Butyric acid or butanoic acid is a fatty acid and is formed naturally during butyric acid fermentation.
Or to put it another way:
When butter goes rancid, it produces butyric acid.
Butyric acid is a colorless to yellowish liquid and smells like vomit, so it is absolutely disgusting.
Even a mini-drop weighing 0.00006 grams is enough to perceive the unpleasant smell in a cubic meter of air.
For comparison, a small raindrop weighs more, between 0.005 and 0.03 grams.
How does the butyric acid mole method work?
Moles are very sensitive to odors. And butyric acid stinks so badly that even a mole can hardly stand the smell.
As soon as you open the butyric acid bottle for the first time, you will immediately be able to imagine how bad it must be for your mole when it smells so horrible in his home.
That awful stench pretty much ensures that your mole will prefer to get out of your garden.
What do you need
A spade, a small shovel, a sturdy stick, scraps of cloth (absorbent cloth), protective gloves, safety goggles, rubber boots and butyric acid (also available online)
What you have to pay attention to
You must not handle the butyric acid indoors, and you must not inhale the butyric acid vapors (which you will avoid anyway because of the unbearable smell).
You must wear gloves, because butyric acid is corrosive.
Therefore, it must not be cloth or leather gloves, but you should afford proper protective gloves.
Be sure to also put on safety glasses while using the butyric acid because it can cause severe corneal damage if it comes in contact with your eyes.
This is what you need to do if you want to use butyric acid to drive away the mole
You drip butyric acid on scraps of cloth and spread them in the burrows the mole has dug in your garden.
Here’s how (detailed instructions):
Before you unscrew the cap of the butyric acid bottle for the first time, please put on the protective goggles and put on gloves. Even if it’s supposed to be nice and warm outside right now, you’ll need a long-sleeved T-shirt, long pants, and also your rubber boots to be on the safe side.
The tactics
If you want the mole to leave as soon as possible, don’t cut off any escape route for it because you’ll be spreading butyric acid all over its passageways.
Rather push it out of your garden little by little. For example, by starting in the middle of the garden to put the butyric acid rags in his passages, and then "cut off" his way to your house, virtually showing him that he can safely disappear at the far end of your garden.
Expose the mole tunnels
To dig up a molehill, you can first use a spade, but from the height of the turf it is better to continue with a shovel and your hands. How to discover the passage faster and not accidentally destroy it while digging.
The passage is often not exactly in the middle under the molehill, because moles usually push the earth up sideways.
The earth that the mole raises as a mound is very fine. Therefore, it may keep slipping while you are looking for the gear. If this becomes too annoying, you could try uncovering the passage between two mounds. There the earth is firmer.
When you are done
When you’re done, all you have to do is close the bottle tightly with the butyric acid and put it somewhere where neither children nor pets can find it.
If you didn’t "miss", you can use your gloves again.
Problems
It could be that your mole reacts like this: He leaves his passage system, where it stinks so much, but builds new passages right next door.
Then you may have to gradually drive your mole out of your garden by spreading cloth rags dripped with butyric acid several times in succession in the old and new burrows.
What is the M-U-F?
We award just under 4 moving suitcase moles for the butyric acid method.
Because no one can guarantee 100% effectiveness of a method whose effectiveness depends on how sensitive your mole is to odors.
On the other hand, since butyric acid is extremely nasty smelling, the likelihood of getting rid of your mole is pretty high – if it’s one of those moles that reacts to stench by backing off.
Important: remove the smell of butyric acid
If butyric acid does accidentally drip somewhere, you can mix methylated spirits and cola in a spray bottle and spray the area to "transform" the unbearable odor so that it smells more pleasant.
The mixture must be mixed to ca. 70% of methylated spirits and to approx. 30% consist of cola. (Source: see below.)
- Since 2009 dealer of butyric acid by Buttersaeure24. Very fast shipping .
- ButKarCHEM is a registered trademark in Germany.
- We offer other pre-packaged package sizes = look for them on Amazon.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
We have looked at which questions related to butyric acid are most frequently asked on Google – these are the questions with the somewhat "strange" sentence positions -, in forums and on advice sites, and have compiled and ordered them here.
If you miss a question or would like to add to one of our answers, please post a comment below. We will be happy to complete this list and welcome your suggestions!
Frequently asked general questions about butyric acid
What does butyric acid look like? Butyric acid what is it? Butyric acid how dangerous? How to use butyric acid? How is butyric acid produced? How does butyric acid work?
We answer the first two questions above at the beginning of the text, and how butyric acid is used, we describe here.
How butyric acid works, depends on what you do with it. Should you get the idea of opening a butyric acid bottle in a room among many other people, you’ll probably be alone pretty quickly afterwards. Handling butyric acid in public in a way that causes a nuisance to others could also be illegal.
So butyric acid makes lonely, but in relation to moles this is of course a very desirable effect. On the other hand – this is not quite true, because houseflies, for example, find the smell of butyric acid quite wonderful ..
How dangerous butyric acid is, is also written above, but if you want to read a detailed text about it, follow the link to the Gestis substance database.
Frequently asked questions about the legal use of butyric acid
mole butyric acid allowed? How to use butyric acid legally?
It is allowed to drive away moles. It would not be allowed if you would chase your mole, or want to hurt, catch or kill it.
If you drip the butyric acid as described above in small quantities on cloth rags and then place them in the passages of the mole, the mole is supposed to disappear because of the stench. That’s all – and it’s not illegal.
Frequently asked questions about buying butyric acid
Who sells butyric acid? Where to buy butyric acid? Where to get butyric acid
here? Where to get butyric acid?
Butyric acid is the easiest to get online. There is even an online store that specializes in shipping butyric acid.
Frequently asked questions about the smell of butyric acid
How does butyric acid stink? Why does butyric acid stink? Why does butyric acid smell? Butyric acid how long stinks? Butyric acid how smells?
Describing a smell is pretty difficult – above we compared the smell of butyric acid to the smell of vomit, and you can find this comparison in other texts about butyric acid as well.
It is a stench that makes you hold your breath involuntarily, and you absolutely do not want to breathe it in again until you are out of "smelling range".
Why butyric acid smells the way it does is something any chemistry teacher could probably explain. Unfortunately we can’t do that, but maybe someone might write a corresponding comment?
Butyric acid smells extremely and so long lasting that we have a tip (see above) have found how to "convert" the stench.
Frequently asked questions about removing butyric acid
How to remove butyric acid? Butyric acid what to do? Butyric acid what helps?
We have a web page with a Instructions for firefighters found a booklet on how they – the firefighters – should behave after a "butyric acid accident".
While it’s not a chemical accident like the scenario described there if you accidentally "drip" some butyric acid around, it can’t hurt with the extreme odor if you know what you can do to make the stench go away. Also this information/instruction (see above) comes from the website.