Lancashire Mole Control offers a selection of pricing structures for farmers and landowners.
Standard Per Mole Rate - £10.00
Discounted Per Mole Rate - £7.50
Discounted Per Hour Rate - £15.00
All new business and existing clients with areas of high mole infestation will automatically qualify for the Discounted Rate.
The Standard Rate is for areas with a very low mole population per acre. However this rate is rarely used nowadays as most landowners are unlikely to be aware of any mole infestation on their land that would utilise this rate. By the time a farmer thinks he has a bit of a mole problem, the discounted rates will generally be applicable.
By far the most used pricing structure is the Discounted Per Hour Rate. This is primarily down to my ability to catch so many moles per hour/day as to make any realistic Per Mole Rate unreasonable and unaffordable to most farmers and landowners.
I suggest to clients that as long as I can catch more than two moles per hour then we will use the “Per Hour Rate” irrespective of the number of moles caught. If two moles per hour are not achievable (very rare) I will revert to the “ Discounted Per Mole Fee”. Typically my average mole per hour catch is 3.5, but this can be as high as 6 or 7 moles per hour in some locations on the first days or weeks of control. This can bring the actual price per mole down to less than £3.00 per mole, but understandably farmers and landowners are very happy with this arrangement. In fact I am encouraged and urged on by them to better any previous high catch records, but I generally max out at about 50 to 55 moles a day in ideal working conditions. (68 is the most I have caught from one days trapping, and 86 moles removed in a total of 12 hours over two days from 88 traps set on the first day).
In order to improve on these figures I am constantly developing and testing new work methods and systems. Improvements are always possible, but the actual gains are smaller these days.
Any travel fuel costs are generally only payable on very small work sites where only a few hours per day (typically less than 4 hrs) may be spent working and an excessive amount of mileage is travelled in getting there.
Where many moles are to be caught and I am doing a full days work in doing so, my travel fuel costs are absorbed by the hourly rate.
All moles caught that day are presented and left on the farm/business premises unless otherwise told not to do so.
Mole eradication is more effective on a single large block of land (say 200 acres) than many smaller areas that are adjacent on all sides to other landowners. Ideally all neighbouring farmers should carry out some form of mole control to ensure the best possible long-term results.
I use aerial maps of your land and fields and then split the area into sections, which are then individually numbered, and the number of traps placed in each section is recorded. Each traps location co-ordinates are logged via GPS so I can, if you so wish, provide you with an aerial photograph of your land showing each trap position enabling you to see the affected areas.
Ordnance Survey maps are used to identify public rights of way so I can mark trap sites accordingly.
I can trap fields with sheep and cattle in without any risk to them and only a small affect on my performance, but I insist any equines are removed. If necessary trapping can be carried out over night, it is effective, though not a substitute for a proper trapping program.
Rabbit control can also be carried out at the same time. This can very effective, though my mole catch rate suffers as a result.
And if you didn’t need telling already, if you think you have a mole problem, don’t wait till you start seeing molehills to do something about it. Get a mole catcher in now. A proper molecatcher can catch them even when there are no molehills in the fields. The molecatchers of yesteryear did not stop working just because there were no molehills about. They were hired and paid on the condition they had to prevent molehills from appearing in the first place, not catch the moles after they had covered the fields with molehills.
If your looking for a proper molecatcher click HERE