I'm no expert on Moles,just started doing mole jobs this year.
All of what i've learned has been on here and a couple of videos I've bought.Thanks so much for all the help.
That brings me to my next question,I recently made up some flyers and laminated them and put them on power poles in areas where i thought there might be some mole problems.
Got my 1st job out of that today,its a house in the edge of the woods with about a 3/4 acre grass lot outside of the woods,mowed nice with some small pines and oaks,nothing over 8' tall,its not a real low area,but its timber soil(brown dirt) and with all the rain we have had its really wet in some areas.
Plenty of mole sign,but when I open up some of the tunnels its a mess,I mean very muddy and small amounts of standing water in some,I went ahead and set it up using out of sites in the wet areas and Albanos traps in the drier runs.
My question is will the moles still use the wetter runs or do I need to be working on the drier areas?
Alsothere are so many mole runs that its hard to pick out a main tunnel by just looking,so i've been opening them up and looking for good well used tunnels.
Any of you mole guys have any advice?

My advice is that it is nearyly impossible to set too many traps doing ADC. Time is of the essence, I would rather check 100 sets for 20 moles in one week than check a doz sets for the same in two weeks. you'll find the happy medium with time. by the way I think you are dead on with the traps you are using. good luck, Tim

Well, it's been raining here and the mole hotline (#SEE-MOLE) has been ringing...
I always get a flood in the fall when the rains hit...just before fur trapping season.
If it rains too much the surface runs will be filled with water.
A easy test is to "walk down a run" and see if water shoots up at some point.
Real heavy rains can, at times, cause traps to settle, firing a few.
Other than that, I set traps as usual.
I always set traps heavy on newer sign.
The sooner you get the mole(s) the less trips out and less damage that will occur.
An adult mole in good soil, can travel about 80 ft. a day.

Brian.... With all this rain (and COOL temps), bat work is "on hold" so I've been doing a bunch of mole jobs. I used to "wait it out" and set after things dried out, but a bit of experimenting and I found a set that works with the OOS traps in wet conditions. Open up the tunnel as usual and cut your grooves for the jaws. Then, instead of of trying to use dirt (mud!) for the speed bump, lay a small stick about an inch in diameter across the bottom of the run for the speed bump. Push it into the mud a little so they don't dig under it. Set the trap as normal with the trigger plate about 1/2 inch above the stick. Since there will probably be no dry dirt to filter over the set, take some dry leaves from the wooded area and push them lightly around the trap to eliminate the daylight, then use some of the "mudballs" or wet dirt on top of the leaves to finish covering and eliminate air flow. Works very well for me. I used to use peat moss, but found this works just as well.

Waxed dirt works well too!

Thanks Guys did 3 on the 1st check out of 15 traps,set 10 more,its just really wet and soft out there right now.
Got one in Albano's traps and 2 in out of sights,had 2 dig unders with Albano's(not sure why)but not bad for just having an hour before dark to set....B...

Ron, I use that method of speed bump on all mole sets. I use smooth stones though.

brianroberts,
You might need to bed the traps better and they should not dig under. Check Steve's website for a video on his technique.
Leary

Most dig outs or over the pans are typically a result of too much compression of the soil when closeing the tunnel. As a rule of thumb I always leave a finger tip opening on the bottom of the tunnel before seating the trap pan.

This allows the mole to feel the opening with its nose and in my opinion invites it to reopen at that point instead of taking a another alternative route to progress to the tunnel on the other side of the blockage.

I have seen rookies and newbees at mole work make this mistake. They get as high as 20-30% dig outs on jobs I have inspected for them to determine the problem.

This usually turns out to be the problem in most all cases. It is more likely to happen in jobs where the soil is very wet and as a result of the compression of the tunnel which is too dense of a blockage for the effort needed to tunnel through.Hence resulting in dig outs,dig unders, around or over the trap pan.

Keep it slightly open and you will eliminate this problem. If this cant be mastered, I would advise to completely remove a very small section of the heavy wet soil in that area and replace with imported dirt or a dirt/peat mix for the trap pan blockage area. Just like trapping any other animal with traps when needed.

Thanks for all the help guys,its dried out some and I'm using all of the advice i've gleaned on this post,catch is going up and some new jobs are coming in....B...