Inundated!

[Nicepix 5,650]

This spring has been absolutely dire. We've barely had a dry week and it is currently persisting it down and forecast to continue for at least the next four days. As a result of the mild, wet conditions that have dominated since the last frosts in early March the moles have run riot. I'm inundated with rain and moling jobs! And rats! It seems that the country is suffering a rat population explosion. My neighbours who have chickens counted 16 rats at the feed bowl the other evening. I've loaned them four traps and my air rifle and I've got another two traps across the road in another neighbour's chicken run.

 

By this time of year I would expect the moling to slow down as they move out of the lawned gardens and into shady or wetter areas. Normally I'll do 5 or 6 visits per day. Last week it was 12 to 14 and today I ran out of time due to re-infestations on jobs I should have completed and the contract work. I'm having to do jobs on my day off tomorrow just to keep up.

 

On a positive note the new stainless steel Putanges have had a good work out in the wet conditions and are catching well. I've worked out one or two tweaks to get less false activations. There aren't many compared with Duffus, but a couple of little changes has made a difference. I use these far more than the Duffus traps these days. Because of the unusually high numbers of re-infestations I'm leaving a few behind on some jobs to mop up stragglers and save time in re-siting the traps after getting called back.

 

The last hatch of moles came out in April and are well established now and the next lot will be kicked out around the middle of July. The females are chucking up nests all over the place. If we don't get a dry spell soon I might have to do a five day week.

 

What's it like back in Blighty? You've been a bit quiet on here.

 

 

[DIDO.1 22,846]

Nice and steady with everything all winter and spring. Never had as many squirrel jobs.

 

Bee calls are coming in now and I expect tomorrow to be manic, I worked today's bank holiday and am booked up tomorrow....my contracts are getting neglected at bit at the moment.

 

I try to only treat bees if they are a problem but every call wants a ten minutes worth of advice...iv had 8 calls today. When your in lofts and sewers all day it's hard work taking calls or returning them everytime I finish a job.

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

Moles running riot,..loads of work coming in,....but,..experience has taught me that, sooner or later, I have to say no...

The Wasp season will soon be upon us and it is uneconomical to be working traps when the phone is ringing non-stop....

There has to be a cut off point and unless a real plump and juicy Manor House lawn job or a chance of some Winter rabbit work is on the cards,..I am afraid the moles will have to take a back seat,. and the DR5 must take precedence over the Putange..

Bees,..constant panic calls from folk,..being troubled by swarms of Wasps...and as DIDO so rightly says,..it takes time to convince these poor souls that their Bees aint Wasps...Worse thing is when they refuse to accept your advice and argue vehemently that, "We know the difference twixt Wasps and Bees mate"..

 

Er,..you don't....

Edited June 1, 2016 by Phil Lloyd

[Nicepix 5,650]

I don't do wopsts and bees so that aspect doesn't worry me. The bloody rats however are another thing. I'd no intention of doing rat jobs, but there seems to be a plague of them this year and it would be wrong to refuse to help my mole clients.

 

The rain has only just stopped after five days of continual downpours and storms and three months of more rain than shine. This morning I had a welly malfunction. Wet sock - nothing worse. And I hadn't a dry glove to my name. Called in at a shop and bought a pair of cheap wellies and three pairs of gloves. I'd been rotating my wet weather gear to try and not have to be in wet stuff all the time and the van smelled like an old dishcloth. On one job every trap I lifted was under water. Some of my jobs are at holiday homes where the customers only visit for a few weeks a year. I leave traps in permanently and check them two or three times a month. This was one garden I got to................

 

 

 

There are three pairs of Putange traps out there buried under clods marked with orange paint And the customer isn't due out for another four weeks.

 

Can't work out which I'd rather do; a full day in the pissing rain doing one field or ten or twelve garden jobs involving putting the wet gear on and off again, driving between jobs and doing it all over again. Who'd be a mole trapper?

[moxy 617]

Na..!! When the cover is up that high it's like pissing in the wind.

Who wants to be a moleman? It takes all sorts mate. Strange as a hairy egg comes to mind sometimes.

[Chicken_man 1,651]

Moles running riot,..loads of work coming in,....but,..experience has taught me that, sooner or later, I have to say no...

The Wasp season will soon be upon us and it is uneconomical to be working traps when the phone is ringing non-stop....

There has to be a cut off point and unless a real plump and juicy Manor House lawn job or a chance of some Winter rabbit work is on the cards,..I am afraid the moles will have to take a back seat,. and the DR5 must take precedence over the Putange..

Bees,..constant panic calls from folk,..being troubled by swarms of Wasps...and as DIDO so rightly says,..it takes time to convince these poor souls that their Bees aint Wasps...Worse thing is when they refuse to accept your advice and argue vehemently that, "We know the difference twixt Wasps and Bees mate"..

 

Er,..you don't....

Do you do a lot of pesty work Phil also? Moles,rats and other species?

It's something I've often thought about doing.

I know a couple of lads who do it full time and seem to do ok.

Maybe one day eh

Atb

[Nicepix 5,650]

Na..!! When the cover is up that high it's like pissing in the wind.

Who wants to be a moleman? It takes all sorts mate. Strange as a hairy egg comes to mind sometimes.

 

Sometimes I only find the traps after the grass has been cut Its a new customer. Usually the customers employ groundsmen to keep the grass down. That's why I bury the traps and spray the turf with marker paint. If I'd have known that these weren't going to have it cut between their visits I could have put some marker flags in.

[moxy 617]

What are the marker flags for?

To give the grass and weeds something to grow up

 

That's a nightmare of a situation

[Nicepix 5,650]

What are the marker flags for?

To give the grass and weeds something to grow up

 

That's a nightmare of a situation

 

I agree its not ideal. All the other holiday homes I have on contract get cut at least every two weeks. I'd assumed that this would be the same. Having said that; it took him a full day to cut the entire area last time he was here and that was with an Iseki tractor and 2 metre cutting deck. I reckon this time he'd be better letting a local farmer do it for haylage.

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

 

Do you do a lot of pesty work Phil also? Moles,rats and other species?

It's something I've often thought about doing.

I know a couple of lads who do it full time and seem to do ok.

Maybe one day eh

Atb

 

 

Hi,.yes, I used to treat ALL the common nuicence pests,..Cockroaches, Bed Bugs, Rats, Mice,..etc, etc...

I did thirty years , servicing Restaurants , Pubs,Leisure Centres,..Nudist Camps,..you fecking name it...

Then,..I sold off all my Pest Control contracts and went full time,. on the rabbits...

I did this for many years, until my situation and health changed,.then I went mole trapping...

Nowadays, I treat several hundred Wasp nests, plus catch a fair few Moles,.. the rabbit jobs are now a small part of the business..

[earth-thrower 493]

This spring has been absolutely dire. We've barely had a dry week and it is currently persisting it down and forecast to continue for at least the next four days. As a result of the mild, wet conditions that have dominated since the last frosts in early March the moles have run riot. I'm inundated with rain and moling jobs! And rats! It seems that the country is suffering a rat population explosion. My neighbours who have chickens counted 16 rats at the feed bowl the other evening. I've loaned them four traps and my air rifle and I've got another two traps across the road in another neighbour's chicken run.

 

By this time of year I would expect the moling to slow down as they move out of the lawned gardens and into shady or wetter areas. Normally I'll do 5 or 6 visits per day. Last week it was 12 to 14 and today I ran out of time due to re-infestations on jobs I should have completed and the contract work. I'm having to do jobs on my day off tomorrow just to keep up.

 

On a positive note the new stainless steel Putanges have had a good work out in the wet conditions and are catching well. I've worked out one or two tweaks to get less false activations. There aren't many compared with Duffus, but a couple of little changes has made a difference. I use these far more than the Duffus traps these days. Because of the unusually high numbers of re-infestations I'm leaving a few behind on some jobs to mop up stragglers and save time in re-siting the traps after getting called back.

 

The last hatch of moles came out in April and are well established now and the next lot will be kicked out around the middle of July. The females are chucking up nests all over the place. If we don't get a dry spell soon I might have to do a five day week.

 

What's it like back in Blighty? You've been a bit quiet on here.

 

 

Am i correct in thinking, the weather conditions you describe, are in total contrast, to what you had to contend with, this time last year ?

Edited June 6, 2016 by earth-thrower

[earth-thrower 493]

Na..!! When the cover is up that high it's like pissing in the wind.

Who wants to be a moleman? It takes all sorts mate. Strange as a hairy egg comes to mind sometimes.

Too right ! lol

[earth-thrower 493]

Mole trapping,not long after the silage/hay cuts, can sometimes be productive. (especially, if moles are numerous), only worthwhile in a wet summer, (ive found) though ?,......prolonged hot, dry summer, however, very little, to have a go at ,...

Edited June 6, 2016 by earth-thrower

[Nicepix 5,650]

 

This spring has been absolutely dire. We've barely had a dry week and it is currently persisting it down and forecast to continue for at least the next four days. As a result of the mild, wet conditions that have dominated since the last frosts in early March the moles have run riot. I'm inundated with rain and moling jobs! And rats! It seems that the country is suffering a rat population explosion. My neighbours who have chickens counted 16 rats at the feed bowl the other evening. I've loaned them four traps and my air rifle and I've got another two traps across the road in another neighbour's chicken run.

 

By this time of year I would expect the moling to slow down as they move out of the lawned gardens and into shady or wetter areas. Normally I'll do 5 or 6 visits per day. Last week it was 12 to 14 and today I ran out of time due to re-infestations on jobs I should have completed and the contract work. I'm having to do jobs on my day off tomorrow just to keep up.

 

On a positive note the new stainless steel Putanges have had a good work out in the wet conditions and are catching well. I've worked out one or two tweaks to get less false activations. There aren't many compared with Duffus, but a couple of little changes has made a difference. I use these far more than the Duffus traps these days. Because of the unusually high numbers of re-infestations I'm leaving a few behind on some jobs to mop up stragglers and save time in re-siting the traps after getting called back.

 

The last hatch of moles came out in April and are well established now and the next lot will be kicked out around the middle of July. The females are chucking up nests all over the place. If we don't get a dry spell soon I might have to do a five day week.

 

What's it like back in Blighty? You've been a bit quiet on here.

 

 

Am i correct in thinking, the weather conditions you describe, are in total contrast, to what you had to contend with, this time last year ?

 

 

Yep. Last year we were in shorts by the end of March and didn't see any rain until after Christmas. There is usually a second spring in October that brings rain, but by November we hadn't seen any and the reservoirs were at their lowest levels for many years. This year the spring is the wettest on record and people were still lighting fires on an evening up until last weekend. Last Christmas Day (2015) we were eating outdoors. Four days later it was minus 10C

 

The other difference is that last year the phone stopped ringing in early June and didn't start ringing again until well after Christmas. This spring I've already done double what I did in the same Apr - June quarter last year.

 

It is a strange year to be sure. I'm just about to break open the summer wardrobe and get my shorts out

[Nicepix 5,650]

Mole trapping,not long after the silage/hay cuts, can sometimes be productive. (especially, if moles are numerous), only worthwhile in a wet summer, (ive found) though ?,......prolonged hot, dry summer, however, very little, to have a go at ,...

 

Depends on the garden. I still get calls to deal with moles just venturing short distances into gardens from more overgrown areas bordering the customer's gardens. At the moment the females are making nests ready for the second brood of the year and because it has been so mild and wet they are venturing into the open areas to make them. Last year it was much drier and hotter so many nests were in shady or more moist areas away from open grassed areas. I've been thinking of renaming my business 'Desperate Housewives' given the nature of the calls I've been getting recently