The PM’s failed ‘whack-a-mole’ strategy for tackling COVID-19 gets Dr Terry Mabbett thinking about approaches to dealing with the subterranean mammals – and catchier political slogans.

HARD on the heels of the ‘comings and goings’ of Dominic Cummings, a greener and more nature-friendly government suddenly appeared. Dom was hardly out of the front door of Number 10 when Boris Johnson announced £40 million extra for ‘green spaces’ as part of a plan to restore species and combat climate change.

Cummings’ hasty exit and the creation of a softer and cuddlier government image were apparently instigated by the Prime Minister’s fiancée. Carrie Symonds has well-established green credentials including fighting on behalf of British badgers and captive, chained monkeys used to climb coconut palms and harvest the green nuts in Thailand (no mean feat for small monkeys faced with full-size, fresh coconuts). Symonds has since been named ‘person of the year’ by the animal rights group PETA.

Forestry Journal: Beavers and moles have more in common than one might assume.Beavers and moles have more in common than one might assume.

However, the new biodiversity-friendly agenda is hard to equate with Boris Johnson’s obsession with ‘whacking moles’ in his fight against COVID-19. However, European moles (Talpa europaea) are not a good choice in this respect having been off the agenda in agriculture, forestry, amenity and gardening for a number of years, but not when I first started writing on forestry, arboriculture and sports turf in the 1990s.

Reports of mole damage were constantly in the news then, although whacking the blighters was not an accepted method of control, legal or otherwise. Much more sinister methods were then used to dispatch these sleek and silky native mammals, which actually do a lot of good by aerating the soil and eating soil-inhabiting grubs and other pests.

Forestry Journal: Moles and molehills are most commonly associated with pasture and amenity grassland. However, moles actually prefer open broadleaf deciduous woodland, with fertile loam and clay soils supporting a high population of earthworms.Moles and molehills are most commonly associated with pasture and amenity grassland. However, moles actually prefer open broadleaf deciduous woodland, with fertile loam and clay soils supporting a high population of earthworms.

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Younger foresters, naturalists and environmentalists will be shocked to learn that until relatively recently it was still legal to bait and kill moles using strychnine-laced earthworms. Strychnine had been banned for wildlife management under the Animals (Cruel Poisons) Regulations of 1963, but continued use of this acute poison for mole control was allowed until 2006 when use of strychnine to control all wild mammals was banned by the EU and thus became illegal in the UK. As I recall, Strychnine hydrochloride was the poison of choice. Insertion of moth balls containing naphthalene down mole holes was also claimed as an effective mole deterrent, although that was scuppered in 2008 when the EU banned the use of naphthalene in pesticides.

Forestry Journal: Today there are some 35–40 million moles in Britain.Today there are some 35–40 million moles in Britain.

Boris Johnson clearly needs a new, mole-free slogan to bolster his faltering campaign to beat COVID-19 into submission. He has a well-documented interest in cricket and almost certainly played the game at Eton. Perhaps he should rummage around in his cupboard under the stairs at Number 10 and retrieve that old cricket bat crafted from English-grown cricket-bat willow in Pakistan and signed by Sir Ian Botham. Perhaps he could take a drive down to Devon and find those beavers which are clean-bowling the county’s cricket bat willow trees, and use his cricket bat to deliver a good beating to the rascally rodents.

However, under his own latest national lockdown restrictions he cannot travel to Devon so perhaps he could ask a Devon-based advisor to do the deed instead. While ensuring the advisor has good eyesight, lest the thick ear intended for beavers is given to local otters which, as the river’s name suggests, are also resident there.

Forestry Journal: Molehills may scar the grassland landscape and swamp newly planted tree seedlings, but they do offer a first-class natural seed and potting mixture.Molehills may scar the grassland landscape and swamp newly planted tree seedlings, but they do offer a first-class natural seed and potting mixture.

It would certainly be karma for European beaver (Castor fiber) that demolished the cricket bat willows. The new slogan could be ‘batter a beaver’, although most people including me would prefer it to be ‘batting for beavers’ (and moles) instead. Solving the COVID crisis clearly requires more than figurative persecution of native wildlife.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

The Prime Minister’s ‘whack-a-mole’ strategy derives its name from the fairground game of the same name. It’s an activity where you stand at a waist-high cabinet which contains a number of holes, all of which have a mole that pops up at random and you are tasked with hitting it back down with a mallet.

In summer 2020 British supermarkets axed some Thai brands of coconut water from their shelves following pressure from Carrie Symonds, conservationist and fiancée of Boris Johnson.

Moles are most commonly associated with grassland including farmland pasture and amenity/sports turf although experience shows they actually prefer open deciduous woodland supported by fertile loams and clays with a high density of earthworms. Moles are much less frequently found in conifer plantations where the more sandy and acidic substrates do not support high populations of earthworms.

Within commercial forestry moles are blamed for damage to trees at seedling and establishment stages with tunnelling causing desiccation of seedlings and transplant roots. Soil heaps (molehills) may bury young plants, although moles are known to improve the drainage of gley (high peat, non-calcareous) soils.

Landowners moan about molehills but they make ideal seed and potting mixtures. The fine aerated soil will have been excavated from a position below the weed seed bank and is foraged by birds and therefore largely free of soil insect pests.

Moles and beavers have much in common. Each is an ‘architect’ within its own environment. Moles are ‘architects’ of the terrestrial soil environment while beavers are ‘tree architects’ in river and riparian environments. 

Both of these native mammals were hunted down because of the damage caused but equally if not more so for the products they provided. These were meat, fur and the highly scented castoreum secretion in the case of beavers, and fur from moles. In both size and silky nature of the fur, mole skins (pelts) were considered ideal for making gloves. However, I was surprised to learn that in a certain part of northern England mole ‘jerky’ (dried mole meat) is considered to be a delicacy, but I won’t say where in case I have got it wrong.

Beavers were hunted down to extinction in Britain. Moles not only survived but thrived despite persecution. There were considerably more of them across a much wider range of ecosystems and they were clearly much more difficult to hunt, capture and kill. Today there are some 35–40 million moles in Britain.

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