using traps.
However, if you’ve ever tried to catch a mole
with traps, you’ll quickly learn that there is a lot
more to it than meets the eye. And what if
you’ve several fields to deal with?
Ask yourself, are you a farmer, or a mole
catcher?
There are, of course, professional mole
catchers who will do the work for you. They
may even have invested in using ‘gas’, which in
some cases will do the job quicker. But how
do you find them?
Of course, there’s ‘Old Joe’ (or whatever
he’s called down your way), who goes to the
pub and ‘does yer moles’ for his beer money.
Or you could use a professional, who can not
only prove he’s been trained but is also
properly insured. You wouldn’t want to risk an
uninsured person working on your land now
would you?
The National Pest Technicians Association
has over 1,000 member companies throughout
the UK, many of whom are experienced at
dealing with moles – and indeed, most other
pests. All you have to do is ring our office at
01773 717 716, or email [email protected]
and we’ll put you in touch with a few of your
nearest mole catchers.
Sorted.
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk