[Padd]

Hello. I'm in south africa and I have a serious mole problem - the Cape Dune Mole-Rat (it's a massive thing larger than a rabbit) is destroying my garden! I've contacted a professional and they say they use chloroform to kill them through multiple applications. I'm generally against using poisons (we have a veggie garden) and I'm just wondering if this is good practice? From what I can see Chloroform is dangerous stuff - is it safe to use in the garden?

[rolnor]

Its dangerous if you inhale it. How is it supposed to be used, do you pour it into rat-holes?

[Padd]

They soak cotton balls in it and then push them down the holes. It then fumigates the holes puting the Moles to sleep

[rolnor]

If you use a gasmask its not so bad. If you work with chloroform daily without mask its no good, it can give cancer.

[Padd]

Yes well that won't be my problem as they will be doing the application... My concern was more about chemicals and all that fun stuff leaching into the ground...

[rolnor]

Chloroform is very volatile and has low solubility in water so thats no problem.

[whitecoatblackhat]

Haven't you tried catch&realease traps first?

Or at least any kind of trap?

Look up on youtube, there's tons of small rodent traps that you can either buy or DIY.

The chloroform will definitely leach into the ground.

At what ppm/ppb will that be, it's impossible to determine.

But I would definitely go with a humane catch and release trap until I get all of the rodents out of the garden.

And then, most importantly, rodent-proof the garden, so this never occurs again.

You know that if you use chloroform to kill the rodents, new ones will come by a few months later.

So what are you going to do? Use chloroform every 3-4 months?

It's definitely not sustainable.

[Padd]

Thanks for the response whitecoatblackhat

Such traps are not really effective with these things - they are big at around 35cm and much larger than what you get in the US. I have heard they have specialised traps they use at the airport, but I can't get hold of those. They also used to have kill traps, but they were outlawed in SA about 10 years back and you can't purchase them anymore.

I have tried catching them myself DIY for many months now to no avail, and they are now burrowing under our building and under paving causing huge amounts of damage. Going the poison route is the last thing I want to do, but we are getting desperate.

We haven't had them in the past 10 years, and after our COVID lockdown here they moved in. I think the road was not being used ad so they burrowed under it. I think once we get rid of our current infestation they won't come back, but we'd need to see. Would not want to be doing this repeatedly...

[rolnor]

Dont you have more traditional poison like warfarin? I consider it being no risk of contaminating your garden if you use chloroform like this but it is a bit unusual.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfarin

[whitecoatblackhat]

Thanks for the response whitecoatblackhat

Such traps are not really effective with these things - they are big at around 35cm and much larger than what you get in the US. I have heard they have specialised traps they use at the airport, but I can't get hold of those. They also used to have kill traps, but they were outlawed in SA about 10 years back and you can't purchase them anymore.

I have tried catching them myself DIY for many months now to no avail, and they are now burrowing under our building and under paving causing huge amounts of damage. Going the poison route is the last thing I want to do, but we are getting desperate.

We haven't had them in the past 10 years, and after our COVID lockdown here they moved in. I think the road was not being used ad so they burrowed under it. I think once we get rid of our current infestation they won't come back, but we'd need to see. Would not want to be doing this repeatedly...

Thanks for providing additional context.

What you're saying makes sense.

I still think that there are a few DIY traps that you can try to catch these things.

And I'm sure that a bigger mole trap that you place underground would work as well.

Have you seen this guy's YouTube channel and especially this video of his: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2PSDVsZ38U

If you haven't, explore his channel to get some ideas (but I'm almost sure you've already done this).

Another thing is if you have someone in your area that has hunting dogs or even better minks, you can use smoke grenades made specifically for smoking rodents out of their burrows.

You place a few of those in their holes and get the dogs or minks to hunt them.

Have a look at this youtube search query: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mink+rat

[jeffmoonchop]

I just saw that guys channel recently. I'd recommend catch live, then kill and cook.

[Adamgeorge]

Chloroform does not increase to build up in great amounts in plants and protect the public garden from harmful desires and toxic chemicals and to find ways to protect the garden. I know bt it's good for gardening.

[rolnor]

Its impossible for small quantities of something as volatile as chloroform to build up in a garden, its just silly.