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Le Braconnier

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Everything posted by Le Braconnier

  1. Le Braconnier
    It's unbelievable here. I'd cleared up both large pastures before it got too hot in July and on periodically checking the fields there was absolutely no visible mole activity until last week when it dropped cool and rained a little. In one area of of the pastures, around two acres, I've now got at least seven sets, some new and some re-populating old runs. I've trapped five moles in the last three days and there are more tumps appearing all over the place including some of the runs I've already killled in. Looks like someone has emptied a barrow load of moles on the pasture.
  2. Le Braconnier
    I'll ship you some down the Chunnel.
  3. Le Braconnier
    After a couple of months of warm, dry weather when there were no signs of mole activity in the pastures we now seem to be in 'mole season'. A few days of cooler, wetter weather (nowhere near as bad as the UK) has resulted in a lot of new activity in the seemingly abandoned runs. I set some traps yesterday afternoon and harvested a couple of moles this morning. Where do they go during the hot weather? Do they stop digging and rely on a food larder or do they migrate to wetter areas?
  4. Le Braconnier
    Got to admit I'm in a similar position. There are four tumps along the line of a patio, presumably the main runs are under the patio. The run into the garden follows the wall, right up against it. I placed a Talpex in one run and a Duffus in another. The Dufus had been tweaked the day before so was very sensitive. Next morning the Talpex had gone off with no capture, it had tunnelled below it, and the Duffus had also gone off and been pushed up at one end. Since then the mole has tunnelled under the traps every time. When this has happened out on the fileds where there are more tumps and d
  5. Le Braconnier
    I thought that moles squeezed the worms through their 'hands' so to speak so as to expell their stomach contents? If so, then most of the moisture would be squeezed out too. (Talking here from 40 years of teaching worms to swim at the end of a fishing line ) On the pastures we have some runs that have single spurs going towards where a spring or underground stream is shown by a line of darker green grass. That seems to indicate a seperate run specifically for drinking.
  6. Le Braconnier
    That is excellent advice - Thanks. I have miles and miles of it to go at. Regards the multiple catches debate; the tumps in the pasture I'm currently working in would indicate seperate living quarters with communial runs towards the wetter area.
  7. Le Braconnier
    I have noticed that many of the tumps in the drier areas of the pastures appear to have been abandoned whilst there are lots of new tumps in the wetter areas. It would seem that the moles have migrated. Is this normal behaviour?
  8. Le Braconnier
    That's life though. Look around you; There are clubs for everything. I've never been able to understand why liking a particular type of car or caravan means that you will get along with strangers who just happen to like the same object. I can understand the collective bargaining power argument, but why would you want to spend a weekend with the members? Talpex Club anyone?
  9. Le Braconnier
    I'm a relative newcomer and the best advice I can give you is to buy decent traps. There is a lot of rubbish on the market and those traps will make your progress much harder. For Duffus type look at Flatpack and genuine Talpex are sold by Ratbait. Don't mess about with cheaper imitations. There are some really experienced and knowledgable guys on here. If you look back through previous posts (use the Search facility for threads on Moles) you will pick up some good advice. Best of luck.
  10. Le Braconnier
    Around four weeks ago we went round to a friend's house in Dordogne-shire and noticed three brand spanking new mole hills in his vegetable garden. By the time we had finished dinner there was another tump. On Tuesday we called round again and I took some traps. On examining the runs I found them to be very shallow and in dusty soil and consisted of one main run about 30 metres long with a couple of short side shoots. In some places the probe sunk in 2 feet or more with no resistance. Some runs were barely under grass roots. There were plenty of tumps, but nothing to suggest fresh diggings and
  11. Le Braconnier
    Must be designed to trap polar bears
  12. Le Braconnier
  13. Le Braconnier
  14. Le Braconnier
    Looking at the prices they are no cheaper than buying from ratbait. 9.55 Euros for small orders and dropping to 9.30 for over 300
  15. Le Braconnier
    u want genuine tahpex tlaps from aribaba dot com. Velly good. Velly cheap
  16. Le Braconnier
    Steve, That is fantastic footage. From a purely photography angle; could you explain the set up and lighting for this video please? Thanks.
  17. Le Braconnier
    Don't you go introducing animal psychology into this subject. It's already crazy enough with all the other emotive subjects: weathering traps, wearing gloves, Talpex .v. Talpex types...................
  18. Le Braconnier
    I occassionally catch moles with small orange patches on their under sides as in the first post. From different areas of the large farm estate too. In a former life I had a colleague who traps moles in the Penistone area of Sth. Yorks and he regularly catches white moles.
  19. Le Braconnier
    Well, I moved the Talpex and re-sited them in the same runs, but with the void rather than filled in. Tonight I went out to plant some Duffus traps I'd brought in for maintainance. I noticed that one of the Talpex had triggered. Nothing in it except soil though. I'm rubbish at this game BTW; I daren't leave traps exposed on the surface.i.e pushed into shallow runs. If the buzzards, kites or eagles don't take them the foxes, martens, boar or badgers will. I've already had one attempt at digging a buried trap out.
  20. Le Braconnier
    Can't do that in the maize field as it is bare loose earth. I've been covering the traps with plastic sheets weighted down with a wooden board and soil round the edges. I've had the Talpex in two days now with no activations despite mole activity being evident around the traps. If they aren't triggered by tomorrow morning I'll re-set them elsewhere and leave the void open. The way they fill in my Duffus traps it might work better that way. I can't work the damn things out. One day last week I had five in seven traps. Then for three days nothing but soil filled traps and I was doing nothing
  21. Le Braconnier
    Out of interest; do you leave the void open or put something over the top of the jaws?
  22. Le Braconnier
    I didn't like the FUDS - no movement. Better IMO to spend the dosh on Silosocks. A few Silosocks add a lot of movement to your pattern and if you cover your half shells with Silosocks jackets they all look the same.
  23. Le Braconnier
    I've got more 'pins than you can shake a stick at, old and new. A used Stanton might be a great buy, but in reality it won't be much cheaper than a new Sheffield and might be a bag of poo. Some of the early ones had chrome bearings that rusted solid. Don't get me wrong, I love my Stanton, but it cost me more than I paid for it to have it fettled and sorted. Match Aerials can also be pretty poor second hand as the paint is soft and they can have had a hard life. Similarly, Marcos look like good value, but there are reports of them losing important bits and the one i tried that belonged to a fri
  24. Le Braconnier
    Looks like I'm going to have to get him to buy me some more. Can't see two going very far in his three 50 acre fields Thanks for the replies. I will set then tonight with infill and see what occurs. I managed to coax one out in a Duffus overnight though so I will continue to set them too. Every little helps.
  25. Le Braconnier
    I've been passing a bit of time trapping moles for my landlord who farms about 600 acres. He bought the traps and I've been setting them in pasture with a degree of success. Initially I only had four horrible French scissor traps. They were hopeless and whilst I had six moles in them it was hard work. More recently he bought me some Duffus traps and a couple of Talpex traps and these have been a lot better. Now I've been asked to clear some moles from a recently drilled maize field. Previously I was trapping on pasure with dense soil and a good root base. It was ideal for Duffus traps. The
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