Moles

[kdexpd]

So I'm at one of my customers, and I just finished setting the last of 5 mole traps in their back yard and I hear one of the others go off. I thought to myself it was just a misfire and I'll go reset it. I think I have broken a personal record for the quickest catch of a mole ever. Less than 5 minutes. So, I'm removing him from the trap and getting ready to reset it and the one not 25 feet from me goes off too. Before all is said and done I had 3 moles in the first 2 hours. Unfortunately, this is a 2 acre job and this is just the beginning, but if I can catch em' this fast, this job should be over pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it started raining before I caught anymore, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow before I can expect to get anymore. This is kind of a blessing and a curse because I have to reset them fairly quickly in order to catch the others that are using the run, and I also have yards to mow, so I may have to hire someone to just drive around all day checking and resetting my traps...the plus side is it's an extra $50 a week in my pocket. Woo-hoo! Kendrick

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[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

You should put the dead moles into a plastic bag with your business card stapled on, write, "we offer to set traps to get rid of rodents!" You could also glue some googly eyes on them just for fun! (they do this in Mexico, I'm not kidding!) That's pretty neat though, you'd think MINIMUM about week the trap would go off, that is pretty swift! Awesome!

[kdexpd]

Breeze you may be on to something...I could set the googly eyed moles right next to the pile of money with the googly eyes and incorporate saving a bunch of money by switching to my company. HAHA! If I get rich, I'll split it with ya for the idea!

[mzlawncare]

nice german sheperd kdexpd

[picframer]

You need to cure what they are eating and almost always it's grubs, Nematodes will wipe grubs out in 48 hours and the moles will move on.

[kdexpd]

Well Andy, grubs are only half of the moles main diet. Earthworms are the other. I have a customer who has hired me to do mole removal, but hired another lawn service to apply a poison, who told him he needed to kill all the grubs and earthworms. I had to laugh because without earthworms, your lawn would be pretty unhealthy due to the poor natural fertilizers earthworms produce, not to mention the soil compaction they help prevent. He is apparently going to have this "service" performed by the other guys, and I told him it was a scam, but he has bought into their BS. We'll see what happens. Moles are carnivorous and do not eat pellets or "peanuts", thus making them useless. I have had more customers swear by the "peanuts" and poison fake earthworms, however they have ended up calling me in to solve the problem in the end. I would rather pay someone to come in and trap the problem and know it's working because I can see the physical evidence, rather than paying double or triple to have a bunch of chemicals dumped on my lawn which is going to hurt more than help, and not provide any proof it ever worked. Poisons will deter a mole, however, it will only tunnel around where you applied it and keep damaging the turf. Scientific research has proven that trapping them is the only way to completely remedy the problem.

[kdexpd]

Thanks mzlawncare. He's half German Shepherd and half Rotweiller. He used to be my K-9 unit back in the law enforcement days. Had to retire him because he got hit by a car and it broke his hips. Now he's been promoted from sniffing drugs to sniffing moles..haha!

Kendrick

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by kdexpd

Thanks mzlawncare. He's half German Shepherd and half Rotweiller. He used to be my K-9 unit back in the law enforcement days. Had to retire him because he got hit by a car and it broke his hips. Now he's been promoted from sniffing drugs to sniffing moles..haha!

Kendrick

I wish my dog was useful...

All he does is bark bark bark...

All I do now is say, "GO LIE DOWN" I say that 1000 times a day.

It's now pronounced, "GRR-LUH-DUH!!!"

[kdexpd]

I hear ya Breeze. I had a Doberman for a control unit that when I was training him, I used a mild shock collar. It sounded kinda cruel to me when it was presented to me as an option, however it only took about a day and a half for him to turn out to be a very well trained dog. I would warn him by saying "no bark" and then just push the button. I'd say it again right after and he learned very, very quickly. After a few days, all I had to do was just put it on him and he knew...didn't even have to take the controller with me anymore.

Kendrick

[Steve]

It sounds like you really had a successful day with that!

How should a lawn care business owner go about estimating such services?

If these traps are working so fast, how do you handle it? Do you just hand out there until things slow down a bit?