A better way to kill moles and gophers?

[Habitect]

I live on a rural property in NW Oregon with about 1.5 acres of grass fields. I've had quite the recurring nightmare of dealing with gopher and mole mounds. I've tried multiple traps and some repellants. At this point I'm paying a trapping company, which is expensive and slow (they only come around once a week).

I have a new idea though! I'm building AI (computer vision) to identify mole and gopher activity in real-time. I figure, if I get an alert (text message) with a highlighted screenshot as soon as a new mound is being created, I can take my gun out there and shoot the bugger immediately.

This way I won't have to dig through the dirt to set and reset traps, and I don't have to sit in the field all afternoon with my gun waiting to see activity.

I'm thinking about offering this to other people to use too - check out moleshot.com if you want to see more details or get early access once it's working. (Moderators, feel free to remove that link if it's not OK to post it)

What do ya'll think, is this a good idea or am I crazy?

 

[MossRoad]

You shouldn't trap mole hills. You need to trap the active tunnels.

Learning to use your traps properly is the key.

Which trap(s) are you using?

 

[MTGreen]

I think you'll find that the shootable time window they spend above ground is a lot less than you might think. Suggest using proven methods like plowing in poison pellets, scissor traps, or gas

 

[MossRoad]

If there are holes, it's not moles. If there are holes, it's probably just gophers. We have no gopher issues here, so no help with that.

 

[Habitect]

You shouldn't trap mole hills. You need to trap the active tunnels.

Learning to use your traps properly is the key.

Which trap(s) are you using?

I know I at least tried GopherHawk (which I had some success with) and something like the Victor EasySet ones.

 

[Habitect]

I think you'll find that the shootable time window they spend above ground is a lot less than you might think. Suggest using proven methods like plowing in poison pellets, scissor traps, or gas

Hmm, that could be an issue I'll have to explore.

I don't want to use poison since I don't want to potentially harm predators that would eat them.

Have you had success with gas?

 

[jyoutz]

Hmm, that could be an issue I'll have to explore.

I don't want to use poison since I don't want to potentially harm predators that would eat them.

Have you had success with gas?

It’s unlikely that predators will eat the dead rodents since poisoned gophers die underground.

 

[Egon]

Hmm, that could be an issue I'll have to explore.

I don't want to use poison since I don't want to potentially harm predators that would eat them.

Have you had success with gas?

Propane in the tunnels and a match work.

 

[MossRoad]

Propane in the tunnels and a match work.

Hold my beer and watch this...

 

[scootr]

 

[plowhog]

I'm building AI (computer vision) to identify mole and gopher activity in real-time.

I like innovative approaches such as this!

 

[dodge man]

I use the scissors style traps. You have to learn how to “read” the tunnels. The best time is after you mow or roll the yard and have flattened the tunnels. After a while you will learn which tunnels are active and more likely to nail a mole.

 

[MossRoad]

I got a bundle of marker flags for a couple bucks. I use my heel and compress a tunnel and stick a flag in. Check the flags daily. If a tunnel heel dent pops back up, it's an active tunnel. Set the trap there. If it doesn't pop back up in a week or so, it's inactive. Move along.

 

[ericm979]

What do ya'll think, is this a good idea or am I crazy?

I think you'll spend a lot more time on that than you would trapping properly, and it won't be very effective.

Checking traps once a week is pretty much useless. When I am trapping I check and reset traps at least once and often twice a day. If I do it in the spring before many young are born I can spend maybe a week or two trapping then have months of little or no trapping.

It takes some practice to learn where to set the traps for moles and gophers, and how to tell which you're dealing with. I prefer Cinch traps.

 

[hiddentacocatneddih]

I have 2 cats that stalk and get moles like crazy. We get them bad by my fruit trees and these 2 will spends hours stalking their mounds

 

[Mtsoxfan]

Around here, they are mostly active in spring and fall. I used to set spike trap several times a day sometimes.

 

[newbury]

Hold my beer and watch this...

That's sort of how my Dad used to do it.
He was a smoker, and liked firecrackers. He'd go out to the lawn with a pocketful of small fireworks. Find an active mole tunnel, light a firework off his cigarette, drop it in a mole hole, put his booted size 12 over the top, wait for the thump.
He'd wear his heavy boots.
The process left a bunch of small craters across the lawn.

 

[jaxs]

A couple of Rat Terriers (two is better because they are competitive which makes them work harder). Ear scratching,belly rub,a treat and good boy is all it takes to train them. It's best taking dogs out at night because gophers are nocturnal. Dogs hear them moving and/or pick up fresh scent trail then rely on sound and scent to corner them. Environmentally safe and a bushel of fun to boot.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

I have 2 cats that stalk and get moles like crazy. We get them bad by my fruit trees and these 2 will spends hours stalking their mounds

I lived in a place that had lots of neighbor cats doing all kinds lounging and using the gardens as their restroom. My wife tried to chase them all away. I had some mole hills show up but the regular cats ignored them. Then a stage cat showed up and just stood on a rock near the mole hills. My wife chased it away a couple of times until I figured out what the cat was doing and told her to leave that one alone. The cat hung around for another day or so and then was gone and so was the mole. Didn't see another mound in the yard after that. The next place I moved to, I could have used that cat and a few of his offspring.

 

[1Mech]

That's sort of how my Dad used to do it.
He was a smoker, and liked firecrackers. He'd go out to the lawn with a pocketful of small fireworks. Find an active mole tunnel, light a firework off his cigarette, drop it in a mole hole, put his booted size 12 over the top, wait for the thump.
He'd wear his heavy boots.
The process left a bunch of small craters across the lawn.

Must have been M-80s, Black Cats wouldn't do much other than make noise. Can you even buy M-80s anymore?

This is the type of trap I use, works pretty good, quick painless kill.