Moles

Moles are common to mainland Britain, particularly areas of permanent grassland such as private lawns and gardens, golf courses, parks and playing fields. They have a highly developed sense of touch and hearing even though they no external ear flaps. Their bodies are cylindrical, 12-16 cm long from nose to tail and they weigh 70-110g.

Each mole inhabits its own underground tunnel system covering an area 400-2000 square metres. It patrols these tunnels on a regular cycle searching out food such as earthworms and grubs for a period of 4 hours then resting for 3 hours. The mole is most active just after sunrise and again just before sunset.

The mole's breeding season is from February to June each year and litters of young will leave the nest at 5 weeks old. Moles often damage the roots of seedlings and plants causing them to wilt and die, in addition, mole hills can cause severe damage to machines such as lawn mowers.

Worms are the mole's major foodstuff and each mole must find around 200 worms a day to survive.

Moles can produce as many as 1.5 hills a day, each hill containing roughly 5 litres of loose soil.

Males & female moles live apart most the year, but in breeding season males dig over large areas in search of a mate.

Moles can create 20 metres of fresh tunnels every day