Methods and means of dealing with a mole rat

He who is such a mole rat and what problems he can create is well known to gardeners and summer residents of the central part of Russia, the western regions of the Caucasus and Left-Bank Ukraine.

Who is a mole rat

Darling - it is a rather large rodent (its weight is approximately 700 g, and the body length can reach 30 cm). The animal has no tail, ears are not developed, the body has a cylindrical shape, the head is large, flattened. Justifying the name, the animal is not just blind, it has no eyes at all (in the place where they should be, there are dense skin folds).

The fur of the mole-ram is hard, more like stubble, the long hairs protruding from the wool play the role of the organs of touch in the animal. The lips of the mole rat are also covered with folds, they protect the oral cavity from the ingress of earth, only a couple of huge incisors protrude to the outside, giving the rodent a completely unattractive look.

The legs of the mole rat are short and weak, these organs do not take part in the work, the digging process takes place with the help of the teeth.

The habitat of the mole rat is the steppe and forest-steppe areas near the beams, forest plantations and forests, as well as adjacent crops. This rodent has close relatives of rats: Pontic, Bukovinsky, Podolsky and sandy. All of them are considered rare animals and even listed in the Red Book of Ukraine.

However, even a mole rat in recent years does not increase its numbers. Interestingly, this rodent is practically absent in the territories located on the right bank of the Dnieper. Apparently, for many years, the animal did not manage to overcome this natural obstacle in the process of migration.

Blind man breaks under the ground complex multi-way "two-story" holes with a total length of 0.25-0.35 km: the upper tier runs in a fertile layer of soil (10-25 cm below the ground surface), the lower tier is from one to four meters deep.

On the top floor, the rodent has a “dining room” - it is at this level that the roots, tubers and other underground parts of plants that the animal eats in the direction of travel are located.Downstairs there is, in fact, the dwelling (nest), as well as the “storage rooms” of foodstuffs stored for the winter.

Breaking through the burrow, a blind man with his head pushes a rather impressive heap of earth to the surface, and this shows his presence on the site.

In order to move forward it was easier, a mole rat beats his head against the upper wall of the hole and, by the force of reflection of the sound wave, determines the direction in which it is more convenient to continue the movement. Similarly, rodents communicate with each other, finding a partner on the wave signals sent to them.

What harm from a mole rat

Both the appearance and the lifestyle of a mole rat look like a mole, and yet they are completely different animals. They build similar holes, and the entrances to such underground tunnels look the same, but these rodents feed on different foods: the mole is a predator, its food is made up of worms and larvae, while the mole rat is herbivorous and, as has been said, does not just eat all kinds of roots and roots in its path, but also creates their impressive reserves for the winter.

So, if you want to know what kind of animal left you without a harvest of carrots, beets or potatoes, you can be sure: this is a mole! In addition, this animal with pleasure feeds onion plants, so that it is just as dangerous for a flower garden as it is for a vegetable garden.He does not squeamish the animal and the green parts of plants (he likes most of the legumes, umbrella and complex colors), drawing them under the ground and eating, while the roots and tubers are used mainly as stocks.

Up to 18 kg of potatoes were found in the cells of a mole rat in one chamber, while in the neighboring there were reserves of roots, acorns and other delicacies that were almost similar in weight. It is noticed that the mass of food that a mole rat eats in a day is approximately comparable to its body weight, therefore, taking into account the active preparation of the animal for winter, you can imagine what harm a single mole rat can cause to crops, flowers and other lovingly planted on a plot of plants!

If such a misfortune befell you, and your green plantings literally tortured with their terror a mole rat, a reasonable question arises: what to do. In fact, there are many ways to get the blind out of the garden. These are traps, scares, and toxic substances, and various folk techniques. The choice depends on your humanity, ingenuity and finances.

Setting traps

Many believe that the most effective way to get rid of a mole rat is physical destruction of the animal. There are various designs of traps and other mechanical traps for goggles, you can buy them or make your own hands on the proposed drawing on the Internet.

The main problem is not to get a trap, but to install it correctly. The technology is quite troublesome and the result is by no means guaranteed. So, the first thing to do is to find the freshest pile of land, pushed out by a blindhead, and hope that the animal is somewhere nearby.

The principle of catch is based on the fact that the darling doesn’t like a draft, and if it forms in its hole, there is a chance that the rodent will go to eliminate the "disorder" and fall into the trap.

Tearing down the pit, we find the main course and clearing until we reach the earthen plug. It also needs to be removed so that fresh air begins to flow into the hole. A trap for a mole rat is installed at a depth of about 5 cm from the beginning of the turn, its chain is brought to the surface, and the hole is covered with earth or covered with plywood so as not to frighten off the pest. It is considered that it is possible to check whether the event was successful in half an hour.

If you are lucky to have a hunting dog, it can help locate the rodent and save the owner from digging useless holes.

And for the farm, the benefit, and your pet - excellent training in conditions close to the fighting!

In the same way, you can catch a mole rat using a hook or several hooks to which a loop is tied - the installation principle is the same;

It should be noted that the considered method of catching mole rats is not considered effective. Firstly, its success depends directly on the correct determination of the location of the animal at the moment, and given the total duration of the hole and the number of numerous “exits” this is not always possible.

Secondly, experienced gardeners note the extraordinary cunning of these rodents. Only a very young and stupid animal can get into a trap, moreover, if one mole rat has already been caught in this way, others begin to exercise double caution, and it is not necessary to count on repeated success.

Surprisingly, the problem is sometimes helped by pets — cats or dogs. Of course, it’s unlikely that a molehill will be caught by a neat and melancholic Persian pussy, it’s more like a yard cat, preferably with experience in catching mice, and even better - rats (admittedly, the latter is a rarity).

True, some cat owners note that a cat feeding kittens, in order to protect offspring from a potential threat, can simply work wonders! Representatives of the dog breed, too, do not fit any, because to catch a mole-rade can only be done by a “professional”, specially trained in hunting for underground animals, such as, for example, a dachshund or a spaniel.

Installation of tinkling, rattling and vibrating homemade devices

The second way to get rid of a mole rat - scaring. For this purpose, you can use various devices, but the principle of their action, as a rule, is the same: to create a vibration or noise effect with the help of the wind. Having no eyes, a mole rat is very sensitive to sound waves. When the earth shakes, the rodent perceives it as a danger signal. If strange vibrations or noises recur frequently, the mole rat will always be in a state of discomfort and in the end will prefer to leave the unpleasant place.

Sometimes a system of wooden pegs driven into the ground is used as a sound repeller, to which any impellers are attached, for example, from children's toys. When a gust of wind blades begin to spin, and there is a buzz, which is heard underground and highly annoying deers and moles. On the same pegs can be strengthened tin cans.

For the same purpose, empty bottles can be buried in different places in the ground, preferably large ones, for example, from under champagne. The neck of the bottle should rise several centimeters above the ground, making an acute angle with it. Considering the most frequent wind direction when dropping into a bottle, the created noise effect will occur much more often, respectively, the probability of scaring the underground builder will increase.

Sometimes more complex structures are used, for example, on the basis of plastic bottles, which cut and bend in a certain way, after which the wire is passed through the bottle, which goes deeper into the ground, and a metal ball is placed in the bottle, creating an additional noise effect in a gust. Based on this principle, you can come up with many other "noise makers" and "rattles".

Fight with water blind

A separate way to get rid of a mole rat - flood itor rather his hole. Considering the length and complexity of the underground structures built by the rodent, this method cannot be called simple. And absolutely for sure - you cannot get away with one bucket of water here.

The pit must first be cleared to detect the entrance to the hole.It is precisely at this entrance that the water should be poured, and it is better to stock up for this purpose with a hose, rather than run around with buckets. The more water is poured, the higher the likelihood that it will eventually reach the animal, and it will float to the surface.

What to do with a caught animal is everyone decides for himself (and this is an additional disadvantage of the method under consideration: the rodent will either have to be killed, which not everyone can do, or take it somewhere, and this is also not the most promising option). Apply an even more sophisticated way to get rid of a deaf with the help of water. A trench of 30 cm depth is excavated along the perimeter of the plot. It must be reinforced with its edges so that, once in it, the animal cannot get out (for example, overlay slate). At some distance from each other, grooves break out inside the trench, which are filled with water so that the mole rat, moving along the trench, eventually collapses into one of the pits and drowns.

The effectiveness of this method, however, raises strong doubts due to excessive labor intensity in the absence of any guaranteed success. Yes, and pull the drowned man out of the ditch - the pleasure is not for the faint of heart.

Use poisons

Poison is another dubious method of getting rid of a mole rat.In general, these rodents are able to kill the same drugs that are used against rats, but it should not be forgotten that the dacha is not a basement or a city dump, there are people here, children play and pets frolic. And plants treated with rat poison should not be subsequently used as food (even if the poison is laid directly in a burrow, it is still unsafe).

If the desire to fight with a mole rat by radical methods is still not lost, for this purpose you can use, for example, the drug "The Nutcracker" (the active substance is bromadiolone). Still, it is better to use products like "Krotomet", "Antikrot" or "Detia", their action is based on the repellent aromatic substances, they are not toxic, although they may not be as effective.

Installation of ultrasonic repeller

Finally, there is a modern and humane way to solve the problem, how to get rid of a mole rat in the garden, an electronic sound repeller,powered by a charger or on ordinary batteries. More expensive devices use solar energy to charge.

The principle of operation of the device is similar to the sound scarers: It is focused on the auditory sensitivity of a mole rat, but in this case, the waves are transmitted not through the air, but through the soil. It is known that a mole rat, like other underground animals, has a low-frequency sound reception, it is such sounds that are best propagated underground, especially if there are air traffic jams, that is, in underground passages.

The sound produced by the repeller is in the frequency range from 35 to 65 kHz. I would very much like to say that the human ear does not catch it, but in fact it is not. However, the manufacturers of the repellers claim that the device can deliver a certain anxiety, even ringing in the ears and headache, to a person only if he stays in close proximity (up to half a meter) from the sound source for a long time.

Therefore, in order to avoid negative effects, it is enough not to direct the device directly at yourself if you are going to rest on the terrace for a couple of hours. Babies are also encouraged to take a little further to the side.The rest of the device is completely safe.

So, the repeller produces permanent or with a small interval of ultrasonic vibrations that people hardly perceive, but they are well recognized by underground inhabitants. The range of such fluctuations depends on the model of the device - from several tens to several thousand square meters, but it should be remembered that if there are obstacles, the coverage area decreases.

Therefore, if the site is too uneven, there are elevations, structures, basements, wells, etc. - it is better to use several repellents. The irritable power of the sound wave on the hearing aid of moles and mole rats is such that animals prefer to find a quieter place to dwell.

It is necessary to install a repeller directly into the ground - in no case a burrow, since the vibrations produced by the device are transmitted in the ground, and not through the air, therefore its effectiveness directly depends on the density of the device’s contact with the soil.

The device digs into the ground, about 5 cm should remain on the surface, then the ground around is well compacted. The cover of the device must be tightly closed to prevent moisture from entering, which can damage the batteries.

If after a long time the mole rat did not leave the site, you can try to move the repeller to another place - perhaps the beast managed to find a corner in its corridors to which the waves do not reach, and then a simple procedure can correct the situation.

It is obvious that such an electronic device has a number of advantages compared with almost all the methods of rodent control described above.

Firstly, it is environmentally safe and acts only on the underground pests, without causing any harm to people, pets, birds, bees and other welcome guests on the site.

Secondly, it is an absolutely humane method of fighting in general with an innocent animal, the device does not kill the animal, but simply causes it to leave.

Thirdly, the device does not belong to expensive devices, does not take up much space in the garden, and does not turn your site into a branch of the “skillful hands” group with various ringing cans tied on strings.

Another advantage of the device is that it can be used for several years (it is enough just to change the batteries or charge the battery, and if you purchased a solar-powered device, you don’t need to do anything at all, the device will recharge itself).

Well, the last good news: a mole rat is a lonely beast. If he leaves your site, the problem will indeed be solved for a long time.

If we talk about the shortcomings of this method of dealing with a mole rat, then perhaps only one can be singled out: the animal is not exterminated, but simply leaves.

And given that he has to move under the ground, it will most likely not move too far.

Therefore, if there are not virgin lands around your site, but neighboring dachas, it is likely that, having solved your problem, you simply place it on the heads of those who live nearby.In any case, kill or chase away - the choice is yours!