Got him!

 

Carrie didn’t want me to post this, but I couldn’t resist.  I was just too proud of myself. A little over a week ago a little varmint moved in and started tearing up our back lawn by leaving little mounds.  I started researching it and decided we had a mole, so I ordered a pair of traps that many people seemed to like.  After a few days of observing the activity and patterns to identify where the tunnels were, I made the little excavation shown. At the bottom of either end of the hole are entrances to a main tunnel. I put the traps there and plugged it back up with the piece I carved out.  Two days later I had my mole…well it turned out to be a pocket gopher instead but the trap worked brilliantly.  It’s fairly simple…just two prongs that snap closed if the plate is knocked forward.  No bait. It works because the animal has an insatiable desire to keep his tunnels clear, but he knocks forward the release instead and gets caught.  The poor dude was about 6 inches long. Don’t feel bad for him, either.  He caused a lot of damage during his middle-of-the- night digging escapades.  Carrie thought this post would make this sound like the backwoods, especially after my raccoon trapping adventures.  She says I’m getting pretty good at trapping varmints. I think I must have a little something in my genes. Of our forebears, the Thompson’s, Slaughter’s, and McCoun’s were likely some of the earliest settlers in Kentucky (think Daniel Boone), so I’m sure they were good trappers.  Ha ha!