Victor 0645 Plunger Style Mole Trap and Killer

This thing is a God-send for me. I am mechanically minded and I read the reviews of folks having some problems with this. When I got it I could see how the instructions may be a little short. Below I will explain how to set it in detail (from my perspective). THE PROBLEM: I probably had 60 mole tunnels crisscrossing my yard, tearing it up and it was driving me crazy! I tried poisonous gas and over the counter solid poisons for moles and my professional pest control people gave me something stronger to put in the tunnels....nothing worked. I spent about 40 minutes driving over and flattening all the tunnels and then the next day watched about a 30-yard tunnel appear! I tried spearing the bugger but didn't have any luck with that. My neighbor told me about this type of trap so I ordered it. It arrived after dark and I went out with a flashlight to set it for the first time. HOW IT WORKS AND HOW TO SET: 1st flatten all your tunnels and then look the next day for a new active tunnel. You can flatten them by stepping on them with the back of a hoe or do like I did and drive over them the wheel of a car or a riding lawn mower. 2nd – once you identify the active tunnel find a narrow part of the tunnel and flatten the roof slightly with with shoe or the fist of your hand (thumb depression in instructions is too narrow, I think the depression needs to be as wide as the firing plate). This is where the firing plate will sit and when the mole tries to repair his slightly flattened tunnel he will push up on the firing plate and fire the mechanism. 3rd.Take the two WIDEST spikes of the contraption and straddle the tunnel where you made the depression. Push the entire mechanism down with the wide spikes going into solid earth on either side of the tunnel until the firing plate sets on top of the depression in the tunnel. These wide spikes will hold the trap down when it fires. 4th – hold the trap down while pulling up and down a couple of times on the top handle that has a spring. This will pull the kill spikes up and down through the tunnel clearing a travel path. 5th – Now it’s time to set: (some of the reviewers had trouble setting it and I am convinced that it is because the firing plate was too tight against the top of the tunnel…I almost always had to pull up about an eighth of an inch on the entire trap to loosen the pressure on the firing plate when setting it…..but not so much that the kill spikes would not reach their depth and target) hold the trap down and pull up on the top handle until the notch in the holding lever holds the plate with the spikes up in the air…adjust the depth of the whole trap as described above until it stays.MY GREAT RESULTS: My trap arrived after dark and I went out with a flashlight an set it as described above. I went to dinner and when I came back and it had sprung. I set it again and went to bed. The next day it had NOT sprung again but after several days I had NO NEW TUNNELS. I had a similar experience in the back yard with a tunnel. It sprung within a few hours but after setting it again it never sprung again. The tunnels stopped. I am so happy to find something that actually worked!!!!! Buy it and enjoy!

The first time I set this, it was pretty easy. I literally took it out of the box and went straight to their tunnel and set the trap per the instructions (very crude instructions, I might add). After 2 days, nothing.It rained heavily, and they seemed to move to the other end of the yard, so I pulled up the trap and attempted to set it on the other end of the yard. Wow, could not get the little lever to stay on the outside while I set the trap. Took forever and when I was finally able to set it, it was in the wrong place. Third time I couldn't set it at all and it almost took my finger off. You literally have to hold that lever while you're setting it and that's very dangerous. My daughter asked me why I got such a dangerous trap and I thought, why did I? Well, I thought it was safe. It's really not.Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this. All of our neighbors have the scissors' type traps that look like bear traps. Those are scary. I thought this would be safer, but you could lose a finger setting this thing and it didn't work. To those who claim you have to be patient and wait weeks--that's not true at all. ALL of my neighbors had a mole within hours of setting the scissor's type traps. But they also dug up the hole, laid the trap, put a bucket over the top so it was dark, and waited. I don't have the patience for that so I guess I'll try the sonic ones next.I've uploaded three photos so you can see the trap, the box, the instructions, and the lever I'm talking about. The instructions really aren't clear at all. I had to watch several videos on YouTube.

The media could not be loaded. If you have the kind of moles that make large conical mounds, this one is not for you. It is a well built product and is easy to set and use, although it takes a bit of hand and arm strength to set it. For example there is no way my wife could set it because the spring mechanism takes a lot of strength to get it set.This one probably will work in a lawn, however. My problem is one where I have this pesky mole (or moles) that make a huge conical mound yet their tunnels are at least 6" or more deeper in the soil. On top of that I have bark mulch of about two inches on top of the soil which is mostly clay. So this one will not penetrate deep enough, and it is of no use to try and set it where the conical mound is because my mole makes mounds that are literally almost a foot high! Plus there is no guarantee that he/she will be back to the same spot unless you can prove it is a main run and not just an exploration spot. Anyway, if you have the problem I have, I'd suggest going with the poison worms instead. I'm trying that now and will report the findings on that item once I've tested it well. UPDATE: I finally caught that mole but not with this one. Instead, I got it done with the Victor “out of sight” trap.

I found it difficult to initially set this trap. My first attempt to set the trap was a total fail. I was going to send it back but watched a few how to videos and figured out at the start the finger needed to be hanging away from the trap I order to set it. I also thought it awkward to hold while setting this trap. Once set it’s all good. I’m sure my wife couldn’t use this because of those difficulties. I don’t think I would buy this again because of the difficulties in setting and holding these.