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Rooting Out Those Pesky Moles!
After rejecting his sons’ suggestions of gassing or igniting petrol down the holes of subterranean invaders, Ian Blackshaw turned to the village mole catcher for help.
One of the attractions of owning a country property in France is that so many of
them come with lots of land. And indeed, those enthusiasts -
However the keen gardener, if not fending off the heron that feeds on the fish in
the pond, is often faced with an energetic mole population and the ensuing destruction
of the lawn. But help is often close at hand in the person of the village mole catcher.
Every village in France seems to have one but, as he does not advertise his services,
he, like his adversary, needs to be run to earth. Ask the mayor or one of the long-
In our case, he turns out to be the owner of the village bar and café. He agreed to view the scene of the crime – a lawn strewn with mole hills of varying shapes and sizes. He came next day, complete with beret, and explained he needed to discover the tunnel routes by looking and listening. His equipment was very basic: a piece of hessian to kneel on (he is, after all, 77 years old) and some very simple but, he stressed, humane traps. These resembled long scissors, which he stuck in holes in the ground, marking the spots with a stick. His other tool was a bucket for the dual purpose of carrying in his equipment and carrying away the corpses.
The following day, he proudly showed me four moles that he had caught. One of which was a white one, which he told me was very rare. The next day, he caught three; and the day after that another three.
Altogether, he had a haul of 13 in five days, which included one caught by his lively Jack Russell terrier, who was darting all over the place and appropriately named puce (flea)! He charged the princely sum of €20 so I also gave him a bottle of good red from my cellar, which he appreciated. This compares favourably with some friends of ours, who live in a village some 8 kilometres away and also with mole problems, who were charged €50 by their local mole catcher for a couple of visits.
Our chap warned me that, in time, the moles would be back and to let me know when they were; and that they were coming from our neighbour’s garden. He suggested that I had a word with him about getting rid of them, using, of course, his services. If something escapes from your neighbour’s land onto to your land and causes damage, this, legally speaking, amounts to nuisance (dommage simple) and, if the neighbour, does not ‘abate’ the nuisance, he can be sued.
As our neighbour is the local schoolmaster and the mayor’s secretary – clearly an
important man in the village -
All, of course, in the interests of the entente cordiale.
Ian Blackshaw is an International Lawyer specialising in Sports Law. He is well known for his magazine articles about expat life in France and he is the owner of a beautiful gite and a Bed & Breakfast at Sains les Fressin www.7valleysbandb.com
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