Spray on mole repellent, Carbendazim?

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• published: 22 Apr 2016
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Please excuse the distracted type of commentary, as I was concentrating on the customers dogs and children in the background prior to the spray application making sure he understood the conditions of keeping his animals and children away from the area. Carbendazim is a widely used, broad-spectrum benzimidazole fungicide. that is widely used as casting worm control agent in sports turf situations mainly golf greens, bowling greens etc but there have been unconfirmed reports within the golf green-keeping community forums of a noticeable "side effect" for deterring all Mole activity, this is only due to years of 1st hand experience from Green keepers in isolated situations, THIS IS NOT A ONE TRICK FIXES ALL type of scenario I am a fully qualified Green keeper and spent 3 years at college for a level 2 NVQ in sports turf, I then spent 7 years as a Green keeper on two different courses (one 18 hole and one 27 hole ) applying this chemical 5-7 times every year on all greens with other VERY experienced green keepers and at no time did we ever hear or witness the additional effect of Carbendazim acting as a Mole repellent until I spoke to one person from a supplier who had heard of it from "an old boy" many years ago and directed me to some forums where I discovered more evidence so there was some validity behind the customers story. The theory behind the application is: Carbendazim leaves a residual film in the soil structure which irritates EVERY species of worm (not just the casting species) driving them deeper and away from the surface (THIS IS WHERE THE TRADITIONAL USE OF CARBENDAZIM STOPS) the Moles then eat or come into contact with the worms or the treated soil and leave (not die) this can TOTALLY depend on the soil structure and PH and I stress this is not a commonly used treatment and I would never recommend it. The chemical was applied to the manufactures recommended application rates of 40 ml in 20 litres water with a Knapsack sprayer, water soluble dyes can be added to maintain complete coverage of an area and a surfactant or wetting agent can be added to improve saturation COSH and correct PPE were observed at all times! After the application the area is to be avoided for up to 12 hours and ALL animals are to be excluded (livestock or ANY domestic pets) the grass is then cut regularly making sure for the 2 weeks after the application the clippings are NOT collected ensuring any residue is then taken back into the soil, a further application can then be applied after 10-12 weeks.