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Nicepix

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Everything posted by Nicepix

  1. Nicepix
    I wonder where they've been hiding? They started passing through here about three weeks ago and thought they would be loads up your way. Last Tuesday I was fishing and heard the first nightingale of the year. By the time I packed up there were three singing away and the next day it was as if someone had thrown a switch. They were everywhere. Same with cuckoos. I heard the first one about a month ago and then within a couple of days you could hear them all day. It is strange how they all arrive together.
  2. Nicepix
    Don't believe it lads. It is hell out here. Whoever they are talking about will be having a grueller of a life
  3. Nicepix
    I've recently had two jobs paid up front, recommendations by their neighbours who I'd worked for. I can't find a bloody mole to trap in either garden. I've already trapped them in the next door's garden. Morale dilemma
  4. Nicepix
    I usually work within 60km of home, but have gone out 90km. If I can I arrange to work one area one week and another area another week so the distance between jobs isn't as far. Next week I've got two of my four jobs within 10km of each other and the third is on the way to the fourth so I'm in front. Last week a really good client needed an urgent job doing that put an extra 240km on my van as I was working the opposite side of the area. Swings and roundabouts.
  5. Nicepix
    I'm glad that I'm not the only one who has noticed that the current 'Ultimate' trap isn't as 'ultimate' as the 'Ultimate' traps sold for the same price three years ago. Thanks Swansea Jack for the confirmation. As I understand it Flatpack started out making traps for Bethel Rhodes. Well, would you believe that now Flatpack are out sourcing their mole traps to John Binns (Springs) Ltd just down the road at Skipton. That is where my friend went last month to collect his traps. So, as John Darcy correctly points out, Flatpack seem to have got too big for their boots and can't handle the busi
  6. Nicepix
    A friend of mine went over to Yorkshire last month and smuggled back 10 stainless Flatpack traps bought direct from the company. There is a story there, but I won't go into that now. I got chance to look over the traps today and compare them with those I bought a couple of years ago and some more recent purchases. Just to remind those who have been following this thread I got a batch of Flatpack Ultimate Stainless traps about three years ago, another batch 6 months later and a third batch last year. The traps from each batch are different and in my opinion, they are progressively getting worse
  7. Nicepix
    I've experienced the same problem and yet two days later caught five in the traps that had been blocked. On Wednesday I had a Flatpack trap blocked and since then it has caught a double, twice. Same trap, same method of setting. I think there are some moles that for whatever reason are wary of anything new and go under the traps rather than through them. If I get several traps blocked now I clear the hole, replace the same trap, but also put a pair of Putanges in the same area. They are much less likely to be blocked.
  8. Nicepix
    I'm puzzled by that too. Some gardens the moles queue up to go through the traps. I'm up to 29 trapped in one garden and never had a trap back filled. Yet sometimes on other jobs all the traps are filled. Thankfully the Putanges sort them out, but as you say; it is a mystery why some won't go through the traps after all that time and effort you've put in for them on their behalf. Its almost as though they don't want to be killed.
  9. Nicepix
    The whole ethos about these traps is "Easy Set" i.e. you just press down the handle and that is that. However, when I have tried that with five or six traps I've found laid about in various gardens the trigger has been extremely hard to operate. When I discussed this with the guy who invented the trap he admitted that the trigger mechanism was prone to becoming jammed due to soil ingress. He suggested washing the trap out with soapy water and then rinsing it. My view is that a trap that is designed to be put into soil should not fail because of soil ingress. For example; how do you know when p
  10. Nicepix
    From talking to my customers who have tried the green brick the main problem is the trap either being filled or lifted out of the ground. The traps I have examined have all had sticky triggers. So much so they were unusable. I will be interested in hearing how you get on once the trap has been in the soil a few times.
  11. Nicepix
    Not here at the mo. But I'll get round to it in the next day or so if its info on the Loire tour. The details are in the camper.
  12. Nicepix
    How are you travelling - camper van or caravan? We have a camper and use this site to plan the stop overs: http://en.airecampingcar.com/index.php It's not perfect. You have to check the reviews and do a bit of research, but it is a good resource to start with. There are loads of free and cheap aires to stop over at. The camper van site on Oleron we stayed at is just outside Boyardville, just the other side of the small bridge. Plenty of room for the dogs to run about and only a few minutes walk from the amenities. If you are travelling down the Loire I have a list of sites from Sully sur
  13. Nicepix
    Neither of them are what you could call 'commercial' in the way that UK resorts are except for July and August. But Oleron has more villages and as such cafes and bars. The reason we prefer Oleron is that we take a dog and cat in the camper and the site there at Boyardville is perfect for us as the cat can roam about safely, there are plenty of walks for the dog, it is a few minutes walk from the beach, bars and cafes yet still quiet and secluded. Oh! and there is a river next to the camp site that holds mullet. We will be going up to Alsace for ten days in June and off to Brittany for a
  14. Nicepix
    They are similar. Oleron is bigger, slightly more commercial but you can hide away too. I also go to Marans quite a bit on fishing trips. I park the camper right outside Gamme Vert on the street for a few days and wander around the canals and drains. You can catch anything from mullet to wels catfish.
  15. Nicepix
    Surprisingly the diesel prices on the Il de Re and Il d'Oleron are much cheaper than the mainland. Whenever we go over there I make sure the camper is on fumes as we go over the bridge then put 65 litres in at the supermarket filling station. We're going over to Oleron at the end of the month for a week. Cracking mullet fishing in the creeks and lagoons.
  16. Nicepix
    The French who use dogs normally use Putange traps and in my experience it is rare to have one go off without a kill. With the normal traps such as Duffus and Talpex you can see whether the trap has fired or not just by looking at it. But sometimes moles dig under traps and don't set them off so if there is no capture and / or there is fresh activity nearby it is good practice to lift the traps and see whether there is any tunnel under them.
  17. Nicepix
    If you have an address in France to deliver to check out this website: http://www.gardencour.fr/piegeage_taupe_193.htm The Lucifer brand of trap is one of the types I've been using and they are OK. In Gamme Vert they range from €3.95 a pair to over €6 for exactly the same product. Bonne vacances
  18. Nicepix
    My spaniel naturally learned to mark traps that had caught. She used to do beating and walk up shooting as well as retrieve from a hide so she knows the game. When I went out checking the traps on the farm where we used to live she would run on ahead and check them before I got there. Any that had caught would result in her marking the location. I never did get her to empty and re-set the trap though. With Putanges the French way is to dig out a huge clod using a full size shovel, put a trap in the tunnel either side, mark them with long thin rods and them replace the clod. They then retur
  19. Nicepix
    I'm not sure, but I reckon moles go backward as well as forward, and IMO it is going backward how they get caught. Possibly females going by how women drive
  20. Nicepix
    I've handled them and give them a good looking at. IMO they suffer from two massive problems. The first being that the profile is square and the bottom of the square trapping wire is corrugated for no reason other than cause suspicion by the mole when entering the trap. The second major problem is that the plastic trigger mechanism is prone to sticking due to soil getting into the trap. When it sticks it would not be possible for a mole to trigger the trap. I contacted the company about these issues and almost immediately the inventor e-mailed me suggesting that the traps needed washing ou
  21. Nicepix
    I was trapping all through the summer last year. It never let up.
  22. Nicepix
    I think that it being on its side as you describe JD might indicate that the mole has squeezed through the side of the trigger like they do with Putanges if you set them prongs facing up. All those moles are trapped on their side indicating that they have turned to best get past the obstruction. Just as they would when negotiating tree roots or stones that obstruct the tunnel. BTW; I had a double last year with both moles facing the same way.
  23. Nicepix
    http://beagleproducts.com/
  24. Nicepix
    Oi! You leave out warm air alone.
  25. Nicepix
    I've had them given. And given them back again PDQ
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