Mystery Moles

Had a job recently where the back yard was slam covered in twisty feeding tunnels. Everywhere. Trapped for 3wks with zero catches. Mole sign disappeared as soon as i began trapping. Made me look like an idiot! Hahaha... After 3wks with no fresh sign to set on, i pulled traps and moved on. Of course, i lost money on this one!

Anyone ever have this happen?

Yes it sounds like a mole moved in fed or looked like crazy and moved on to wormier soil. That being said your trapping especially if you dig up the tunnels might have caused him to move to where no predators were looking. A dog digging after him will many times will move him to the neighbor but he usually does more damage than the mole.
What your talking about sometimes happens with squirrel and particularly raccoons. You don't catch anything but they are gone. You make three times as many trips on those jobs and the customer thinks it was a natural occurance. If you charge a service call and per animal caught some people have a hard time doing the math. They just got lucky.
I am considering making my service call include the first animal to cover these jobs. Or maybe I need to start doing a signed agreement. I live in a small population and operate with verbal agreement unless it is a bigger job on birds or bats.

The moles are probably still there just gone deep. In these parts moles are only active on the surface when conditions are favorable for foraging, usually spring and fall coinciding with rain and moderate surface soil temperatures. The rest of the year they will be found deeper, I have personally observed a mole run at eight feet down.
This disappearing act can be very frustrating and lead to clients giving you the evil eye. The more you can educate them up front the better and better makes the case for the need for scheduled service contracts for species like moles. Also to avoid the pain of not getting paid get rid of the per animal fees and go to a fee schedule based on labor. The exact same amount of labor goes into setting and placing of traps whether a catch is made or not.

A trick I learned for deep moles is to try to bring them to the surface by irrigating the section of lawn where they are.

what he said,

Rickey

I would bet money they treated the lawn. A Mole has no way of knowing if there is food there or not till they look around. A freshly aeriated lawn would seem like good hunting grounds for a mole.
Are the neighbor's lawns Mole free? He may be just over the fence.

Lots of critters eat or kill moles. I have lost some to the cats in the area, to owls I think, and trapped ones to possum ( trap and mole). I know at times it is possum as I have gotten pictures of them trying to take a mole from a trap I anchored. Don't feel alone on the loss it happens from time to time. If the area holds moisture the mole usually will stay but if it is dry ground it could also have moved on.
Ted

Don't put it past a customer taking a mole out of a trap either. I love it when they put the trap back in the ground in a different position. I now will not set traps unless I get paid first, It is amazing how many moles do not disappear when I do this, where if I just set the job the moles go away.

Its amazing to me how many critters of all types "disappear" out of traps ! Lol

When it comes to money.............

What Ted and Ron said, with the exception of the part about owls getting moles: could happen, but I don't think it's very likely at all. Think about the behavior and abilities of moles and owls.
I do get a certain number of scavenged moles taken from traps, especially when trapping near cover (heavy brush).

I save some of the moles I trap for fox bait for a trapper I know. I have had moles and traps pulled out of the ground but not eaten.