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Moles

We live in a village outside Bratislava in Central Europe.  This is prime agricultural land and there are infinite numbers of moles in the fields around us, so some will eventually stray into the garden.  Once they are enjoying the good life in the village, it can be hard to convince them to relocate.

I tried a few things and can now present here the 100 Horse Power Mole Eliminator:

It costs nothing and it works.

If you have an old lawn mower, garden tractor, or moped, that may be easier to move around and it produces more global warming badness, but a car starts with the press of a button and a couple of hose pipes clicked together, to go from the driveway to the far end of the yard, works well enough.  

The trick is to get all water out of the pipes before you start - lift it shoulder height and walk along the pipe a couple times.

The exhaust of a modern car is not very hot and will not melt plastic, but I used a short piece of metal pipe since I really don't want goop stuck to the back of the car and stuffed it into the exhaust with a rag to seal it up somewhat.  To test whether anything comes out the other end, use a little piece of tissue paper and see if it flutters a little bit - an idling car does not create much flow, but remember to turn off the automatic stop/start... 

Some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI 

After the circus is over, collapse the tunnels with a blast of water, so that you can look for fresh activity the next day.  I found this is very quick and dare I say, humane.  The moles have their fifteen minutes of fame and then go and sleep with the Big Mole in the Sky.

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