which mole traps do you prefer? out of site or the albanos?
pros? cons?

I have used both but not enough to say that I like one better than the other. I have caught moles in both but only a handful. I do not consider myself a mole trapper yet but I want to learn.

Out of sight hands down...caught over 9,000 moles in my career

What TRapper said

I'm also fairly new to the game I have a dozen of the no mols and they have worked for me so far. What's the major difference with the out of sights?

I like nomols and then albanos. Out of sights suit on the surface. I'm always afraid kiuds or dogs will play with them.

Bob, are all those eastern moles?

I know we have discussed this in the past.

Here in iowa i am at 179 moles caught since march 2nd but many yards i catch 1-3 moles and damage stops...this has been happening for 12 years...i dont have any other species of moles other than easterns.

What i am saying is the part of the country and species of mole you have determine the number of moles present in a lawn as well as trap selection. The out of sight mole trap is a bad choice if going after the hairy tailed mole since that mole is smaller and likely to not set the trap off...for the eastern mole we have here in midwest i am extremely deadly accurate with the out of sight and can train someone on em to be successful in under 3 days...location and setting traps with my system you also become deadly.

I have zero experience though with hairy tailed or starnosed

For my soil and climate situation, I do not limit myself to just one mole trap. I would love to use only the light, easy to set, easy to clean Albano trap. But in sandy soils and on surface/foraging runs (raised ridges near the surface), moles tend to dig under this trap and my success rate is low. Flipping and using this trap upside down does help a little on surface runs. This trap is more useful to me during colder or drought conditions when moles follow their food source deeper in the soil. The Albano trap is very good for these deeper mole runs. I use this trap upside down even in these deeper runs. My go-to trap for open surface runs is the upgraded version of the OOS. Works great in any type of soil I would imagine. The third type of trap I use is the Talpex. It is a smaller version scissor mole trap sold in the UK. I use this trap on surface runs along house foundations, fences, and driveways where the OOS is not as feasible and on open sandy runs without vegetation.

Steve Albano teased us with news of a new mole trap more than a year ago. Guess he's too busy watching his Golden State Warriors make a run for their second NBA title. We're still waiting Steve!

Most all our moles are Eastern moles. I have only caught 3 star nosed moles in my lifetime. Just don't have them in any numbers and I cover a lot of miles in a 50-75 mile radius.

I caught 32 moles today from 3 jobs. One was a first check job the other 2 were 4-7 days into a trapping program. Had 4 doubles today.

I caught 6 more moles at the Drs. job today, that makes 43 to date. Tomorrow is my pull day for that job. That will make 9 days in that program. The lawn mowing company is coming in tomorrow afternoon or I would stay another day, they wouldn't give me another day. I prefer at least 7-10 days with 10 days being better in many cases such as with some real active areas.

I could possibly get 7 moles tomorrow @ the Drs. place due to me setting on new sign the last two days. If I get the 7 it will be a new record catch for that period of time for me. 35 was my best catch in the same time frame last year.

Lots of rain here lately so they are advancing a lot with these conditions. Avg. is 5-6 per check now at the Docs place. Got 13 first check. Should have had 18 but had a few misses which is par for the course but usually get them the next day.

I set a couple OOS today because Steve's traps were dug under. I am just not comfortable using the OOS. I have watched ton's of video's etc. The only thing I am not sure of is how tall/hi should the bridge be? I usually make them half the height of the run/tunnel. Is that about right.

The bridge is a big key to settin the traps right in my opinion...if done right no need for a modified trap or a "woody" attached....i have maybe half a dozen fired traps all season with no mole caught out of approx 500 catches or more

Getting There,
How are you bedding Steve's traps? Are you pushing the front end into the tunnel as he shows on his video?

Kurt Temple

Kurt:
We have real light soil in my area. It is real easy to bed the trap as Steve show's in his video's.
TRapper,I keep the floor of the tunnel packed down and make a bridge that is firm with straight sides.
The pan is placed right on top of the bridge. Should the bridge be approximately half as high as the tunnel opening?

Getting There,
If I had light soil I would use a round piece of wood to pack down the tunnel then bed the trap. Have you tried nomole in that soil?

Kurt Temple

Albanos are the easiest to get "right" in my opinion. No worrys about trigger sensitivity, not modifying them, Perfect out of the box

I prefer the OOS's. That's not to say I haven't caught in Steves traps but overall, the OOS works best for me in my business- they seem to save me time. I haven't gotten the hang of using Steves yet.

Have used and successful with albanos, nomols, spears, nash loop, and oos...oos way out perform in my opinion...much quicker to set in the system i use

Here are a few moles from 3 jobs today. All taken on Steves traps. They are lethal devices once you develop a setting and tunnel identifying system.



Ended up with 47 moles at the Drs. job today. Just a few short of my goal.

Those tails on them moles are huge...easterns out here dont have hardly anything for a tail...wonder if ur easterns are a diff sub species and that could be why populations are different than what i have here...moles here are very territorial...just caught the 4th mole tonite on a 3 acre yard that was torn up bad and no more new damage

We don't have those ooioularions either. Most of my jobs are residential and I get 2 or three moles out of a lot. Often its just 1 and the client is shocked that 1 causes so much damage.

I picked up some Albanos this year but am having a hard time. Think my problem is location g the right tunnel. I'm open for suggestions if you have any. On the upside, I have had luck stand8ng in the yard drinking coffee and shooting them with a 9mm

A job I did last week at a home I caught two star nosed. Set up a new house yesterday and caught an eastern today. Homes were less than a mile away didn't know the star nosed where that common pretty cool stuff all with the no mols. Be intrested to try the other two brands. Learning a lot about trapping the little fellers it's like blind setting for a coon almost if ya find a good trail.

When I teach somebody I use a parable with highways and neighborhoods. The highways are straight and connect the areas of spaghetti like residential feeding tunnels. There is a lot more traffic on the highways. Check along the edge of driveways, foundations, retaining walls, etc when in doubt.

This is the first year I need to trap moles on my property. I don't know what happened, but they are all over the place.
I caught 8 of them in the last few days. Some times I set a trap and in 20 minutes I have one. But I have yet to catch
a second one in the same run. Are they that territorial, or can they smell the kill area on the trap? Seems like I set on
fresh sign I have one, and then the area goes dead. I haven't cleaned my traps after a kill, but if I move them to a fresh
area they seem to work fine.

IMO the smell of a dead mole does not scare others away. Moles are very territorial. The only time I catch more than one in a run is when the young have not let home yet.

I haven't found any evidence at least in my part of the country that a mole is repelled by the smell of another mole killed in a trap. Just another wives tale as far as I am concerned.

I guess I will play the spoiler here. I have caught 18 moles in a developing dead end mole tunnel (in the same traps) that was just being advanced from a wooded area into my lawn where it became visible in just 9 days. This particular run was very close to our facility so it was an easy check being located in a convenient location. That gives you an idea of how connected that particular run was to another series of other mole tunnel networks.

I checked the one trap two or three times a day if I was working in the shop all day. Some days I caught 3 in a day. Some days no catch then when I worked service calls I checked am and pm then it was 2 a day pretty consistently. I have since pulled the trap however I have seen lately it is showing signs of activity once again.

I have learned so much about moles and their tunnel network systems. The longer they are left alone to do what they do the more significant their networks become. I use to think they were very territorial animals many years ago. But now I have found that they regularly patrol through the many intersecting and over lapping networks of other moles as well. If they didn't I wouldn't be catching the numbers I have in the same set ups. Some are very high traffic tunnels others are less frequented.

It could be due to their population increases it has caused them to adapt to a more social and tolerant behavior. Doesn't surprise me. Just another evolutionary process that may be occurring.

I have other traditional set ups at my place with two traps per location ( Albano ) that I have caught 30 plus moles in the same trap set location never moved for a few weeks. Lots of doubles.

Not to shock any of you but as of yesterday I have caught 164 moles in my lawn since early March. It is about 3 acres in size.I catch 3-8 daily. I had pulled out for a week or so earlier this spring because I needed more traps for commercial work. Then after I closed some jobs I reset some key areas that I noticed while mowing that needed some population control. They just keep coming...

I have been considering having a professional mole control training seminar next year to be held on my property. I couldn't think of a better location for such a program. We will not be accepting any attendees within 150 mile radius of our base of operations or any known corporate representatives or affiliates.

bob...your population is extremely different than what we have here...i have caught over 9000 moles in my career and the average of 3-5 moles per acre is the norm...rarely do i exceed that and the way it has been this year i am taking 2-3 moles out of a 1 acre lawn and no more damage comes in for a few months....

What surprises me about Pennsylvania is that the mole pop where you are is vastly different than where rick shadel is

Just night and day difference between your moles where you are and the moles i deal with here

I do one on one instruction here for guys that want to learn moles...the last 2 been from ohio and kentucky and their mole population is similar to mine....i really wonder if you have a different subspecies of the eastern mole

I have seen our mole numbers spike the previous 17 yr. Cicada hatch also as I believe I mentioned on another post. I just hit 527 moles for 11 weeks as of today and I haven't checked my lawn yet today. I will probably have another 3-5 out of 11 location set ups.

Last 10 days I caught 122 from 6 residential jobs. Most of these jobs have had mole activity for many years. This you can determine by how extensive the tunnel networks are by reading the sign.

Most have neighboring properties infested as well and many with woods bordering their property on one side or 3 sides in some cases. The woods around my lawn area is a significant nursery area for moles. There are mounds and tunnels through out the woods. I am surrounded on all sides so I have no barriers for any deterrents.

Josh, if I set my place on all the primary lead runs feeding my lawn I would conservatively guess I could harvest 25 to 30 plus moles on one 24 hour check. Then probably 15 to 20 a day for a while. That would be on top of my previous catch to date. With our very rainy spring we are getting aggressive mole tunnel activity in our region as well as new tunnel network advancement.

I don't know how many locations everyone else sets as that will vary per lawn or area. However, here I set 20 > 50 set ups on an avg. per job. That is 40-100 plus traps per job. 2 traps per set up. I get several doubles daily and some cannibalism on a few moles if I go beyond a 1 day check. I check daily or I get too many dig under my catches and missed catches.

I am not catching as many shrews this year. I think they are gorging themselves on the Cicadas as well so they aren't in the mole tunnels as much.

I have gone to digging extra artificial mole tunnels off of a primary run at a 45 degree angle about 10 inches or so and set one extra trap or two on each side of the main tunnels and just set one trap facing the primary tunnel so when the mole goes in to investigate the new run its caught well off the primary tunnel and leaves the primary travel lane open to the other traps.

With the mole traffic I have here I catch 4 off the primary runs occasionally on one check. 2 traveling from each direction. That makes a fella smile when things come together like that. This usually happens the 1st or 2nd check in most cases. Typically I will run 2 day checks on jobs set up like this and I know I will get good traffic there.

Mole trapping is work here if you do it right to cover all the potential routes and new break in areas. Population reduction is much faster as well.

Bob,i been catching a lot more moles this year also out of my yard...57 so far...best before that was 32 and all of them in main tunnels from the woods line coming in.
I did a yard a few weeks ago that was 1/2 acre and caught 35 out of it...I would have guessed 10 to 15 would have been it, doubles a lot.
So far since March-18 i'am over 400 moles,all are Eastern Hairy Tailed Moles, that what we have here.
I also set about the way you said you do between 20 to 50 sets, I like to hit them hard right off the bat. Some of the well defined highways I may put 2 sets/4 traps in the 1 run.
Seems to me in the last 3 to 5 years they have really been increasing in #'s.

Have similar numbers as trapper. Most of my lawns have between 1 and 3 moles. Then all activity stops.


We extend out the trapping service as sometimes after you get the initial crop of moles ones from neighboring properties make a beeline in.

i really wish we had moles down here in the numbers you fellers have up north. the most I have got out of one yard here is 9. after that everything quit for a while.

Actually having the populations that we have can present you with some challenges. Due to the high fringe and periphery mole population you will get migration filling in vacant networks that were voided at one point by your trapping program.

Trying to make a consumer understand this important fact can be problematic with some. Insinuating that you didn't do your job.

I reckon it would be like the armadillos down here. you can catch whats there now and give it a month or so and more move back in. the key like you said is making the customer understand that when these are gone it just opens up there yard for more to move in. I have a few properties ( 300 to 600 acres ) that are eat up with armadillos. have them on a contract. 7 to 10 days trapping each month. we usually trap between 5 and 15 each month but this month we have caught 31 in 10 days. lots of young ones.

Here it is only eastern moles....not the eastern hairy tailed mole....i knew there was a difference...i am betting largely that is why your moles are more communal

I have customers set up on a per mole basis but no set up fee...i have ALOT of repeat business with mole customers and when i go in those yards i cleaned out before...i catch one to three more then done for awhile again...most of my customers are on the edge of timbers

For an example of damage to mole ratio


Golf course i trap....caught 2 moles here and damage stopped...both moles were caught opposite ends. I havent had new activity since there in 3 months


3 moles here in this country 1 acre yard on first check...been 2 months..no more new activity

If I would charge a per mole fee I would be a wealthy man .

I do get the rare occasional job that I only catch one mole and the client insists there must be more. However, 2-3 checks later with no more catches and no more visible activity you know the property is clean until the next invader. Just how it goes with mole behavior.

We all know how much damage and tracking one mole can do if it is left to its own devices unrestricted to go about their business. Then add that daily behavior to a couple of years of tunneling and digging deeper runs with resulting mounding etc. and you can accumulate quite a bit of damage that the avg. consumer doesn't really comprehend very well.

Josh you can move up here seasonally and sell your per mole fee on your jobs, get rich and move back home to clean up what you have there later in the season. You would have to sell your O/S traps and convert to Albano traps because you wouldn't have enough room in your truck to carry all the traps you would need to set up your jobs. I can carry a few hundred Albano traps in 2 - 5 gallon buckets with very little space and weight. Plenty to do 3 - 4 jobs a day.

If you were taught my system you would sell all your O/S traps and it would open your eyes.

You guys want to get yourselfs a few Talpex exported over I reckon....

Bob...will agree to disagree with that...i have successfully caught alot of moles in the nomol, albano, spear, and oos. I am Extremely accurate with the oos and if u had the size of mole we do here i could teach you my system and u would get rid of your albanos and go strictly to oos.

Having talked to and trained a fella (that is on here regularly) about mole set up, locations, etc...given that he has the same species of mole you do...the hairy tailed which is smaller in size...i can understand why the albano is a better trap as it really is built for your size of mole. Since he has been back to ohio he has told me that moles are still tunneling through oos with no trap closure...which tells me he has a smaller mole. I am catchin alot of juvanile moles right now no problem with oos

Here is our moles...size larger with the small tails...

I catch all sizes of moles. However in the last couple of weeks I have been catching the younger moles that are advancing further from their birthing chamber sites and limited territory that they occupy when they are immature.

Our moles are what I consider a big mole on avg.. We have some hairy tailed moles but mostly Eastern moles and very few star nosed at least in my service area.

However that being said the standard size Albano traps work the best. The larger size is too large for our tunnel diameter networks.

Our moles seem to look the same as yours by the photos but side by side are a better way to compare.

The O/S traps tend to on average have a less sensitive triggering systems which can present some misses and promote dig unders due to the pressure required to fire them at times. I have seen that many times over the years even with modifications to help reduce the friction on the dog engagement area.

I can still be productive with them but I miss too many other moles as you only can catch one animal at a time. I get so many doubles and have very few misses now. I cant see a better way of trapping then with the Albanos at this time until another trap is developed.

Combine the weight and size of the O/S compared to the efficiency of the Albano traps I just had to retire the O/S traps. I respect your experience and opinion but once I got some time to work with Steves traps for many years I cant see any other path for this work.

I respect yours as well...99% of the time a mole goes thru one of my oos i have that mole...rarely do i have a miss. I modify my traps so they are on a hair trigger and literally takes me 2 seconds to do when i pull the trap out of the box

Nice thing about this debate is we have 2 guys that can smack the crap out of moles using 2 diff types of traps

With your experience I believe if you had our mole numbers and averaged 15-20 moles per job, you would look for a way to do faster clean out work with less weight and bulk in equipment. That is what opened my eyes.

Difference is I smack 3-4 X the moles just because I have them.

Question is does that make me a better trapper, no, or just more lucky. Neither, just having fun at what I do.

If you have them and the skills, the numbers will come.

Of course sign reading and experience in deciphering the maze of tunnels helps greatly in your clean out percentage rate over a period of days. Then it is just doing maintenance on those set ups for 7-10 days.

What is that old saying measure twice cut once.

I spend more time reading sign then setting traps. Setting is fast even for this old man because it is second nature to me now. Cherry picking locations is key to good success in the shortest period of time. That is why I rather work alone in most cases with this work.

I can read sign very well and source out the travel routes in a short period of time. Mole work is very rewarding and I find it quite enjoyable as well as challenging.

I compare this mole tunnel evaluation work much like doing one of those search a word puzzles. The kind you have to find the word and circle it whether it is spelled horizontally, backwards, side ways or on an angle. You just get good at it with just a little hint of sign provided at times.

Of course for those that cant spell it can be more challenging for them.

Roe - trying to get us Yankees to use the Talpex is like getting ya'll across the pond switching to Steve Albano's mole trap. I remember the controversy brought up by die-hard Duffus and Talpex users over there when he first introduced his trap in the UK. Just like his trap was only first available to ya'll from one source with high "carriage" and other fees, the genuine Talpex is not readily available to us without paying high shipping/handling fees.

I sucked it up and have about 20 genuine Talpex traps in my arsenal. It is just one of three mole traps (modified OOS and Albano being the other two) I use for differing soil, turf, residential structure/obstructions, etc. It's an additional good little trap in my toolbox!

Hit nail on the head bob...if u have the numbers you have success in many captures. We both trap a lawn til no more new damage. In my case i catch far less of the number of moles in a lawn than you do but damage stops...cant continue to trap moles that are not there anymore.

You are 15-20 moles where i am 1-3 moles...have to really be good to get the one or 2 moles that are there now and get em fast...i have the reputation of killin moles extremely fast. And i love it very much too

Problem we have here is that the re occupation of the vacant tunnel networks never ends here it seems.

They keep bleeding in from the vast bordering networks that eventually cut into other networks. Then you have a living breathing mole sanctuary eco system. That is what I have here.

It isn't an easy task to have anyone understand this type of network unless you work along with me to see how these jobs all border adjacent mole tunnel networks. It seems infinite in nature. Great job security.

The only saving grace for some consumers is the coming of the dry season. With the rise of the air temperature and contributing wind causes rising ground temps through evaporation then consequently heat penetration into the surface area.

This slows and in many cases completely stops the tunnel network use that previously was actively traveled during the rainy cooler weather season.

Then it is back to business as usual for the mole once moisture returns to their world.

Those shallow runs in open sun exposed areas just don't get much if any traffic until the ground temperature cools and the moisture returns. Just the nature of the beast. Heat exhaustion/exposure is a moles silver bullet. Kind of like Vampires and sunlight. They will avoid it like their life depended upon it, as it certainly does.

Not to mention the heat and temperature change pushes their food sources to retreat to deeper cooler areas or pushes them into the moisture shaded areas.

My mole activity here will actually increase with coming of dry season...mounding will be prevalent and calls will be more. I rarely have those really shallow runs at anytime of the year. We had an exceptionally rainy spring too.

That is an interesting contrast between regions and an animals behavior. The larger part of our mounding comes in fall, winter and early spring. After that it is very minimal and limited to the high moisture and well shaded areas only.

Love the mounds...easy peasy on hookin the moles plus gets people to call faster...this happens to be a big horse ranch i take care of...6 moles out of 9 traps today and set 11 more