"Runnin' on"

Janet tells us about her nightly visitor....

Our Morris

We have a prowler in our garden, a nightly visitor who we have named Morris. Before you start to say that we have chosen the wrong sort of Morris, let me explain.

Mr T and I spend hours trying to beat the weeds in our garden, but now there is another threat to our lawns, Morris. You have probably guessed that Morris is a mole.

Our lawn is now criss-crossed with tunnels and so far that is all; we are sure it is Morris making a mole village, we are hoping desperately that Morris isn't invading the house foundations.

I am tempted to get a length of sturdy wire to check the extent of Morris's excavations. Perhaps I should contact one of those special surveyors who go on "Digs" to foreign parts!

Toby the cat is at on the lookout at one tunnel, I have explained to him that moles will bite when cornered. I'm not sure if this is true, but, the day after I'd given the cat the warning, he brought home a freshly caught mole, dead of course.

Well we have had no new mole holes so, fingers crossed, our lawn will have a chance to recover!

This prompted me to find out a little bit more about moles and their habits. First of all if you don't want them in your garden get a very acid soil or move to higher ground, for moles do not habit ground above 3000ft., a difficult job in Norfolk. A mole is not blind but only has eyes the size of a pinhead, but they are not needed underground of course and the mole can run backwards along it's burrow as fast as forward, it has sensors not only on it's nose but also on his tail, and its fur is no hindrance because it will lay backwards so that it does not jam in reverse.

It can also turn round in the width of the tunnel, can swim, so flooding them out is no solution, and a litter of three or four is independent in one month. So what hope do we have once they are established?

Just one final thought, when we were at Marham, the airfield mole catcher always put a female back. Well he didn't want to be out of a job did he?

July 05

Janet Tilburn