6.02 10 23

[KB2WIG]

                                                                   Happy holiday

[W2PFY]

They have been tearing up my yard here at the camp. I'm told they are good to eat and taste like dirt

[Opcom]

I've never seen one alive. In California, we had them, and I was very young at the time, maybe 3. My parents used a water hose down the hole to flush one out. I didn't see it killed (was peobably kept from seeing it), but I remember it hanging by its rat-like tail from a set of hedge trimmers. I was told they were ruinng the yard and they are a pest like a rat. It seened like a very large black rat! What exactly to they do to mess up a yard? What do they feed on?

[WA3VJB]

Damn things !

They eat plant roots and stalks.  I saw one chew off a hosta stem from his tunnel,
and then
TAKE THE LEAF DOWN THE HOLE

The stalk was moving, right ?  No mole seen, and then, the leaf stem fell over and
slowly retreated down the hole.

I remember my grandfather taking a hose to the car tailpipe and gassing the tunnels
in the yard. Don't remember whether it worked but  it was an interesting production.
We had to do it when grandma was out shopping or she probably would have commented.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Their tunnels are only shallowly beneath the surface, and frequently form raised ridges, also large mounds (heard of the 'mole hill') that wreck lawnmowers, and provide tripping hazards.  In any case they cause issues in lawns through disruption of the subsoils.  Normally this would be a benificial action (like in a meadow) but in a lawn the result is large unsightly 'caterpillar tracks'.  You can turn an ankle pretty good in a mole hole.
I have always thought that moles eat worms and insects though, not plants.

Gassing with the car or lawnmower is a good idea. Least toxic/expensive method and pretty effective given the CO is going to stay in the hole a bit.

[KB5MD]

What would you see if you were standing behind two moles?   Molasses!!!!

[W1RKW]

moles be gone here.  the cat earns her keep.  I just hate it when she eats half of one and leaves the other half on the deck. Same with mice. 

excuse me for being daft but what is the significance of 6.02 10 23? 

[Ralph W3GL]

   Yeah,  what RKW asked ?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Don't you guys know how to use Google   

http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=53

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Wow. talk about obscure reference...  I remember moles vaugely from college chemstry class...

[KA8WTK]

the cat earns her keep.

So does mine! Spookey has killed several that have snuck into the basement to find a warm spot to spend the winter. Tom takes care of anything getting into the shop.

Bill KA8WTK

[W2PFY]

Now that's a big number! While a dozen eggs will make a nice omelet, a mole  of eggs will fill all of the oceans on earth more than 30 million times over. Think about it: It would take 10 billion chickens laying 10 eggs per day more than 10 billion years to lay a mole of eggs. So why would we ever use such a big number? Certainly the local donut store is not going to "supersize" your dozen by giving you a mole of jelly-filled treats.

The mole is used when we're talking about numbers of atoms and molecules. Atoms and molecules are very tiny things. A drop of water the size of the period at the end of this sentence would contain 10 trillion water molecules. Instead of talking about trillions and quadrillions of molecules (and more), it's much simpler to use the mole.

I'm just happy to see my moles hole. Remember, he who mows the mole hole, moles last. He who mows the moles hole first, moles all.   

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Lets not make a mountain out of a Mole Hill...