Wire Tek 1001 EasySet Mole Eliminator Trap (1)

This product is built for life. It is heavy duty and I literally expect the construction to last through 20+ years of use. Very few products are built with this level of durability and reliability. It is also built for death..... of the moles in your yard. I have read a sampling of the very good and also the very bad reviews. Please allow me to share my personal experience with you. I live in Connecticut and have roughly 20K yards of well maintained lawn. My mole problem is usually just a nuisance but was very bad this year. I tried pesticide to eliminate a good chunk of their food source. Well, they also eat earth worms and I water my lawn so not so much luck their. I also tried a heavy castor oil application but that was a complete and total waste of time and money. At least the pesticide got rid of my bug problem. So I decided to go for the nuclear option and get into trapping (killing). As it has been described to me, trapping is the most effective but least applied option. This particular trap seemed to be the best reviewed so I went for it. As noted earlier, the trap is heavy duty and reasonably easy to set up and use. DO NOT TRIGGER THIS TRAP ABOVE GROUND. It closes very violently which provides a quick death for your mole but could easily crush your finger(s) and break bone(s). You can use a screwdriver to trip it will it is still in the ground and avoid this problem. Keep it away from any area where you think that curious children or people passing by (thieves) might pull it out of the ground. My trap tripped 3 times in two days without catching any moles. I eventually went back to the directions and noted that this trap works best in tunnels that are 4 1/2" are less in depth. You can check tunnel depth with a pencil or in my case the same screw driver that I use to trigger the trap. So... I started looking for active tunnels 3" or less. I have since caught two moles in about 3 days. Activity in my area has since dropped off to near zero. All it takes is 3-4 moles to destroy a lawn as large as mine so killing a mole is a major, major deal in terms of results. They are also very territorial so unless they are traversing back and forth to your neighbor's lawn then you have probably improved your situation dramatically. The other major tip is to make sure that your tunnels are ACTIVELY USED. Similar to the world's best fisherman fishing in a pond with no fish; you won't catch any fish (or moles) if they aren't there. I recommend that you flatten the tunnels with your feet or a roller and look in the next day or so to see which tunnels get "pushed back up". These are your target areas. You may also see areas 10-15' across that run all over the place in a seemingly circular area. This is where Mr. & Mrs. Mole hang out and make more moles. This is your best area to target as it should be most active. Good luck and happy hunting. P.S. After a few days of inactivity, I noticed another mole has moved into the area. Nailed him in less than 2 hours after placing the trap. Make sure that your tunnel is a shallow tunnel and this trap will kill your intruder. UPDATE (7/19/13): I have caught / trapped / killed 6 moles since purchasing this trap. For the most part, my lawn is hard and firm with no soft spots any more. I lend this trap to my neighbor now. For the most part, I don't need it any more. Let's pretend that these 6 moles would have cost me $100 apiece for a professional exterminator. I reckon that I have saved myself roughly $570 so far. (REMEMBER: This trap works best with shallow tunnels with floors that are 3-4" in depth from the surface." UPDATE (8/30/13): Nailed another one. UPDATE (7/11/14): Nailed three in the last month alone. It has been very dry and I water my lawn while the neighbors do not. I suspect that this causes the worms in my yard to come to the surface so all the neighborhood moles have been camping out. A friend borrowed this trap for about 6 weeks and could not catch a single one. I have been catching my latest three within 24-48 hours of setting the trap. I suspect that the key difference is that I set my trap in very shallow tunnels. Usually 2-3" deep have given me the most success. Most tunnels are 4+" so you will have to check around. I have nailed approximately 12 moles since purchasing this trap. THANKS FOR SUCH A GREAT TRAP!!! UPDATE (9/24/14): Nailed another 3 moles for a total of 6 this season. I have noticed that acive tunnels in the 3" to 4" sweet spot tend to produce kills. Tunnels that are shallow in the 2" to 3" range seem to cause the mole to run into the trigger plate rather than pass under the trap itself. Make sure that you place the trap on a long "straight-a-way" as opposed to on or near a corner or curve. You need to ensure that you position the trap in such a way that they will cleanly pass UNDER the trigger plate.

FINALLY - a mole trap that WORKS! First off I'm going to say that yes I had trouble at first catching moles with this trap - but I didn't give up - I just had to figure out what I was doing wrong. Once I figured it out it's been dead moles ever since. I've trapped 13 moles in the last two months out of my yard using this trap - I'm ecstatic because my yard was getting over-run with stupid moles. People say I'm crazy and to just leave the moles alone - this is nonsense - the only good mole is a dead mole! Let me tell you how to use this trap: 1. First off you have to know your enemy. Moles are stupid - they only know how to do a few things - Dig and/or repair tunnels and smell stuff - they have a REALLY good sense of smell! Also - they get flat out irate when you mess up their tunnels. When they smell/feel outside air coming into their little tunnel complex they will almost immediately go in search of where that air is coming from and fix the problem. Again - they are really good at fixing their tunnels - use this info to your advantage! 2. NEVER touch this trap with your bare hands! Remember how moles can smell really good? Well if they smell you (or any other weird smell) on this trap they will simply tunnel around it - which will infuriate you. What works for me is I leave the trap outside and only handle it with gloves on. Also - keep a large screwdriver or some other implement to dig with handy that is free of human scent. 3. Check the nuts on the side of the trap to make sure they are not too tight. Mine were way too tight and it took entirely too much force to spring the trap closed. I loosened the nuts probably close to a full turn if not more on both sides. After I did that it was a lot better. This trap is not supposed to have a "hair trigger" otherwise it would go off too easily. So don't wear yourself out trying to make it have a hair trigger. Setting the Trap: First off you need to roll your yard flat and wait a little while to see where the active moles are at. It won't take long - 24 hours max. When you find tunnels - look for nice straight(ish) tunnels - these are their "main corridors" you could say. Don't bother messing around with the tunnels that are going in all different directions or in circles- they may never return to these tunnels - again - only look for nice straight runs to set your trap. When you find a good place to set the trap do this exactly: 1. Firmly step on about a foot long section of the tunnel and smash it down flat 2. Push the trap into the ground on the spot you just smashed down. 3. Step on the trap to open the jaws apart. 4. While your foot is still on the trap - "rock" it back and forth real good to open up the earth so the jaws don't get bound up - you want the jaws to snap shut really fast. Also put your full weight on the trap to really push it down tight to the ground - you want the trigger pad firmly on top of the ground. 5. About a foot on both sides of the trap on a part of the tunnel that you have NOT smashed down - use the screwdriver to open up a good sized hole...big enough to stick a golf ball in - you want PLENTY of outside air to get into the tunnel! 6. Go get a beer and wait - sometimes within 30 mins you will see the trap spring. Then simply go look at the holes you made - one of them will be fixed - the other will not be. He's dead inside the trap on the side where it got fixed - and that's the last thing he ever did. Go throw him out and re-roll the yard and repeat until you are mole free. So far my record is 4 moles in 24 hours - 3 of those were inside of 3 hours of each other. Also - moles will come and take up residence where you've already killed several before so beware of that. Don't think that just cause you got one that you can ignore that area of your yard for awhile - another one will set up shop sometimes within days. It took me a long time to win back my yard. Follow these instructions and be vigilant and you will win the war. Update - August 2017 - Many many dead moles later the trap is still working great. I think I've decimated the entire mole population in this area. My neighbors don't have any moles now either. Thumbs up still! One word of advise..make sure that you push straight down on the trap when you push it into the ground. If you get it sideways at all it could bend things and then the trap won't work correctly so keep this in mind.

This mole trap really works! As long as you find a commonly used tunnel, and as long as your mole trap doesn't pick up any human odors, you will catch a mole rather quickly! I have had a few problems with the device, though. I've had mine for many months prior to writing this review. I wanted to rack up some experience, first. I purchased two of these. My yard and garden beds were covered with mole tunnels! I followed the instructions closely and put out my traps. Within about 4 hours, I caught my first mole. It was in a very obvious tunnel in my backyard. I put the trap there because, to me, that tunnel appears to be sort of a main tunnel for the moles. The other trap, which I put in a garden bed on a clearly defined, visible tunnel, never did trip. It was in the evening when I caught my mole, but I didn't know how to get him out of the very tight jaws of the trap! On the instruction sheet, there's a little picture and one sentence about how to release the dead mole from the trap, but that just didn't help me. I could not get that mole out of the trap! So, I set the trap with dead mole down on some newspapers outside and waited until morning to try again. Still no luck. So, I called the contact number on the Mole Eliminator website. The woman explained to me what to do -- wrap your arms around a tree so that the tree is between your chest and the trap, which is in your hands. Hold the flat panel part of the trap with one hand on each side so that the flat portion is facing you, with jaws and dead mole on the other side. Then pull your hands (and the trap) towards you and press the flat panel portion of the trap against the tree that's between you and trap. You'll be pulling that flat panel piece up against the tree, and that way, you'll have enough strength to get the jaws to momentarily open and release the mole! "But," I told the lady, "then I'll have to somehow pick up or shovel up the dead mole. Yuk." But she said, no, you put an old grocery bag or something down on the ground below the trap, and as you release the animal, it will fall onto the bag. Then, just scoop up the bag and toss it. Perfect! It works like a charm! The instructions say you have to move the trap every 12 to 24 hours, I think it is, whether you've caught a mole or not -- that's a lot of trap moving! I would find myself setting my alarm a little earlier for work so I could go skulking about in my back yard, in the pitch black, with a screwdriver (to pop the traps to move them), unsetting and resetting mole traps for the next day's work! Ha! After catching my first mole, I excitedly moved both traps to new locations and looked forward to catching the next couple critters. But I didn't catch another mole for weeks! They were clearly all over my yard! But I couldn't get them to go by my traps. I finally came back to amazon to re-read the reviews, and that's when I read some people's comments that you can't touch the traps with your bare hands or get any oily sort of smells on them. The moles will smell the non-earth odors and avoid the traps. And that DOES seem to be the case! Every time I catch a mole, I have to let my traps sit out in the sun for quite some time before they're effective again. Which is a pain in the butt. I have been using my garden gloves ever since I discovered that you shouldn't handle the traps with your bare hands (to avoid leaving human odors), but I think my garden gloves may have Neem Oil odors, which is also no good. I guess I'll have to purchase a pair of mole trap gloves! Others have had luck boiling the traps. I may try that soon. I just didn't want to boil the instructions off the levers, so I haven't tried it yet. The other problem I've had catching moles, that didn't occur to me until I tried using these traps, is that it's not as easy to clearly identify the boundaries of a mole tunnel as one might think. I'm constantly walking on mole tunnels in my yard. They're everywhere. I can't miss them. But, when I go to set the traps, it quickly dawns on me that, though I can feel them under my feet, if they're covered by grass, it's actually quite hard to find the borders and edges effectively. And you have to know where the borders and edges are so that you can place the trap perpendicular to them. Otherwise, the trap won't work! So, if your mole tunnels are mainly in the grass, it will be much harder to effectively set these traps. I've had the best luck on the tunnels that are covered by exposed dirt, not grass. Otherwise, if you can avoid getting odors on these traps, and if you can clearly locate the tunnels, they should be very effective for you. I still think they're probably the best solution out there for getting rid of moles. I tried several other options prior to the nasty business of trapping. Nothing else seemed to work.

This trap Rocks!!! I’ve eliminated 6 moles in 3 weeks. This is a long review, but this product truly works and I’m Very pleased with the results, it deserves 5 stars and some explanation. This trap works for mole tunnels, not for the moles that dig deep and make big mounds of soil. To catch that kind I imagine you’ll need a different kind of trap. Last year I borrowed 2 Tomcat brand traps from a friend and they worked well, I also caught 6 or so moles. But 3 things I don’t like as much about the Tomcat Mole Traps compared to the Wire Tek Mole Eliminators - 1st, the “springyness” when trying to set it off so you can push it into the ground again over a mole tunnel and to reduce the danger of having it go off inadvertently while moving it. It obviously has a lot of energy so you need to stay out of the way. From my observation it’ll “jump” around more than the Wire Tek when you set it off out of the ground. 2nd, the Tomcat Mole Trap is harder to set in the ground. They say you have to use a small trowel or something to make some slots so the jaws will not get stuck in the dirt. The Wire Tek jaws are thinner and I’ve never needed to do this., just push it perpendicularly into the center of a tunnel while it’s closed initially, then use your shoed foot and push down hard so it goes into the ground fully up to the ground leveller and then rock it back and forth until the top of the trap is parallel with the ground around it. 3rd - the Tomcat trap is plastic and eventually the sun weakens it so the setting latches broke on my friends trap and I had to buy them another one; whereas this Wire Tek Mole Eliminator is made of sturdy galvanised steel that is never affected by the sun. To those with negative reviews who say they’ve never caught a mole or this trap doesn’t work, allow some suggestions please. It has to be an active mole tunnel or run, so step the whole length of tunnel down and then set the trap as mentioned above in say the middle of that area and just leave it be for a day or so. If it doesn’t go off/get tripped, go back and check if the tunnel has been used again (you can see if it’s been pushed up along the run). If not, move it to another part of your yard where there is activity. Step this tunnel down and push the closed jaws/prongs perpendicular to how the tunnel flows, like you might put a 2x4 board across a small stream to block it off; the prongs must go across the run so that when the trigger is pushed up by the mole, the prongs close across its body from both sides. This will spring the trap and instead of the top being flat or parallel with the ground it will pop up in a ‘V’ shape or like a triangle. Now you simply step on the trap to lock it open so the mole stays buried in the ground and pull the trap out the ground. You can pull the trap out of the ground without resettling it, but the mole will come too and it is very hard to get a mole out of the trap with the trap out of the ground. I don’t recommend this, unless seeing is believing that you caught a mole. You probably need to do it at least once to believe there is a mole in it :-) What you might do is pull the trap out part way, until you see the fur and indeed then you will confirm you have the mole and believe me it will be dead, then push the trap back down as above to open the jaws/prongs. This will reset the trap so you can take it out and leave the mole in the ground - never to bother you again. Now to trigger the trap so you can push it in elsewhere, lay it on its side (preferably not upside down and make sure no pets or kids are nearby to mess with it as it is dangerous), get a sturdy stick and keep your distance and tap on the center trigger, but not between the jaws/prongs or your stick will get stuck and then it’s hard to remove it again. Once triggered, you’re back in business and can go to the next place moles are wreaking havoc in your lawn.

I've been trapping moles for 10 years now trying to keep them from damaging my lawn. I've tried most trap styles: harpoon style, C-claw style, and these Wire Teks. I've had the most success with these. They are relatively easy to use, very durable, and most importantly...they are effective. Here are 6 primary things you may find helpful: 1. None of the "easy" solutions work. Don't waste your money on buying mole poison, or smoke bombs, or chewing gum. They're not effective. (Smoke bombs inserted in the tunnels may repel the critters for a little while, but they'll come back.) 2. You have to be diligent. On day 1, i.e. the very first day you begin your mole trapping quest, DON'T set any traps. Instead, walk your yard and flatten all the mole runs/tunnels you find by stepping on them. Then, beginning on day 2 look for new, fresh mole runs/tunnels. Those are the ones to focus on. Set your Wire Teks on those runs/tunnels and check them daily. If you don't catch the mole within a couple of days, then look carefully for new runs/tunnels and move your Wire Teks on those. The more frequently you can do this, the better. Once a day at minimum. 3. You need to buy more than one of these Wire Tek traps. No, I'm not affiliated in any way with the manufacturer. And I'm not a reseller. I'm just saying you need more than one trap unless you have a teeny tiny yard the size of a postage stamp. My home is on 1/2 acre and I have 4 of these traps. If I have multiple incursions of moles, the 4 traps are needed. Even if I am trying to trap only one mole, I'll use all 4 and am usually successful pretty quickly. 4. The hardest moles to catch are the ones that tunnel deep and leave no visible, raised runs. Typically, the only way I know I have those moles are when I see the mounds that they create when they excavate dirt. But sooner or later they will tunnel closer to the surface and I'll see the raised runs and set the traps. Again, daily checking of the yard is necessary. 5. What do I do with the dead moles? I put them back in the tunnel where the trap was and cover up the hole with dirt. I'm just speculating here, but I'm hoping the decaying stench of the critters in the tunnels may keep other moles away. At the very least, the organic decaying of the carcass will be good for the grass. 6. I don't clean the traps or do any high-maintenance with them. It probably doesn't hurt it you want to wash them down after each use, but I don't and it doesn't seem to matter. Keep it simple and good luck.

Caught first mole in under an hour with this trap! Our backyard has a lot of moles so figured I'd give this trap a shot. Literally in under an hour, I noticed the trap had sprung. I assumed it sprung itself and would be empty, but nope, a huge mole was in it! Pretty wild!

Does not work very good

I have tried several other traps with NO success. This trap was easy to set and I got a mole on the second try. This trap was also easy to release the mole. I would highly recommend this trap if you have a mole problem.

Took me a while to get used to using this, but once I got the hang of it the device did the job very effectively. Pretty much everything I read on here in the reviews was good advice. Key thing is to find an active tunnel. But the thing I didn't pick up from the reviews, or instructions, is how the device gets triggered. Probably me being thick, but eventually I worked out that the position of the small two inch square plate (called the vertical set trigger in the instructions) that sits within the large plate (called the frame in the instructions) was the key to the operation. It triggers the device when the mole pushes soil up into it from underneath, the soil movement rocking that small plate. Initially I was pushing the plate too far in to the soil, which was both putting it at an awkward angle and jamming it up. On two occasions I had a mole go right through and practically cover the device without setting it off as a result. The plate needs to move as the soil hits it, then it works just fine. Just make sure it sitting lightly on the soil when in position, so it can move. Incidentally, on two occasions I actually saw a mole pushing soil up in real time, and to see what would happen, put the device on top of it . I expected the mole to clear off, never to return to the spot, having got scared. But on both occasions it returned just minutes later (presumably for the worms) and triggered the device. Hope that helps.

The mole step on trap very well made very impressed got the mole ive been after for weeks would definitely recommend

Completely hopeless very expensive mole trap that just doesn’t work. Doesn’t get tripped and doesn’t go deep enough. I have persevered with this trap for over a year and caught nothing with it when sitting directly in a run. Waste of money and would not recommend.

It would only activate if a burrowing Elephant hit it's head on it. To set it off it takes several lbs pressure , there's no chance a mole could set this off. I live in the UK , I asked to return this as its no use at all and was told I could send it back to the US at my cost, this would cost nearly as much as it cost to buy £68 by the time it got to me. I ordered it in the UK at no point did it say item was in US. What a waist of money. BUY TUNNEL TRAPS, much better and much much cheaper