THE MOLE (Talpa europaea)

General informations:

The mole (Talpa europaea) is a small mammal with a black coat. Its size is about 15 cm in adulthood for a weight ranging from 100 to 150 g. Its life expectancy is 4 to 5 years. This animal is classified in the family of "insectivores" because it feeds mainly on insect larvae and earthworms. As everyone knows the mole has very poor eyesight. Some people claim that the mole has an "exceptional sense of smell" and that it can "smell its prey several feet away". This is false, completely false! In fact, the mole only has an "immediate" sense of smell, which is a few centimeters long, and it can only smell its prey, in the open air, when it encounters it in its gallery. But how does the mole manage to move exactly towards its prey? We will say that the mole has a kind of "radar" whose main tools are the vibrissae, its nervous system and its brain. The vibrissae are simple hairs which are at the level of its muzzle and its tail. When a mole is in search of food it circulates in its galleries, stopping from time to time, to "probe" by placing its muzzle and tail against the wall of its gallery which allows it to "feel" the vibrations emitted in its environment. Her nervous system transmits to her brain the vibratory information collected by her vibrissae and there, instinctively, she knows if she is near a prey or a possible danger and takes the necessary direction.

Simple experiment: Capture a living mole, put it in a small plastic "sandbox" where you will have put 4 to 5 cm of loose soil over the entire surface, place an earthworm as far as possible from the mole, step back and don't move. You will see the mole wiggling around digging in the ground with its snout and tail touching the ground. It will not take him more than a minute to move towards his prey. After this great experience that will have made you smarter than the “inexperienced good thinkers who want you to believe that the mole should have looked up and listened” (humor), be nice, free this poor animal. Didn't Jean de la FONTAINE say so aptly "The lesson is worth a cheese".

Place of life:

The mole lives in the ground (everyone knows it) whether in your garden, your vegetable garden or a field. It prefers areas with constant humidity. It is an animal that has a daily need for food equivalent to its weight, which means that the surface of its territory will depend on its richness in food, so it can vary from 400 to 800 m².

Way of life:

The mole builds its nest to the east of its territory at a depth ranging from 80 to 120 cm. It consists of a dwelling where there are dead leaves and moss that she has collected in her environment. Next to the house are 1 or 2 reserves of food, mainly earthworms that she immobilized not by eating their heads as many people say but by cutting them (without cutting the worm in two) simply a specific ring that immobilizes them. From its nest, the mole will establish its territory by first digging the peripheral galleries following natural obstacles such as walls, fences or streams.

The mole builds its peripheral galleries along these natural obstacles for a very simple reason. When it rains, the walls and fences will receive a lot of water which will run down to the ground and generate wet areas that attract its prey. Then comes the construction of the main galleries which tend towards the interior of its territory, then from the main galleries will leave the secondary galleries.

If you starve a mole for more than 24 hours it dies. Over a period of 24 hours the mole has 3 life cycles of 4 hours of rest and 4 hours of work (equivalent of 3 days for us). The mole can swim over short distances (ex: to cross a ditch). The mole is a solitary animal that does not even support that one of its congeners enters its territory except during the breeding season.

The Reproduction:

As previously explained, the mole is a single animal that does not support the presence of other individuals on its territory except during the mating period which is from February to April of each year. So there is only one litter per year. The gestation period of a European mole is about 30 days and a litter produces 4 to 6 babies (for information, Siberian moles have a gestation period of 289 days). The young are weaned and become independent after 5 to 6 weeks. Once weaned the young do not leave the nest but it is their mother who expels them from the nest and its territory. A good part of the young that leave the maternal territory by surfacing, which means that a good number of them will be eliminated by their natural predators such as foxes and raptors.

Nuisances:

The only nuisances caused by this beautiful animal are the unsightliness caused by its molehills, which are only the excess earth that it has not been able to compact thanks to its robust and cylindrical body, and the possible disorder that it causes in vegetable patches or gardens. Otherwise the mole is very useful and greatly contributes to the natural drainage of the land and to the regulation of parasitic insects by feeding on their larvae. But it is clear that an overpopulation of moles leads to nuisance and an environmental imbalance. If you kill a mole, its territory will automatically be recolonized by one or more neighbors in search of territory. It is therefore necessary to eliminate as much of it as possible to claim lasting tranquility.

Type of treatment recommended:

I advise you to use the "Putange" traps which are the most effective and which, if well placed, instantly kill the mole with the least possible suffering, unlike the "Duffus" traps which immobilize them, suffocate them and make them suffer unnecessarily for hours before the trapped animal dies of exhaustion. For information, the “Putange” traps were recognized and approved in January 2018 by the APMC (Association of Professional Mole Catchers).

André ROMAN - Professional mole catcher for more than 35 years.