Well, if you don't know that livestock can put their feet into holes and hidden runs and do themselves real damage, you clearly haven't given the problem much thought. Pasture is often rough and never 'blemish free' but the health and well-being of livestock and walkers should come before the uncontrolled spread of pests.
Thistles are a controlled weed. Farmers are expected to remove them so having molehills which encourage germination is not welcome.
We have cow pasture next door and horse paddocks across the road and both farmers regularly use chemicals to control thistles but not creeping buttercup or nettles. Both fields have moles whose burrowing can cause problems for the feet of the beasts if they step in tunnels that collapse and cause them to twist their limbs.
That usually means expensive vets' bills or the slaughter house.
As said above - nothing useful about a mole.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Jo, get off your high horse! I also live in a hill farming community and I never said I used chemicals! In fact I have lived here for over thirty years and used nothing except hard work, with the sole exception of organic slug pellets.
I cut or pull the nettles repeatedly, until they stop fighting back. I leave them to grow in our boggy wilderness area and lots get left in out of the way corners because I don't have the time or energy to deal with them all. I don't mind this at all as I know their value for butterflies and other wildlife.
I cut the thistles before they flower and the numbers are reducing year on year, though some inevitably blow in, and there are always a few marsh thistles left in the rushes for the bees and goldfinches. I even leave the occasional Scotch thistle as, like Christopher Lloyd, I have a sneaking admiration for this 'handsome brute'. The neighbours do not however appreciate masses of seed blowing in and it is they who use the chemical sprays!
I do not believe that many gardeners wish to kill or harm other living creatures, but gardens, ornamental or fruit and veg, are essentially a banquet for bugs, slugs and the like and there have to be some compromises. It is not a natural environment and natural controls may not be enough at some times.
But I do believe that there is also some hypocrisy here - few people have a problem about disposing with nits, rats, cockroaches, death watch beetles, wood worm and countless bacteria and viruses, not to mention bluebottles, mosquitoes, rabbits, feral pigeons and so on. They are all living things, competing with us for their survival and often losing because we are better equipped to preserve our health and wealth. Gardens are more than just pretty, but even if they were not, I cannot see why it is worse to kill a mole than any of those other creatures.
I'm sorry to hear that Jo, because I think that basically I and a number of others on this board agree with you. The message about the value of wildlife and thinking twice before destroying things is going to need an awful lot of repetition to overcome the battery of advertising telling people who know no better, how to zap, 'resolve' or wipe out their problems.
Posts
Well, if you don't know that livestock can put their feet into holes and hidden runs and do themselves real damage, you clearly haven't given the problem much thought. Pasture is often rough and never 'blemish free' but the health and well-being of livestock and walkers should come before the uncontrolled spread of pests.
Thistles are a controlled weed. Farmers are expected to remove them so having molehills which encourage germination is not welcome.
We have cow pasture next door and horse paddocks across the road and both farmers regularly use chemicals to control thistles but not creeping buttercup or nettles. Both fields have moles whose burrowing can cause problems for the feet of the beasts if they step in tunnels that collapse and cause them to twist their limbs.
That usually means expensive vets' bills or the slaughter house.
As said above - nothing useful about a mole.
Jo, get off your high horse! I also live in a hill farming community and I never said I used chemicals! In fact I have lived here for over thirty years and used nothing except hard work, with the sole exception of organic slug pellets.
I cut or pull the nettles repeatedly, until they stop fighting back. I leave them to grow in our boggy wilderness area and lots get left in out of the way corners because I don't have the time or energy to deal with them all. I don't mind this at all as I know their value for butterflies and other wildlife.
I cut the thistles before they flower and the numbers are reducing year on year, though some inevitably blow in, and there are always a few marsh thistles left in the rushes for the bees and goldfinches. I even leave the occasional Scotch thistle as, like Christopher Lloyd, I have a sneaking admiration for this 'handsome brute'. The neighbours do not however appreciate masses of seed blowing in and it is they who use the chemical sprays!
I do not believe that many gardeners wish to kill or harm other living creatures, but gardens, ornamental or fruit and veg, are essentially a banquet for bugs, slugs and the like and there have to be some compromises. It is not a natural environment and natural controls may not be enough at some times.
But I do believe that there is also some hypocrisy here - few people have a problem about disposing with nits, rats, cockroaches, death watch beetles, wood worm and countless bacteria and viruses, not to mention bluebottles, mosquitoes, rabbits, feral pigeons and so on. They are all living things, competing with us for their survival and often losing because we are better equipped to preserve our health and wealth. Gardens are more than just pretty, but even if they were not, I cannot see why it is worse to kill a mole than any of those other creatures.
I'm sorry to hear that Jo, because I think that basically I and a number of others on this board agree with you. The message about the value of wildlife and thinking twice before destroying things is going to need an awful lot of repetition to overcome the battery of advertising telling people who know no better, how to zap, 'resolve' or wipe out their problems.