Selwyn, I have trouble with moles too and I thought it would be a job for an experienced catcher, but it turns out to be quite straightforward. I asked for a quote from a mole catcher - £100 set up fee and £10 per mole caught. I have since found some that do not charge a set up fee, and £6 per mole, but after the shock of the initial quote I decided to try it myself and I'm glad I did.
Basically you need the following kit -
Mole traps (obviously) and. I use the ones with two pairs of curved jaws held apart by a piece of metal with a 1 1/2" or so hole in. They cost me £5 each. Then you need a metal rod, and I use a piece of steel about 2' 6" long, 1" x 1/4" or so in section. Do not sharpen the end. Finally you need a trowel, a kneeling pad, a plastic sheet and something to use as a marker such as a bit of stick, plastic rod, whatever.
So, you go to a fresh mole hill and you poke about in the ground until the metal rod goes in easily, indicating you have found a tunnel (tape around one ond of the steel makes this easier on the hands). If you had sharpened the steel then it would go in easily everywhere and so would not help to locate the tunnel. You put the plastic sheet on the grass with the kneeling pad on top - not essential of course but makes life easier on the knees ( I'm 67 !!) and the plastic stops the moisture from the grass from seeping through into the kneeling pad.
Then you use the trowel to dig around to expose the tunnel, insert the set trap in line with the tunnel, and cover up to exclude light. You must make sure the soil you put back does not interfere with the trap so I use the grass clod I removed when digging out to stop the backfill soil from falling into the hole. You must exclude all light or the mole will stay away.
Finally you stick your marker in the ground so you know where the trap is - sounds trivial but we have moles in a field and it is a big area to have to search.
Final point. I borrowed some traps - great, caught 4 moles straighg away. Returned the traps and bought my own, and they were useless. An online search showed the reason - the jaws need to be curved, mine were straight. This meant the jaws were too long, and to clear the bottom of the tunnel to allow the jaws to close I had to position the trap too high - the moles were going under the trap and springing it, but not getting caught. I bent the jaws by hammering in the vice, and now I'm catching them again.
You can find help online, and see pictures of what I mean by the traps having unsuitable jaws.
Hope this helps. Try it, it is not as difficult as people seem to think.
K
Edit - where in West Wales are you?
